Cars aren't getting any prettier. The new Seat Ibiza's styling is all over the place. I took evasive action to avoid looking at a new Cayenne head-on yesterday. Hideous thing, it completely spoiled my day trip to San Sebastian; should have been banished from the sea front area (I hope the picture postcard photographers weren't in town).
And what's with the BMW X6? Great big rump of a thing, ungainly and vulgar, sort of shaved off at the back.
And the new Scenic is a total hippopotamus.
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ~ that's if it matters at all when talking about car body styles. When I choose a car its looks don't figure in my list of priorities at all. I like the woman on my arm to be beautiful, but I couldn't care less what my car looks like provided that its colour makes it clearly visible to other motorists. The main factors governing my choice of a car all centre around functionality.
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Totally agree, L'escargot, hence my present car, which certainly won't win any beauty contests, but I still like it in a quirky sort of way!
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The main factors governing my choice of a car all centre around functionality.
I'm with you most of the way, Snail. But the epitome of good design is to combine function with elegance, which can have several aspects, not just appearance.
I won't harp on about the Pug 205, except to say that I think it did exactly that, as did its successor the 306.
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This must be the ideal motor for L'escargot.
tinyurl.com/8ea24q
Very functional and available in visible colours, I'm sure.
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This must be the ideal motor for L'escargot.
Now that is what I call style!!!!
It is up there with the Fiat Multipla for design excellence.
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Look at it as "progress" - remember when the current 7 series came out ? Everyone cried ugly - now it looks conservative compared to all the other stuff about. A lot of makers have aped the Bangle look - Vauxhall have managed a very pretty car in the Insignia which is more than Ford managed. The 6 is ugly though, not for me.
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I don't understand the fuss about the Insignia. Looks like a warmed over Primera to me, with a very iffy rear end. Quite ugly to be frank.
Then again, I'm odd and think the Fiat Stilo Multiwagon an attractive car.
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I also think all the Bangle cars are nice - the 6 series in particular - doesn't make me mad or bad. R1200GS is ugly though !!!!! `:-)
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With you all the way Bilboman. Functional design doesn't have to be ugly - in fact some of the best & most long-lasting engineering icons are just naturally beautiful; Thomas Telford's suspension bridge across the Menai straits come to mind (and eye, every day..)
I regard the Citroen 2CV as beautiful - but any current BMW as ugly (ditto the Porshe example) - The old Mini likewise, beautiful - the modern one as a hideously obese pastiche of it. Aston Martin seem congenitally incapable of producing anything other than the absolutely gorgeous, VW only hit the spot with the GTI (sometimes..) - and oddly, Skoda match form & function & produce a 'homely' beauty more often than not.
In fact 'beauty' is not some airy-fairy concept that's the sole preserve of flaxen haired poets in garrets wrestling with high emotion, but a shorthand way, quite often, of the mind's realisation of absolute harmony of form & function.
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Alfa Romeo ? - (move away from the Italian car) !
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Have a heart PU, I am a potential alfaholic. I had managed not to think about one for nearly two weeks now.........
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>>I am a potential alfaholic.
Haha! Very good.
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'It's from a logical point of view:
Always marry a woman uglier than you'
went the refrain of an amusing old calypso. I must be quite illogical because I screwed up badly on this one, twice.
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>>I am a potential alfaholic.
There must be a few Alfaholics Anonymous members who post here and can help with your affliction :-)
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Pug - you're a heathen! the R1200GS gets its beauty from its purposeful, functional look. Big and bold with acres of alloy and engine on show. Wonderful looking bike, nothing else like it. I was a Honda man myself, a big fan of so called 'sportsbikes' but that doesn't mean I can't admire the GS for what it is. I'm sure you won't be moved in your opinion - good on you, but you're plainly wrong!!
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I love mine to tiny bits - still ugly though (just been to check in the Garage !)
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I was actually thinking how many good looking cars there are of late. The new VW Scirocco (and mk6 Golf) are very handsome, most things Audi are too (silly LED lights aside), plus there's the likes of the Jaguar XF, the new Fiesta, anything Alfa, the Fiat 500, pretty much all of the current Vauxhall range etc etc. On the latter, the Signum is actually a very handsome car in the metal.
As for Renault, have you seen a new Laguna Coupe? Stunning.
While some new cars are definitely beter looking than others, I can only think of a handful I would describe as truly ugly. The worst they tend to be is bland these days.
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that scirroco looks mint in dayglo green
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"I like the woman on my arm to be beautiful, but I couldn't care less what my car looks like "
Cars usually get better looking with age ---
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Cars usually get better looking with age ---
Depreciation is a lot lower too.
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OK then, of the current crop, what do we like in terms of styling anyway ?
Thought I liked the new Scirocco from photos but in the metal it's not my cuppa. I don't like the Jag XF to look at but I'm sure it's a fine car. Still got to love the Brera / 159 despite everything.
Quite taken with the new Fiesta. New Golf looks OK if a lot like the old one. Audi A6 Avant cuts a dash. New Citroen C5 estate quite pleasing.
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that scirroco looks mint in dayglo green
It's a dead-ringer for a squashed toad - especially in that colour!
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Saw a Mito on Tuesday - Ugly as sin!
So much for italian design.
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I have to agree. My 1990 Jetta GLI with 17" alloy rims, 205x40 tyres is a classic and functional machine. Runs like a Jet, corners like it is on rails and is paid off !! Love that 2 liter 16v motor. The newer models got smaller inside, larger outside and all rounded off.
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I can't think of any car that i like the look of regardless of cost. Some supercars maybe.
It's a car at the end of the day and i certainly don't get the whole bland design thing.
Nearly every toyota gets the same treatment. Every review of the new avensis, auris, urban cruiser, yaris all say they have dull looks. Compared to what, a ford mondeo or a nissan x-trail or a seat leon. None of those cars a beautiful, they are just moulded lumps of metal and plastic. Not works of art or people.
I really didn't get what people saw in the new civic. It looks silly imho and impractical in some cases.
Sometimes it makes me wonder whether the people that write these things have to be "creative" to satisfy the manufacturer and advertising deals / costs.
I can appreciate that some of the prestige / higher marques of car are more polished but so they should be they are a lot more expensive.
Edited by OldSkoOL on 24/04/2009 at 21:04
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