The Sum of All Bad Automotive Styling?

Plenty of cars out there with divisive styling. Today for the first time I saw a Mitsu "Eclipse Cross" in person. I remember seeing photos of it when it came out and thinking "that's pretty lame looking," combined with the gag-inducing use of the Eclipse name on a crossover.

But really, this thing is infinitely stupider-looking in person. It's as if the designers couldn't decide on what style language they wanted to use so just grabbed a bit of all of them.......flattened round fenders? aggressive-yet-strange body lines on the doors? honda-like  taillights? some Prius rear end? Weird big-butt rear bumper? giant blind spot? This has it all. Plus just generally strange proportions. Man, that thing is really ugly. Especially from a company that spent decades making good-looking SUVs and sportscars.

Who cares what your vehicles look like if most of your customers can't get financed to buy anything from anyone else?

It's a Japanese Aztek!!!

And wheels from a 96 grand caravan. You're right, that's awful. Just awful.

That looks like the culmination of current car design and I applaud Mitsu for putting it out there so boldly. Like many new cars it leaves me befuddled, idly scratching my head while pondering the pros of staying home more often.

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Don't forget Nissan! Oh wait, their cars also look horrendous.

It's not that it's ugly, it has simply attained a level of sophistication that most people cannot appreciate.  Clearly, ahead of its time.

Eclipse Cross?!? I had no idea  

That and the Electric Mustang hatchback, it’s just a strange day of vulgarizing names. 

It reminds me of Mountain Dew. Pepsi goes “Hey this stuff sells well. Let’s see if we can brand everything with MD! Orange MD! Raspberry MD! Why not PEPSI MD!? How about Dr Pepper Mountain Dew!”

Like that girl we all knew... maybe she's really good at... stuff.

The obtrusive split rear window just cause we want to put this extra doodad in there, that seems to be something that someone decided needed to be on more vehicles. 
 

im fine with these newer vehicles being so ugly. They are also greatly overpriced so that makes it even easier for me to look at my aging fleet and being rather happy with it. 

A thought that's been in the back of my head while driving around recently is how uninspiring all the modern cars are.  Sports cars are generally ok, but all the commuter cars are just bleh.

That thing, though... :shudder:

Not to mention that they have sullied what used to be a name that meant something - RIP Eclipse

gearheadmb said:

And wheels from a 96 grand caravan. You're right, that's awful. Just awful.

Grippy tires, though.  It looks like they slammed on the brakes to make that light and the body slid about 6 inches forward over the suspension.

ebonyandivory said:

Like that girl we all knew... maybe she's really good at... stuff.

Given the maker and the intended market, the odds of that are vanishingly small.

Blind spots are a selling feature, not a bug.  It means that when you have Jayden and Brayen and Aiden in the rear facing baby seats, they aren't blinded by the illegally high SuperMegaBright headlights of the brodozer tailgating you.

(Remember when we had headlight height laws?  And the DOT had the balls to enforce regulations?  Good times...)

My friend designed the 4th gen Eclipse and quit as a designer when the head of design told him that their target market was female secretaries (not that there is anything wrong with that)

His concept was awesome and they whittled it down to a anemic fwd car. Mitsu has been down hill for a long time. 

He quit and went to work for West Coast Choppers back in it's hay day. Some pretty crazy stories. 

. 

A friend's dad worked on the Pacer design team. Said that it started out quite interesting, with a rotary motor being seriously considered and such. Of course, by the time that the marketing people, the project managers and the miscellaneous execs got done with it, it ended up spoken of in the same manner as the Edsel and the Aztec (Which the subject vehicle shares styling cues with). Point is, I think that most truly ugly cars are the result of too many people being involved, nit necessarily the design team.

Knurled. said:

Blind spots are a selling feature, not a bug.  It means that when you have Jayden and Brayen and Aiden in the rear facing baby seats, they aren't blinded by the illegally high SuperMegaBright headlights of the brodozer tailgating you.

(Remember when we had headlight height laws?  And the DOT had the balls to enforce regulations?  Good times...)

It's not just brodozers with height issues. Some new cars come from the factory with SuperMegaBright headlights that allow drivers to see into the future. One rainy night, I was blinded (seriously, almost bailed into the ditch) by an oncoming car's headlights and the glare from the wet road. berkeley you and your LED lights, Acura, Audi or whatever high-end car that was!

My kids teacher has one. I like the blue, but otherwise, it's garbage. She hates it too, only bought it because Mitsubishi offered her way too much in trade for her Swiss cheese Explorer or escape or whatever it was, and she needed a newish vehicle to travel every day for work. 

I guess they are trying to make the new lexus suv look better?

OjaiM5 said:

My friend designed the 4th gen Eclipse and quit as a designer when the head of design told him that their target market was female secretaries (not that there is anything wrong with that)

His concept was awesome and they whittled it down to a anemic fwd car. Mitsu has been down hill for a long time. 

He quit and went to work for West Coast Choppers back in it's hay day. Some pretty crazy stories. 

You'd better be making a thread about that!

I finally saw an Eclipse Cross in person the other day. It's wierd how in that it tries to look like all Crossovers, it somehow comes back around to looking unique in it's own bad way. It's the car equivalent of the Uncanny Valley. 

Datsun310Guy said:

Yeah, but that one's like the Ugly duckling of the 70s.

Also? I need to find one. It's now one of the only cars to never appear at LeMons.

And no, not the W126. 

In reply to Jordan Rimpela :

Battlestar Galactica cylon does not like you poking fun at his new girlfriend.