Honda = Not So Ugly

No photos here. Just pop yourself over to the Honda Site. While the Accord sedan is somewhat big these days, and the styling a little over worked, the coupe is quite nice in a "girl car" kinda way. I actually like girl cars, so I mean that in a good way. The Civics are good no matter how many doors you want. The new Fit is looking quite up to its name. Now, do they still make Pilots and Timberlines? 

(I saw a guy with a very dark colored Timberline today (do they come in light colors?). He had the car, the hairdo, the blond babe in the passenger side. Wow, I thought, that is so pre-recession! Although I am not sure if or when that particular hairdo was in style.)

The Element was supposed to be sorta ugly, so it hits the mark just fine. I even like that they are offering it with painted body panels, rather than so much black plastic. A little color never hurt anything.

Lessee, what else is there? Oddessy, whatever. No fun talking about mini-vans. The CRV, now that is a POS. Never understood what the point was. Can't really go off road. Gets crappy mileage on the road. It is dead for me. Same thing with Toyota RAV4 (logo looks more like RAVA. Check it out). And all those other things that are high, short, and look more like children's toys than actual cars for driving. 

And of course, lets not forget the S2000. Nothing wrong there. Nothing at all.

Nissan = Ugly

I have only a few words on this subject: Nissan Altima Coupe, Nissan Rogue, and yes, the Nissan Maxima.

Maybe it looked okay in the renderings, but it lost it when it became a real solid object. The volume of the rear window as it fades into the trunk, the character line that runs down the side, and the mash up angles within the rear facade all conspire to say this baby's mom was thinking about all the options in her early months.

Ok, can we start with the headlights. Not good. Generally speaking, barbed things are painful. This is no exception. Moving on, the protruding grill section of the front is quite the opposite. It looks like it was designed to absorb any incoming pedestrians, light poles, or buildings the car might happen on. Plain. Ugly. Acres of sheet metal with nothing to do.

Speaking of nothing to do, this piece of Japanese American Cheese is about as tasty as it sounds. There is no good angle from which to view this vehicle. None. You can throw three separate grill treatments at it, and it still has too much sheet metal up front. The designers let the wheel openings dictate the shape of the front of the car, which worked on the VW New Beetle, but not here. Must I go on?

The bright spots at Nissan? The Cube because it is so odd. The Z. And as I have said before, the Sentra still looks like a nice, tight package to me. And I look forward to the Versa update, if there is one.