Brace Yourself For The Horrific 2014 Jeep Cherokee

Any man who lumps any generation of the Cherokee in with his list of best-looking cars is a plank. That's why you won’t have found one in our recent poll. Arguably the bonkers SRT8 version you can buy right now is the best looking version Jeep has ever made, but you'd still hardly call it pretty.

But seriously, what were the guys at Chrysler thinking when they approved the initial sketches for the 2014 model? Jalopnik has managed to get hold of a number of leaked shots, apparently taken on the sly in the factory. On a 10-year-old camera phone from the looks of it.

Feast your eyes – but only if you’ve got a strong stomach – on that hideous ‘Victorian radiator’ grille, the flat-topped wheel arches and the downright odd lines just about everywhere you look. And what’s going on with the headlights? That’s before you even get to the back end. What a monster.

The leaked pictures forced Chrysler to release the first official pictures ahead of schedule, showing how a top-of-the-range model will look. Not much better, sadly.

Chrysler has been patting itself on the back lately after one or two of its brands started to show post-recession sales perkier than your average lad’s mag big boob special.

But interestingly, Chrysler already seems to know the new car is a bit of a horror. These tweets from the American brand show that the firm in a desperate back-pedal after the initial vomit-fuelled reaction crossed the internet and landed in the Yanks' soup.

What do you make of it?