Why is Nissan so dedicated to making hideous cars?

Serious what is it with Nissan and making cars that are just horrible looking?

They have had

• Juke
• Cube
• the new body style Maxima
• the QX80
• the QX30
• Murano convertible
• the last of the Quests

All of them are basically vomit inducing. Who the hell approves these things?

French styling “assistance” from Renault was always my guess.

Styling is a very subjective thing.  Not saying I'm a huge fan of Nissan styling (though I don't find the Maxima ugly), but what about:

Lexus and they're grills the size of a small apartment

Ditto Audi

Ditto many other manufacturers... 

Sorry, this kind of face is something only a mother could love...if she were blind.

The Japanese are making some ugly cars right now. That's very unfortunate 

In reply to Klayfish :

Those grills are pretty bad. I was hoping that styling trend would have died by now. 

But at least with those they are only truely ugly from in front. A lot of the Nissans are terrible from every angle

They are trying to beat Lexus and Toyota for the "Ugliest Car of the Year" award...

I think the new Nissan full-size trucks are almost criminally ugly. Then again I think most new vehicles are mildly offensive at best. 

IIRC, the Lexus front end is because they are trying to break into the Chinese luxury market, and “subtle” doesn’t sell well enough there.

I agree that Lexuses are mostly ugly from the front, Nissans from a lot more angles. And Nissan also seems to have pioneered the “missing” C/D pillar designs with the glossy black plastic, that has been catching on with other manufacturers lately (including Lexus).

Pics... Show us some more pics of what ugly is.

Worst part is the Murano Convertible is actually one of the better looking Nissans in the last 15 years.

The worst is the old QX56.  That thing looks like an ugly fish.  Seriously who approves these things?

QX80=FX56 for the most part. They at least removed the gills on the side with something a little better.

I don't find the QX30 ugly.  There is only so much you can do with that general body style. It'd be better if it was just a hatch and lowered an inch and a half but what ever. 

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

I forgot about how terrible that one was.

The Lexus Predator grille was a smash-hit with its intended audience: It gave Chinese rich people a car that stands out from others...at any cost.

93EXCivic said:

Who the hell approves these things?

I'm pretty sure it's the same guy who approved the "Cat's in the cradle" ad without asking "Can I hear the whole song so I can be sure the next verse doesn't totally ruin our message?"

I find myself bothered by the new Ford Super Duty headlights.   [ I do not understand the brackets ]

In reply to John Welsh :

The brackets are to hold all the engine parts inside.  Jk Ford people. I'm trying to become more Ford friendly .

In reply to 93EXCivic :

I’m convinced they have a secret love of the old Nash company. 

Hello......

1978 Datsun F10?  

It goes back many generations.   

How about the new Lexus UX crossover, which has the funky grille along with some truly horrifying wheel wells. Seriously, there has to be a foot of wheel gap at the rear corners.

NickD said:

 truly horrifying wheel wells.

Outback wheel wells have bothered me for a while.  The wheel and tire isn't even remotely concentric with the wheel well when viewed from the side.  You can't accidentally berkeley it up that bad.

In reply to 93EXCivic :

Between 1995-2005, modern styling reached a point where many body styles had been very well resolved after a couple of decades in the post-aerodynamic age.  Almost all cars looked pretty decent - pleasant overall shape, logical proportions, clean, sensible detailing.

However, there came backlash from the buying public that everything "looked the same".  Now, those of us here all know that perception was false... but it was also held by the majority.

In response, manufacturers set out to inflict dramatic, unmistakeable brand identity on their formerly handsome cars.  Understatement was discarded in favor of drama and polarization.  What it actually looked like was made subservient to how much attention it could grab.... much like entertainment, politics, and society in general.

Who wants to see a mature, intelligent discussion when you can shout at each other?

In reply to Duke :

I can't exactly disagree with you, but I will point out that the same trend was kind of going on in the late 50s, and a lot of the world still idolizes those years as the best styled American cars. I mean, I'm not sure that being different to just to be different is a BAD thing. There are companies whose design ethos I heartily dislike right now, but there are a couple companies building gorgeous stuff too.

I wonder which of the design elements we find distasteful today will be thea well-loved icon 25 years from now.

In reply to Duke :

I was thinking about this yesterday. I really like the styling trends from, let' say 95-00. They had smooth rounded curves. Now everything has sharp angles and weird useless protuberances. I realized what happened is the same as the styling shift that was made in the early 70s. Not good.

Speaking of Nissan, do the little 'SV' emblems on the right rear of most Versas and some Altimas stand for 'Sucky Vehicle"? That's what I think in my head when I see the SV.

Sort of like I always get a chuckle at all the Chevy lieutenants (LT) driving around.

ultraclyde said:

In reply to Duke :

I can't exactly disagree with you, but I will point out that the same trend was kind of going on in the late 50s, and a lot of the world still idolizes those years as the best styled American cars.

In my opinion, though, that's more because of the era they represent rather than any objective standards of attractiveness.  It was the postwar, atomic age, when luxury was all around and anything was possible.  The fondness for that styling is shorthand for the nostalgia of a simpler, more exuberant era.

There have been beautiful and ugly cars made every decade, and in every style, without question.  But note that it goes in 10-15 year swings:
 

• Late '40s - late '50s: "modern" cars evolved from the prewar look to the simplified 3-box design, then gradually became more extreme, more over-decorated, and more vulgar.
   
• Early '60s - late '70s: tailfins and excessive decoration died out over the course of 2-3 quick model years, to be replaced by cleaner looks and better proportions.  These evolved attractively from about 1965 through about 1975... and then the wretched excess of the mid-to-late '70s echoed the same process from 20 years before.
   
• Early '80s - early '90s:  Again, over a short 2-3 model years, the '70s died out completely, to be replaced by the cleaner, "futuristic / angular" aesthetic.  This also developed some very attractive cars, before devolving into a parody of itself by 1990.  Kind of, in fact, like the very '80s themselves did.  By 1995 the '80s vision of the future was already dated and dead.
   
• Early '90s - mid Oughties:  The period described in my first post above.  The era where real aerodynamic computational power honed away the angles, tucked in the detailing, and smoothed out all the openings.  Everything eroded down to handsome similarity, with subtle cues indicating manufacturer and model.
   
• Mid Oughties - present:  The current era.  Drama, boldness, brand identity, extreme extremeness.