Styling trends you hate

[Camino LS6]

Here are a few of mine

-clear tails, especially the ones that use a ton of chrome inside as a styling feature.

- overlong headlights that go halfway to the A pillar (or more than halfway)

- All the "blingy" chrome in headlight housings

- Front fender cutlines on the A pillar

- large spoilers

- stickers

- "eyebrow" turn signals (above the headlights)

- "Bangle Butt" on anything

- Rear mini-doors on a coupe

- the godawful slabs of chrome on the bumper corners of the Silverado HDs

- center mount exhaust

[Delta Force79]

Side vents on front fenders on almost anything today. Leave the ventiports to Buick and a select few other makes. Most clear tails suck, especially on the new Sable among others. I agree with you Camino on the headlight thing. Case in point, the new Accord has huge headlights. I'd also like to see more a return to the Cady's tailights of yore, being slim and vertical instead of "fat" I love the new DTS's lights in the current refresh, a nice example of modern retro.

[AxelTheRed]

The wonton use of spoilers. Performance-oriented models make sense, but a bleeding Dodge Caravan doesn't need one!

[vonVeezelsnider]

Some clear taillights make me mad...

[pow]

Inappropriately chrome wheels!

[Flybrian]

Bulbous headlamp clusters.

Radio antennas from Nikko R/C cars. It doesn't look 'sporty'; it looks like you broke your regular antenna and bought this at PepBoys. Either stick on a mast or integrate into the glass.

Obnoxious fender repeaters.

Bulbous hoods to meet EUROCAP pedestrian regs. Not only is the mandate hillarious ignorant and stupid, but the cars that meet it are looking similar.

Enormous rear license plate cutouts designed to accomodate both American and incorrectly-sized foreign plates.

Huge asses that make 17" and 18" wheels look undersized (see M3/45, Passat, Avalon)

Whatever this color is...

...it needs to DIE.

[NOS2006]

Off-centered stripes

Off-centered hood bulges

Stereotype hybrids (that Prius, Insight, etc. look)

I'll help Sixty8 out:

Non-RWD proportions

Non-hardtops

Edited September 1, 2007 by NOS2006

[Chris_Doane]

Popped collars.

Edited September 1, 2007 by Chris_Doane

[Camino LS6]

[04monteintimidator]

the strange urge the seems to exist in every segment to produce a wagon variant of every single vehicle ever... why all the decklid hate?

retro done wrong... aka lazy... tracing a 1970s car and making it a bit smoother doesnt count for a whole new design...

the recent trend of trying to make every car look 'sporty'/'angry' sometimes it works (charger/lancer) sometimes hilarity ensues (camry)

Edited September 2, 2007 by 04monteintimidator

[Camino LS6]

I have to add slab-sided cars - let's see more sculpting!

[Oracle of Delphi]

Pontiac badges on Holdens!

[dimitri0917]

I hate frogginess...

Pouty grilles

Droopy Headlights

Slab Sides

Extremely wide look on a average height car

Six side windows

Green

Protruding fender flares

Wheels pushed to the extreme outside.

See Mini Cooper, Camry, Altima, or Taurus 500. Especially Altima... UGLY. no alibi.

[NINETY EIGHT REGENCY]

My list:

Sedans with that "Impala" six window design. The Taurus has it too. Put rear quarter windows on the rear doors again

Sedans without the quarter windows period.

Sedans or Cars or Trucks with on head light on each side of the grille instead of two for a quad headlight design. The biggest offenders Cadillac DTS and GMC Yukon. It makes the cars look bug eyed and economy car cheap.

No one putting the power seat controls on the door panels where they belong. It makes no sense to spend good money to stick your hand on the side of the seat. GM has become the biggest offender a long with others. The only cars with them on the doors or Lincoln Town Car, Grand Marquis, Crown Victoria, Mercedes Benz.

Cheap fabrics for base models that look and feel like the jacket you wear in bad weather

The fact every car maker thinks their midsized car needs to look like or act like a Camry or Accord. The Malibu and Aura and Fusion get away from that.

Awkward styling proportions or angles that do not look right they try to ask as body or black trim( see new Chrysler Sebring coupe and sedan and convertible)

The fact everyone puts a spoiler on the trunk, has bucket seats and floor shifters and analog gauges and think their car is special or different. Not every wants or needs these gimmicks. I welcome the new BMW 7 Series and Mercedes S Class and Jaguar because even though they have bucket seats, they put the shifter in a different for or place. Even if it is odd.

The fact every car maker sees the need to get a wider trunk opening buy using triangular tail lamps.

Too many cars with stacked headlights. This is not 1965...

Too many cars old and new with venti-ports. Leave this to Buick please.

Circular headlights in a plastic housing surround.

The excessive use of black trim on interiors and gray plastics.

de-contenting of vehicles.

three spoke steering wheels. I hate them with a passion. Not everyone is speed racer and I prefer the 4 spoke designs.

No original wheels anymore. There is more than a 5 spoke 5 lug nut wheel.

Buicks and Cadillacs and midlevel or luxury cars cars that have no stand up hood ornaments. The hoods look bare and cheap.

[Oracle of Delphi]

Popped collars.

NOS, that is so 1977!

[knightfan26917]

This pretty much sums it all up right here:[/img]

Good night shirt tail! What on earth is that?

Er, or don't I want to know?

*shudders*

This trend has been around a while, but the lack of color in interiors ... usually just black, grey or neutral (tan) these days ....

Cort:33swm."Mr Monte Carlo.Mr Road Trip".pig valve.pacemaker

WRMNshowcase.lego.HO.model.MCs.RT.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"I wanna drive" ... Trace Adkins ... '(Her Favorite Color Is) Chrome'

[K.C.]

Boy racer spoilers, Altezza taillamps, huge wing spoilers, fart cans, off set striping, headlamp covers

Elderly car styling that, thankfully, GM is getting away from.

Digital instrument clusters are annoying and distracting to people with ADD, thankfully those are gone too.

Those stupid rear fenders skirts that cover part of the back wheels.

Window lines that dip down and then up like on older cars.

Huge wheel gaps (I'm talkin about you HD Silverado /Sierra and Colorado/Canyon)

Bangled everything (well, except for the 5 series)

Bulbous styling with weak character lines (Toyota)

Hyundaish styling (new Honda Accord)

Taillamps that don't wrap into the trunk (Again, new Accord)

Anything with a massive amount of different shapes in one design (Aztec)

Edited September 2, 2007 by K.C.

[NINETY EIGHT REGENCY]

Digital instrument clusters are annoying and distracting to people with ADD, thankfully those are gone too.

Those stupid rear fenders skirts that cover part of the back wheels.

I will have to respectfully disagree with you there. You are entitled to your opinions too. There are no cars with fender skirts anymore, but my car has them. I prefer digital instrumentation to analog because analog is so boring to look at, and if I wanted needles and dials I can look at a watch or clock. The digital is not distracting to me at all. Quick easy glance and reading. I hate analog so much you have no idea... They are not gone though. You can get them in Lincoln Town Car, Grand Marquis, Crown Victoria, DTS and Holden Caprice/Statesman and Commodore. They might be in Pontiac G8 too. I am not sure.

[K.C.]

If the G8 has them, then I hope I can turn them off in mine. They bother me because I see the numbers moving and it messes with my ADHD.

I guess its the same for people who prefer digital watches to regular clocks. I prefer regular clocks.

[Camino LS6]

If the G8 has them, then I hope I can turn them off in mine. They bother me because I see the numbers moving and it messes with my ADHD.

I guess its the same for people who prefer digital watches to regular clocks. I prefer regular clocks.

If the GTO is any guide, the display will be redundant and switchable.

[K.C.]

Thats good news. I know that they were on my former partner's DTS. I hated those things, very distracting for me.

Thanks for the info bud.

[trinacriabob]

Good idea for a thread:

Smallish greenhouses (i.e, how the 04 + GP went vs. 97-03)...just not safe

Hefty C-pillars...again, just not safe

Bulbous, rounded lines (yes, that includes the Enclave)

Rear headrests on small cars that already are hard to see out of (just lived in a G6 for a week)

Aggressively bolstered bucket seats

Gray, tan and black interiors only, if that

Seat fabrics that are NOT soft to the touch

Blingy chrome tips on exhaust that stare you in the face

18" and 19" wheels and skinny tires

Engine deco shrouds that cover the ENTIRE engine bay

[ocnblu]

We need 4 cylinder Corvettes, more chrome and dimmer headlights... right now.

[Oracle of Delphi]

I hate wearing Kilts!

[ocnblu]

If you don't like the breeze, just put on some panty hose.

[CMG]

Egad-

*Cadillac late model headlights...

YACK!

*SS Cobalt boy racer rear spoiler

*Anything to do with styling like the Dodge MaxxCab concept of many moons ago....

(Honda Ridgline- are you watching?)

*Rear "mini" doors opening suicide style, especially on sedans where the front door HAS to be opened first.

*Big "bling" rims on huge SUVs. (They are NOT sports cars people! No need for a 30 series tire!)

*Plastic cladding galore on the outside of vehicles

*"Body kits" on mundane economical sedans

Edited September 2, 2007 by CMG

[trinacriabob]

*Cadillac late model headlights...

YACK!

Agree with your list, except for this. The general angularity of recent Cadillac models has increased their visual appeal...and sales.

Twenty years ago, would we have ever thought that 20- to 40-year olds would have aspired to an Escalade or CTS (true, those models didn't exist)...but to a Cadillac?

Cool. That's progress!

[NINETY EIGHT REGENCY]

A video of the STS with digital and analog gauges( previous generation):

[NOS2006]

NOS, that is so 1977!

You know about me popping my collar?! lol

But really, I haven't popped a collar in months...

[balthazar]

> panel seams used as styling elements.

> when a --say-- rectangular taillight's NorthEast corner just touches a side window's SouthWest corner... creates visual tension. SRX is one that does this.

> when the primary interior material is plastic- no atom-splitting degree of 'plastic quality' assessment can make up for the fact it's still the cheapest material possible.

> taillights that light up NOTHING like their overall shape. The worst here is easily volvo: 3-foot tall lenses and a 1.5" x 1.5" brake light. How stupid is that?

> 'repeater' signals on the front fenders.

> dual OUTLET exhaust tips on single exhaust cars (which is just about every one).

[Oracle of Delphi]

You know about me popping my collar?! lol

But really, I haven't popped a collar in months...

I know many things, I am der Börger after all.

[mrmonte]

Too much wind tunnel in a design (I hate to much aerodynamics)-not really new I just dont like it.

Big greenhouses-new Taurus, 500

Big bumper trim on new Chevy 2500's

No interior colors but tans and greys

[bobo]

Molding-less doors. It may look cleaner initially, but not after a few creases after being whacked by other cars.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

A few:

The cheap ass plugs used now on the base models now where the driving lights should be.

The warped, yet slightly pissed off looking grille that seems to be proliferating from the asian offerings.

The raised hood over the grille that steps down over the headlights. (Twas a good idea once, but is on almost EVERY frikkin' car now)

One door handle that is either lower or higher than the other (4 door cars)

Uneven exhaust tips (Mazda 6's seem to be really bad about this.. A friend has one and the left tip juts out further and hangs lower, so much so that I can see the difference when I drive down the road)

HUGE gaps between the tire and the body of the car... Cobalt developers; are you listening?

Edited September 4, 2007 by FUTURE_OF_GM

[Cory Wolfe]

Exterior:

-Headlight bulges.

-Separate side reflectors.

-Amber lenses.

-Single beam/unit head/taillights.

-Huge grills.

-Upright front fascias.

-Non-integrated panel seams.

-Bulky wheel flares

-Blocky bodies.

-Quarter windows on sedans.

-Fake vents.

-Plagiarized Retro.

-Mismatched styling themes.

-Lines without purpose.

-Ribs/bulges without purpose.

-Excessive wedge styling.

-Excessive fastback styling.

-Framed door glass.

-Bodyside molding.

-Oversized lights.

-Extreme cab-forward-ness.

-One-box styling.

-Overly bulbous styling.

-Fender skirts.

-Uncolored ground effects/bumpers/etc.

-Flat rear fascias.

-Rear spoilers on certain vehicles.

Interior:

-Two spoke steering wheels.

-Center mounted gauges.

-Non-flowing design.

-Excessive wood trim.

-Lack of 3/more gauges.

-Open storage areas.

-Symmetrical dash design.

-Random dash design.

-Open cup holders.

-Dash mounted shifters.

-Unimaginative design.

-Disintegrated center stack.

-Mismatched backlighting.

-Mismatched vents.

-Mismatched details.

-Unadorned door panels.

[CMG]

The new "heavy duty" Ford truck front end. What the heck are they thinking..???

[!!!TED!!!]

Segmented tailights. God I hate those. Such a stupid, unoriginal trend.

Some examples:

[!!!TED!!!]

...Those stupid rear fenders skirts that cover part of the back wheels...

I disagree.

If done right, skirted rear wheels give the cars body an elongated, more uniform and integrated look. I love GM cars with this feature, especially from the early nineties.

...Window lines that dip down and then up like on older cars...

If anything, we need more of that, The windowlines of cars are almost always a straight line now. How boring!

Need a little visual spice...

[Cory Wolfe]

I disagree.

If done right, skirted rear wheels give the cars body an elongated, more uniform and integrated look. I love GM cars with this feature, especially from the early nineties.

Wheel skirts are ugly. I don't care who you are.

Another thing I thought of that I didn't mention are trunk openings. There's no variation. Everything from a lowly Aveo to reserved for the rich Bentley has the same trunk opening. It's boring and taillight design suffers.