Styling departments?

I don't think the 911, Mustang or Fiesta are good looking not bad but not great. The Lambo isn't good looking so much as it looks like it wants to rip your head off and use it as a humping post.

as a former "Nissan Guy" I can honestly say that Nissan is now, by far, the worst in the last half-decade or so. They started with the new Sentra, then the 6th-generation (2004-2007) Maxima, the Cube, the Juke, the Murano CONVERTIBLE, the Versa, the Leaf....all of them are awful. The 370 looks ok, but could look MUCH better with only minor changes. Same with the 7th gen Maxima....good start, and then screwed it up (not to mention its lack of manual tranny...).

The Altima looks so-so - not terrrible, but not great either. It's just "there." The Alti coupe looks worse.

The Rogue just looks lame (not so much ugly, just goofy). Something called "rogue" should look badass, not goofy....

The Quest is decent, but much less attractive than its competition (Especially the Odyssey, which looks almost good enough to make me want a minivan).

The GT-R is an acquired taste. I think it looks ricey, but won't include it in the above list because it does have some cool/original styling for sure. And I would still drive one.

Nissan trucks (real ones, not crossovers) have consistently improved in appearance, conversely.

Except for the NV. It just looks wierd, especially with the giant grille.

Nothing new is very inspiring. But then again I find cars like this beautiful.

Most of the new stuff looks like someone threw a chunk of clay at a wall. Splat.

Nissan has French disease. Juke, Cube, Murano Convert are more interesting than good looking.

When I did my senior project in College (100 years of American Auto styling) I surveyed journalists, designers, and instructors at the the major automotive design schools of the time (CCS and Art Center in Pasedena). That group of about 40 minds had much overlap on both the bad looking and good looking lists. I received one highly critical response from Robert Cumberford telling me my project was a waste of time, but he was driving around in a Dodge Diplomat at the time so I took his opinion with a grain of salt! I will look for the project in storage and see what results I got for 1991 when I did this. BTW, shortly after I did this a book was released of similar title and concept. Boy was I pissed having missed out on that. Regardless, style follows technology. Once designers get a handle on new metals, new materials, and new techniques you find that differentiation increases with more interesting designs until the next breakthrough in material or technique. Very cyclical I found.

vwcorvette wrote: Nissan has French disease. Juke, Cube, Murano Convert are more interesting than good looking.

The new stuff in the pipe line is just as bad http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/revving-up-in-tokyo/2011/11/30/gIQA2PJSGO_gallery.html#photo=1

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Someone likes the way they look or they wouldn't buy it. Some posted here I do think got hit with an ugly stick. Others don't seem any different than anything else out there. Do disagree on some though. That Evora can sit in my driveway anytime. And been seriously considering a Cayman S myself, just have to convince myself there is enough storage room in the car. Think the Veloster is just another mediocre looking car but my daughter loves it. But she likes being different, she thinks that if properly set up (like you would a Civic) then the Veloster would look good.

16vCorey wrote:

nderwater wrote: Mitsuoka Orochi. I couldn't have had styled an uglier car if I tried.

WTF?!?!?!? I seriously laughed out loud when I saw that picture.

Last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it!

The Panamera is hot. I just saw a Veloster on the road for the first time and it looked mean. Neither are "pretty" or pleasing to the eye. But the designs of these particular cars were established to evoke a certain emotion. The panamera looks muscular and ready to take off. Same with the Veloster. Some cars are just hideous, I'll agree with you there.

I sometimes wonder if designers don't all work in the same place due to the "sameness" of design. Witness Ford and Hyundai. The latest models look like they came from the same plant. I noticed this on 4 door sedans. Most look alike, especially in profile.

nderwater wrote: Mitsuoka Orochi. I couldn't have had styled an uglier car if I tried.

Looks like it would have made a great Batmobile.

Part of the blame goes to designers that aren't very imaginative, probably due in part to the go with the masses mentality of the art schools. The other part goes to all the safety requirements they have to deal with. Like the side impact safety that has cars with very short side windows/high sides, and the flatter/taller front ends now as well. I do miss the classic cars, the new cars just don't inspire me like the old ones did.

Really, two pages and nobody mentioned the Nissan Juke?

It's been mentioned twice already

MadScientistMatt wrote:

nderwater wrote: Mitsuoka Orochi. I couldn't have had styled an uglier car if I tried.

Looks like it would have made a great Batmobile.

batman wouldn't be caught dead in it

Sultan wrote: Really, two pages and nobody mentioned the Nissan Juke?

I did. See page one.

Really, two pages and no one hotlinked a Juke?

Haven't we seen those lines before? Oh, right:

+

Strange enough though the Juke has probably outsold the Aztec in it's entire existence already.

Btw, the head designer of Nissan is the one that designed that Isuzu.

There were 108,449 Azteks sold. I doubt there have been that many Jukes sold to this point, but I could be wrong.

iceracer wrote: I sometimes wonder if designers don't all work in the same place due to the "sameness" of design. Witness Ford and Hyundai. The latest models look like they came from the same plant. I noticed this on 4 door sedans. Most look alike, especially in profile.

I know that car companies are always taking designers from other brands in order for them to bring the same magic they had at their previous brand. Sometimes they bring their style with them. Example: When Subaru acquired their new car designer from Fiat, the Impreza got a third facelift with a triangle grill and so did the Tribeca.

As for the American mid-size sedan car market, that's a phenomena onto itself. The competition there between brands are so fierce that it has gotten to the point that they all have close to the same dimensions, specs and reliability. Besides the truck market, these are the best selling cars here. So I can see why they all look alike when you squint a little.

I think the Infinti SUV looks like a damned rhinocerous....horrid....yet I can still picture some shcmuck driving it in Central Florida....

One of the dumbest threads ever. If you can articulate why you like or dislike something, by all means I'd like to hear it. But providing an opinion without reason puts one in the company of every mouth-breather out there.

Take the Cube, for instance. It's fundamentally a box, a la' the Honda Element. Simple, utilitarian, honest, with a little pizzazz by virtue of the asymmetrical window layout and the bar-of-soap edges. I don't find it ugly or pretty, but admire it for daring to be different.

I find most vehicles of our current generation to be fairly attractive. If there's a fly in my visual ointment it's sameness. But that's true of most design generations. A vernacular is created and the safe route is to follow it.

mtn wrote:

16vCorey wrote:

nderwater wrote: Mitsuoka Orochi. I couldn't have had styled an uglier car if I tried.

WTF?!?!?!? I seriously laughed out loud when I saw that picture.

Last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it!

kreb wrote: One of the dumbest threads ever. If you can articulate why you like or dislike something, by all means I'd like to hear it. But providing an opinion without reason puts one in the company of every mouth-breather out there.

Looks are like art you know what you like and don't like. I can say I hate the Cube because it is asymmetrical.