The first sentence says they’re not going to win a beauty contest but I think they’re kinda cute! Presumably the low hood helps a lot with visibility.
It won’t win any beauty contests but I like that they put function over form here.
Edit: corrected my phrasing about function over form. Thanks!
Surely you meant "function over form" here? I'll assume you did, and yes I can agree that delivering mail doesn't require anything pretty. Apparently the cartoonish height came from USPS requiring that anyone as short as 5'2" can see over the hood and someone as tall as 6'8" can stand in the vehicle. Still doesn't look that great or practical (for narrow or rural routes) to me, but I guess we'll see.
Sure beats those huge trucks that are slaughtering Americans in the thousands.
USPS trucks are regularly driving through highly residential areas including fairly quiet ones where little kids may possibly be running around close to the street or even on them.
I wouldn't say it's bad, but it's definitely a bizarre choice for a US government design.