What Cars Have The Ugliest Engine Bays?

2024 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali UltimateImage: GMC

If you’re like me, when you pop the hood of a car, you want to actually see the engine. There are those among us who actually still appreciate admiring the beauty that is the internal combustion engine, but lately it seems that some automakers are phoning it in when it comes to engine bays.

Does the GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate Justify Its $101,000 Price Tag?

I’ve found two examples of this at totally opposite ends of the price spectrum. The first comes by way of a recent press car I had, a 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate. With an as-tested price of over $82,000, it’s an impressive truck powered by an equally impressive engine, a 6.2-liter V8 with 420 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque.

Image: GMC

You’d think that would all make for an impressive engine bay, right? Wrong. Lift the hood of the Sierra Denali Ultimate and you’re met with an engine bay that wouldn’t look out of place in a 10-year-old Chevy Express.

Worse than the Sierra is the Ford Maverick. Buyers can’t get enough of Ford’s small, affordable pickup. Raise the hood and you’ll see one of the places Ford chose to save costs — the Maverick’s engine bay is a mess. In fact, it doesn’t even look as if it even has an engine in there, it’s more like someone dropped a mess of tangled extension cords and cables under the hood.

Image: Test Driven TV YouTube

Look, I’m not asking for anything fancy or over the top like a plastic adorned engine cover with fake intake runners or nicely sculpted polished heads. I’m just urging automakers to try.

Now I ask you, Jalopnik reader. What cars have you encountered that have the worst looking engine bays? With years of cars to pull from you can dig as far back as you want to find an example. Let us know in the comments.