Why do Americans want their cars to look like a whale shark?

After the latest Kia Koup, one of the best-styled "mainstream" cars on the market, has fallen to the trend I demand answers.

This has been the hot new design trend for a year or two now, and if you show me any non-American-made car with such a grille, I'll show you the non-US-market front bumper for it with a nice normal grille. We have a couple of people here who work at Ford and GM, any answers for this madness? Do people like their cars to have a facial expression that says "GET IN MA BELLY!"

I'm more concerned how you cant see E36 M3 out of these newer cars with their belt lines up to your ears and mailslot windows. Is a proper greenhouse and window sills low enough to use as an arm rest really too much to ask for?

True, you can't see the car's ugly face from inside the car but you also can't see the puppy you just ran over because the windows are too small.

Small windows look good, I get it. But they're terrible for visibility.

BTW, did you know that the average driver feels unsafe with good visibility? Visibility is being intentionally sabotaged to make the cars "feel safer." That's why Volvo had to ditch their stronger triangulated & windowed A-pillars for weaker solid ones.

"I can see better? OH NOES THAT MEANS MORE GLASS AND LESS ARMOR! I need that armor to protect me from my E36 M3 driving!"

A year or two? Audi started this crap in about 2006 or 7 - 2 generations ago. I hate it, bad.

Audi huh, so maybe it's a case of "the emperor's new clothes," like the dark ages of Bangle-ism that we've only just come out of.

In reply to Duke:

I don't think audi started it for a change.

GameboyRMH wrote: BTW, did you know that the average driver feels unsafe with good visibility? Visibility is being intentionally sabotaged to make the cars "feel safer." That's why Volvo had to ditch their stronger triangulated & windowed A-pillars for weaker solid ones.

I really hate the inability of people to think critically about things.

Drive an E30, then! No stupid whale mouth, and fishbowl visibility!

yamaha wrote: In reply to Duke: I don't think audi started it for a change.

Who did, then? 2005:

This car could have been saved by painting that black strip below the rings to match the red bodywork. Later, they just got worse. And then the CHUDS came.

"krill grill"

In reply to Kenny_McCormic: You,Sir, need to be in charge of product development for a car company.

I have no problem with the lines of said Kia, and I think that Bangle's awesome, but I do lament the passing of low beltlines and thin pillars. I blame the SUV craze. When people started opting for taller, heavier, ill-handling versions of traditional station wagons, it sent a clear message to the designers that people wanted to feel high up and and hidden. Subsequently the designers also figured out that with good engineering, you could make a sow into a silk purse - handling and speed wise. Thus you have vehicles that are the automotive equivalent of a 250 lb. linebacker who can run a 4.65 40-yard-dash.

an older german design - slit windows - extra tracks kinda look like a grill

GameboyRMH wrote: if you show me any non-American-made car with such a grille, I'll show you the non-US-market front bumper for it with a nice normal grille.

Depends how you specifically define these grills vs "normal" grills...I can name a few manufacturers that have built, or are curreintly building, their international brand image around such grills. Mitsubishi. Audi. Ford. Hell, even Aston Martin is moving away from their elegantly incorporated version of this style, which the Fusion/Mondeo blatantly attempted to knock-off, and is going big on the Rapide S.

While others may have had large grills earlier, I largely blame the R35 GTR and Evo X for making people correlate the obnoxiously cartoonish catfish grill with a 'sporty' appearance.

But I think my 'favorite' example may still have to be the new Focus grill, of which 75% is solid black plastic attempting to simulate open grill space with minimal aero sacrifice.

I thought part of this was due to some type of euro pedestrian safety standards that are generally forcing the noses on cars to be taller and more blunt, thuse copying what's already out there is the styling path of least resistance.

kreb wrote: I have no problem with the lines of said Kia, and I think that Bangle's awesome, but I do lament the passing of low beltlines and thin pillars. I blame the SUV craze. When people started opting for taller, heavier, ill-handling versions of traditional station wagons, it sent a clear message to the designers that people wanted to feel high up and and hidden. Subsequently the designers also figured out that with good engineering, you could make a sow into a silk purse - handling and speed wise. Thus you have vehicles that are the automotive equivalent of a 250 lb. linebacker who can run a 4.65 40-yard-dash.

Or increasingly difficult to pass crash standards that can't be met when half the structure is glass.

Maybe?

And, "Oh this thread again."

z31maniac wrote: Or increasingly difficult to pass crash standards that can't be met when half the structure is glass.

Dang. Beat me to it. You speak the troof!

O hi.

bummer, it looks even more like a dart now=/
I'm glad I have a "first gen" forte, now lol.
I think mazda may be responsible in part for the goofy mouth look, along with the aforementioned jaaaaag

Who cares what new cars look like, I won't be able to afford one for another 20 years and by then the aftermarket will have plenty of options.

don't forget about the happy face Mazdas

thankfully the new Mazda design language looks to abandon the

crap the words "design language" became cliche' fast

It's not Americans, it's the pedestrian rules in Europe that caused the bulbous high noses which led to the tall, and very ugly, front grills.