I took a relative out car shopping last week, and we looked at all of the usual suspects. Her budget was $25k or less, so we looked at new Honda Civics, Mazda3's, Ford Fusion, Hyundai Sonata, Toyota Camry, and Nissan Altimas. Of all of these, we could have gotten out cheapest on the Altima as they were offering huge discounts on the 2018's. With a list of $24k we could have picked one up for around $18k. But...it drove the worst by a looonnnggg way. Probably wasn't the worst looking or the most stripped, but it just didn't drive well.
In the end it wasn't much of a contest, the easy winner was the Civic. While maybe a step down from the Camry or the Fusion in terms of size and niceness, it was the best driving, most comfortable, most features, and best fuel economy. Price out the door for a mid level version (EX?) was $21k. Her ranking in order; Civic, Camry, Sonata, Fusion, Mazda3, Altima.
Poor Nissan, it was an also run here and I remember sitting the showroom and looking over at their big van thing people mover, and my niece's comment was basically that anyone that can design something so ugly is a clear sign the whole company is in trouble.
The Mazda was the surprise. I liked it, but she did not. A bit smaller than the Civic, but it was somewhat course and cramped by comparison. To get one equipped in a similar fashion it would have been $5k more than the Honda. The dealer wasn't helpful either. The Ford has also come a long way, but it was still no match in terms of refinement, fit or finish of the Honda and Toyota.
This brings me to the Camry. I wanted to like this car being a long time Toyota racer, but I just couldn't. You could feel a little soul trying to creep out of the Honda and Mazda, the Toyota was completely void of any type of interaction. Nice enough car, but possibly the world's best appliance. Strangely my wife's RAV4 is more engaging.
ultraclyde said:In reply to Duke :
I wonder which of the design elements we find distasteful today will be thea well-loved icon 25 years from now.
IIRC, Top Gear said the same thing when talking about the XJS. Those were before my time but damn I think they look good now.
My parents are forever complaining about styling on modern cars and how "they all look the same." This from a family that idolizes classic VWs and old Jeeps. My mother is a huge proponent of the Beetle, but by golly it had better not be post-66 because of some small changes to the size of the rear window and the taillights. To most people a beetle is a beetle and they "all look the same." And personally I would have a very hard time distinguishing a CJ5 from a CJ7 at a glance. I think it depends on generation and what someone is personally interested in.
I generally dislike the styling of Hondas made in the last 20 years. I also generally dislike the "busier" styling of cars over the last 5 years or so. But I really like the latest generation of civic so there you go.
tomtomgt356 said:They are trying to beat Lexus and Toyota for the "Ugliest Car of the Year" award...
Meanwhile at the Honda camp-----"Hey, hold my beer"
[Carly Simon] Nobody does it better - makes me feel sad for the rest - nobody does it half as good as you - baby, you're the best [/Carly Simon]
Sorry...it was this or gouge out my eye balls after suffering through two pages of horrific abominations.
Joe Gearin said:tomtomgt356 said:They are trying to beat Lexus and Toyota for the "Ugliest Car of the Year" award...
Meanwhile at the Honda camp-----"Hey, hold my beer"
It is a bit busy for me but I don't hate it. Plus it has f40 looking tail pipes, and what's not to love about that.
tomtomgt356 said:They are trying to beat Lexus and Toyota for the "Ugliest Car of the Year" award...
Yeah Toyota did release that horrible C-HR.
I think a lot of it has to do with our natural tendency to want something new, exciting, and different. If the industry is making big trucks and cars that look like the Civic type R, all we want is Ford Rangers and 1992 Buick Lesabres. It's only because it's something we don't see all the time, and our favorite thing is always the thing we can't have.
See, I like the maxima look. Everything else is starting to look like a hyundai.
barefootskater said:Joe Gearin said:tomtomgt356 said:They are trying to beat Lexus and Toyota for the "Ugliest Car of the Year" award...
Meanwhile at the Honda camp-----"Hey, hold my beer"
It is a bit busy for me but I don't hate it. Plus it has f40 looking tail pipes, and what's not to love about that.
You could put a Countach wing on a Versa and it wouldn't make it look good. The Civic R is an amazing machine.....mechanically. It's so God-awful to look at IMHO that I could never consider buying one. ( and styling generally isn't a big deal to me) There's ugly.....then there is Aztec / C-HR / Honda Civic R type ugly. " A bit busy?" It looks like they tacked on the entire J.C. Whitney catalog on this horrid thing.
However, if this board proves anything, it's that there is a HUGE difference in what people consider good looking, or ugly.
For me though......the Civic R is the runaway winner of the ugliest car on the market today---- although it has some tough competition!
In reply to RX Reven' :
That's a real nice beetle you have there 
I thought nissan did a pretty good job on the previous gen maxima.
And back to Nissan.
I can't tell if it is leaning right or left, but it looks like it is about to fall over one way or the other. And I think it might have been stung by a bee or eaten peanuts or something to look so swollen as to make those ~20" wheels look undersized. Barf. And they are available in bright yellow with all the chrome for some extra barf.
In reply to 93EXCivic :
I like the Cube, I wouldn't want to drive one everyday but I like that it exists or existed.
The new Titan looks like it's on stilts with the thin DRL's and seemingly too narrow tires.
Keith said it best with the Maxima - "It looks like a someone described a Mazda6 to them over the phone" if I recall correctly.
But yea it seems like they gave up a while ago.
OTOH I cannot tell the difference between Audi models anymore.
I do believe they took the worst looking part of every major brand truck an built it.
Schwing!
Puke!
John Welsh said:I find myself bothered by the new Ford Super Duty headlights. [ I do not understand the brackets ]
As bad as the front end is on these, I think what bothers me more is something just looks proportionally off about the relationship between the bottom of the body, the undercarriage, and the ground. Looks like a fat girl wearing a way-too-short skirt, there's more hanging out from under there than I want to see.
For me though......the Civic R is the runaway winner of the ugliest car on the market today---- although it has some tough competition!
And to think of how much trouble they went to for it to look so ugly. They could have spent the same amount of time and money and had it look so much better. The "normal" Civic isn't too bad looking. I think there were too many late night parties in the design studio and this is what emerged. Truly hideous. 
Its easier to list the Datsuns/Nissans that were not designed by a drunken Ninja. 1200, 510, 240/60/80Z, B13 Sentra, B14 Sentra, and we could argue about 350z. I don't mind, others hate.
And that stupid chrome Acura grille/chevron thing looks better if you paint it black.
Streetwiseguy said:And that stupid chrome Acura grille/chevron thing looks better if you paint it black.
I used to think something similar about the original 'Trout Pout' Audis, too - most of them could have been vastly improved for cheap, just by painting the dark grille band to match the body color:
The snoz!
Does anyone else feel like Fast and Furious started all of this? It seems like the automakers started doing all this crap around the time that movie came out and it's progressed from there. Now every car looks like it has a "body kit" jeweled lights, and looks evil/aggressive. Now a Toyota Camry looks like a car that would kill your children, not take them to school.
Most Nissans I see look so bad, it's as if they just don't give a damn about styling. I thought their lineup looked okay in the 90s and early 2000s, then it got really bad. There's just no inspiration there. The Infinitis look a lot better. Maybe Nissan is tanking their looks to make the Infinitis looks good!
I think Toyota/Lexus is not far behind. Every Lexus is just SO ugly.
Honda isn't great either. The Civic is one of the ugliest cars I see on the road now. There everywhere, and I think if I were hung over, I'd throw up.
The Accord looks better up front, but the back isn't great. I hate how Honda uses all this plastic chrome all over the place too. Most of the Acuras look pretty terrible too.
Nissan is still the worst. I think they are headed the way of Mitsubishi if they aren't careful.
93EXCivic said: .... Who the hell approves these things?....
Up until about a year ago, Carlos Ghosn.
I as followed today by an Audi that had a nice enough grill. I had to check a couple times at stop lights and it definitely had the rings. What happened.
In reply to barefootskater :
Weird, I've been rewatching the whole Top Gear series the past few weeks and this segment just came on tonight. It's season 4 episode 6 in case anyone was wondering 
I think just about everything from 95 and newer is ugly. I like square cars, but that isn't what sells anymore, aerodynamics of a brick appeal too me.
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