I personally like European styling the best. It seems that VW, Audi, Benz,BMW and Volvo have really got it together when it comes to styling.
Next in line is the American cars. I like some of the chryslers, the new cadillacs, and american trucks!
I feel that Asian cars are forever playing catchup. I am just not in tune with their flavor of styling over there. Their luxury cars are amazingly blah, and their regular cars are even more so, usually with some glaring abnomaly,witness: the 1994-99 maximawhat continent sports your favorite car stylings
European VS Asian VS American styling. Which do you generally prefer
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AZhitman
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Each has its high and low points.
I love the subtle, heavy, aggressive, pure-business look of the newer Audi's and the pre-02 5 and 7 series BMW's... Benz has made some clownish crap lately, and has IMO tried to capture a "low-end" part of the market... Dumb move. VW? Some good, some bad - The Phaeton is spectacular, but the art-deco look of the Passat, et al is already passe.
US styling is so schizophrenic, it's sad. New Chrysler stuff is great (love the Crossfire and the Pacifica), but the new GM trucks look weird, and IMO, Ford and Chevy's car styling SUCKS. The bulk of their lineup is still stuck in the 80's... Pontiac being the worst offender.
Asian styling is improving, but their ties to so many US companies dilutes the talent I think. Mitsu is the Pontiac of Japan and has gotten haggard and nasty (with the exception of the Axiom). Toyota? Dull, bland... Pure fear of failure. Honda hasn't made an attractive car IMO since the 92-95 Civic HB and the 91 Accord (and maybe the Odyssey). Nissan is the pro baller of the group, with some aggressive designs and taking some risks... I don't like the new Max/Alty/350Z designs, but many do. The new truck looks like the Frontier, but bigger, and that's too bad... Two of the high end Jap car companies are cranking out some nice stuff (Infiniti and Lexus) but Acura hasn't made an attractive car since the Legend (one of my top 3 best-looking cars of all time).
So many "cutting-edge" styles are too damn TRENDY and will NOT stand the test of time. Witness the PT Loser, Audi TT, VW Beetle and others. Another reason I love my 95 Q - People think it's a post-2000 model STILL.
I love the subtle, heavy, aggressive, pure-business look of the newer Audi's and the pre-02 5 and 7 series BMW's... Benz has made some clownish crap lately, and has IMO tried to capture a "low-end" part of the market... Dumb move. VW? Some good, some bad - The Phaeton is spectacular, but the art-deco look of the Passat, et al is already passe.
US styling is so schizophrenic, it's sad. New Chrysler stuff is great (love the Crossfire and the Pacifica), but the new GM trucks look weird, and IMO, Ford and Chevy's car styling SUCKS. The bulk of their lineup is still stuck in the 80's... Pontiac being the worst offender.
Asian styling is improving, but their ties to so many US companies dilutes the talent I think. Mitsu is the Pontiac of Japan and has gotten haggard and nasty (with the exception of the Axiom). Toyota? Dull, bland... Pure fear of failure. Honda hasn't made an attractive car IMO since the 92-95 Civic HB and the 91 Accord (and maybe the Odyssey). Nissan is the pro baller of the group, with some aggressive designs and taking some risks... I don't like the new Max/Alty/350Z designs, but many do. The new truck looks like the Frontier, but bigger, and that's too bad... Two of the high end Jap car companies are cranking out some nice stuff (Infiniti and Lexus) but Acura hasn't made an attractive car since the Legend (one of my top 3 best-looking cars of all time).
So many "cutting-edge" styles are too damn TRENDY and will NOT stand the test of time. Witness the PT Loser, Audi TT, VW Beetle and others. Another reason I love my 95 Q - People think it's a post-2000 model STILL.
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lessthanjakejohn
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Porsche. If I had a choice of any car, it would no doubt be a 996chassis 911turbo. The exotics are very fancy indeed, but the mid-priced cars from Europe have it nailed. They put the best styled cars at nearly affordable prices. Now if we all had just stayed in school long enough to get that MBA, we'd all be driving high end German cars, too.
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Bubba1
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I think the Europeans have the best designs, hands down, specifically the Italians. Pinin Farina, Bertone, Giugiaro, plenty of them. Lotsa timeless designs. I also like the German designs too, more traditional. Audi, pre '02 BMW, Mercedes all have classic functional designs. But I'm afraid BMW has started down the wrong path. They're starting to overstyle like Pontiac. Big mistake, and I think it'll affect their sales.
Japanese come next, some very attractive designs, but some duds too. Nissan seems to have the best designs of the Japanese makes. DSM the worst,. they tends tooverstyle like GM.
I'm afraid American and Korean cars lag well behind. Chrysler probably has best designs of the domestics and Korean makes. It's unfortuante they build their cars so cheaply.
Japanese come next, some very attractive designs, but some duds too. Nissan seems to have the best designs of the Japanese makes. DSM the worst,. they tends tooverstyle like GM.
I'm afraid American and Korean cars lag well behind. Chrysler probably has best designs of the domestics and Korean makes. It's unfortuante they build their cars so cheaply.
europeans do have the best designs, but thats only because most of their stuff is high quality stuff that comes to the US. Asian cars are more low key here, so their design is more conservative. But if you go to europe, it might look a little different, or go to Japan where there are some nice cars that never touch our soil, SUCH AS the Skyline for instance.
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miteymax86
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Gots a 240 now
I'm with YSL here. It really depends on where you are as far as styling for vehicles because you can take greater freedom with the styling in your own market. If we're talking cars you can buy here, in the States, then I go with the European cars, exclusive of Saab and Volvo. In fact, here's the order the European countries rank in, followed by their native manufacturers(in no particular order)Italians-Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Fiat(to a much lesser extent)British-TVR, Lotus, Aston Martin, JaguarFrance- Bugatti, Citroen, PeugeotGermany-BMW, Mercedes, Audi, VW, Porsche(a manly VW)Spain-SEAT(a VW derivative, but nonetheless, it's own company)Sweden-Saab, VolvoNow, I think the Japanese rank somewhere below the French, but hanging with the Germans, merely because they brought us the FD3s, the Supra, the 2G MR2, the S14, 300ZX, NSX, MX-5, and S2000, all of which I think are wonderful styling exercises, and at their inaguration were quite innovative. Not to mention that the new BMWs are hideous.Finally, as proud as I am of my country, most of our designing isn't very good. Chrysler has done some decent work of late, although I think that may be due to the maturation of a lot of the Dodge teams responsible for the Neon, Viper, PT, and Prowler, not too mention that they don't really have a lot to lose as far as market share. Chevy/GM and Pontiac really haven't done a lot for me lately, and Ford, well, it's Ford, I don't see much innovation from them, although the new GT40 and Mustang concepts were pretty nice, so they get ahead of Chevy/GM&Pontiac but behind Chrysler, so I'll put them all ahead of Saab&Volvo. Just my opinion, got kinda long-winded, but I was bored. Apologies in advance.
)Miteymax, you don't like the Z4? Have you seen one in person? Or had the pleasure of driving one? The 7 series IMO isn't an eyesore, but I do prefer the previous generation. The forthcoming 5 series is about the same.... I like the understated style of previous models as opposed to the next gen stuff. The Z4 is in a class of it's own, though. A truly beautiful automobile, both inside and out. Pictures truly do not do the car justice!!
P.S... as Dodge's market share continued to fall, they made a last-ditch effort to revitalize the company and fight off Toyota taking over the #3 spot of the big three...they called in Daimler Benz, who gladly snatched up partial ownership at the prospect of moving large numbers of cheap autos to a numb car buying market, and for a profit via high sales volumes. Things haven't gone quite as expected for D/C post-merge, as Toyota is creeping ever closer to taking over as #3 of the "big three". Anybody remember what year the joining of Benz and Dodge took place? And they're just now getting around to releasing the much-hyped CROSSFIRE. With minivan sales down(face it, this is Dodge's market niche), and Toyota creeping up on Dodge's place in the U.S. market, D/C seems to be in disorder. To D/C I say: give us good, fast, and luxurious cars that are dependable or be gone.
Also, the 300C concept from D/C is cool looking. Let's see if they can pull it off. "5.7liter V-8 and Mercedes know-how"
P.S... as Dodge's market share continued to fall, they made a last-ditch effort to revitalize the company and fight off Toyota taking over the #3 spot of the big three...they called in Daimler Benz, who gladly snatched up partial ownership at the prospect of moving large numbers of cheap autos to a numb car buying market, and for a profit via high sales volumes. Things haven't gone quite as expected for D/C post-merge, as Toyota is creeping ever closer to taking over as #3 of the "big three". Anybody remember what year the joining of Benz and Dodge took place? And they're just now getting around to releasing the much-hyped CROSSFIRE. With minivan sales down(face it, this is Dodge's market niche), and Toyota creeping up on Dodge's place in the U.S. market, D/C seems to be in disorder. To D/C I say: give us good, fast, and luxurious cars that are dependable or be gone.
Also, the 300C concept from D/C is cool looking. Let's see if they can pull it off. "5.7liter V-8 and Mercedes know-how"
For you Saab haters out there:
Saab has officially announced the near-future release of it's Subaru Impreza-based small car(EVO magazine, June'03 pg.22). It will be badged as a Saab 9-2. The car will be AWD, and is supposed to be released by next spring. It's based on the five door Impreza hatch, and the base model will be powered by a 150hp 2.5liter flat four. The 9-2Aero will get the 227hp WRX engine. The car will be made to resemble the 9-5Aero, but will use doors and other major parts from Subaru parts bin. Interior should be similar also, with basic changes to colors and small trim pieces only. Basically, a slightly reshaped Impreza with a different name on the back. GM owns Saab(unless that's changed again already), so GM is working in partnership with Subaru to build a new Saab.
Edit: Silly me, I just read that BOTH Saab and Subaru are subsidiaries of GM. Somebody make me a damn flow chart.
Saab has officially announced the near-future release of it's Subaru Impreza-based small car(EVO magazine, June'03 pg.22). It will be badged as a Saab 9-2. The car will be AWD, and is supposed to be released by next spring. It's based on the five door Impreza hatch, and the base model will be powered by a 150hp 2.5liter flat four. The 9-2Aero will get the 227hp WRX engine. The car will be made to resemble the 9-5Aero, but will use doors and other major parts from Subaru parts bin. Interior should be similar also, with basic changes to colors and small trim pieces only. Basically, a slightly reshaped Impreza with a different name on the back. GM owns Saab(unless that's changed again already), so GM is working in partnership with Subaru to build a new Saab.
Edit: Silly me, I just read that BOTH Saab and Subaru are subsidiaries of GM. Somebody make me a damn flow chart.
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miteymax86
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Gots a 240 now
Consider this: the headquarters ofFerrariLamborghiniMaseratiEdonisPaganiDucatiare all within an hour's(or so) drive of each other.
P.S. Miteymax, the new Bugatti is VW owned, powered, engineered, and built in a new VW plant in France bearing the name Bugatti. You also left out the Koenigsegg CC from the list of beautiful Sweden-based cars. Must never forget the beautiful exotics we'll likely never ever actually see.
P.S. Miteymax, the new Bugatti is VW owned, powered, engineered, and built in a new VW plant in France bearing the name Bugatti. You also left out the Koenigsegg CC from the list of beautiful Sweden-based cars. Must never forget the beautiful exotics we'll likely never ever actually see.