When did American cars get so crap?

[Over The Hill]

I really think cars today are getting less attractive and just more bullish in their design. If you look at the "face" of lots of cars they are aiming to look more like a nightclub bouncer than a nightclub pole dancer. Is this perhaps that the car has moved from being a thing of beauty to a thing of power and aggression on the road today.

 

[ayceejay]

I really think cars today are getting less attractive and just more bullish in their design. If you look at the "face" of lots of cars they are aiming to look more like a nightclub bouncer than a nightclub pole dancer. Is this perhaps that the car has moved from being a thing of beauty to a thing of power and aggression on the road today.

I read an op ed from a French writer a few tears ago that contained interviews with owners of Urban Tanks and the main reason given for buying such a beast was not so that they could visit Baja over the week end but to look intimidating on their drive to work.

 

[Archie_tect]

The Fiat Multipla wasn't always horrid...
1956, under the name Multipla (according to the internet)

Does it float?

 

[Boris Bajic]

^^ Lovely, I want one!

I never quite got on with the original Multipla on an aesthetic level, but the Giardiniera somehow ticks more of the boxes.

It combines the colossal loadspace of a MASSIVE Volvo Estate with the cutesie ickle baby cutey-cutey nose of the old Nuova 500:

I may be delusional on the matter of it having the space of a Volvo... but it probably has at least the capacity of a small bicycle pannier.

 

[MarkF]

It does indeed...thuggish, charmless, bereft of finesse. Can you imagine actually pulling up, opening the door and climbing out? You'd be embarrassed, wouldn't you? I mean, really embarrassed.

No, not at all, I think it looks great. "Embarrassed" is climbing out of a Nissan Juke or any of the myriad of fake/push button off roaders.

 

[biggs682]

must admit i have always thought of American cars to be cr@p

 

[Fnaar]

I have a thing about Edsels... don't care how cr@p they might be in terms of engineering/mechanics etc, how they look is far more important!!

 

[ayceejay]

I saw an Edsel in a garage in Barnett Vermont once - a museum piece for sure but if you are looking for style beat this
Topolino were decimated by stock car racers who used the lightweight body over a Jaguar. Such a waste.

 

[gbb]

How about an AMC Pacer. Schwing!

Oh dear god !!!

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

How about an AMC Pacer. Schwing!

Only if it had Tia Carrera as the passenger

 

[Boris Bajic]

Although my preference is for European glory like the Citroens DS, 11B and SM, the R5 Turbo Maxi, the Wolseley Six and so on, the above two cars might take my fancy if I were born again in an earlier decade.

Not in pink, obviously... but the cars would amuse me is a world of cheap petrol.

 

[Over The Hill]

Although my preference is for European glory like the Citroens DS, 11B and SM, the R5 Turbo Maxi, the Wolseley Six and so on, the above two cars might take my fancy if I were born again in an earlier decade.

Not in pink, obviously... but the cars would amuse me is a world of cheap petrol.

Even as a kid I hated the way they had a shape in the boot for the spare wheel. Never could understand that. Remind me of all the rubbish cop programmes of the 70s. Cannon Kojak etc.

 

[Bollo]

Even as a kid I hated the way they had a shape in the boot for the spare wheel. Never could understand that. Remind me of all the rubbish cop programmes of the 70s. Cannon Kojak etc.

The title sequence to Hill St Blues with the po-leese prowlers bouncing down the rainy street at two miles a fortnight. It wouldn't be the same if they were in Vauxhall Astras.

 

[swee'pea99]

It was the suspension more than anything...my Dad once described his hire car as like driving a cricket pitch on springs.

 

[marzjennings]

And yet if you look at it from the side...
View attachment 30229

Oh no, hang on...I meant from the rear...

View attachment 30230

Um...

It seems the interior is just as ugly, even with camo print seats and a bike...

Pontiac, before their demise, did manage to produce this, which I'm quite fond of...

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