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.

Design Theory 1: Small Is Where the Action Is

Theory:

Look at the designs from any manufacturer, and I find that their smaller cars are better looking. And by that, I mean more fun, distinctive, and a pure expression of a design theme. And yes, I think fun is important. Cars should be fun. Fun can be serious too, as in serious fun, as in what is probably the best looking car ever: The entire BMW 6 series. Even the new ones with that funny business going on out back. But my real favorite:

Evidence:

Toyota - Yaris looks better than a Corolla, Camry or Matrix.

Honda - The Civic is a more pure, clean design than the overly busy Accord.

Chevy - The Malibu sure is better than the Impala. (sure the Aveo and Cobalt are dogs, but there has to be some exceptions)

Caddilac - Their relatively small CTS looks better than any of their other beasts.

MINI - The regular Cooper, over the Clubman any day. I can't even look at that SUV prototype.

Mazda - The getting long in the tooth 3 is still better looking than the new 6. The 7 over the 9.

Ford - Fusion has a more aggressive look than the 500, I mean Taurus. And again, look no further than previous posts to find me railing against the Focus.

Nissan - I even like looks of the much maligned Sentra over the overworked Altima and Maxima.

BMW - I am a sucker for the aforementioned 6 series, and the Z4 coupe. I like the 1-series hatch, but the 3, 5, and 7 series all look way overworked to me. 

Audi and VW - All of them look pretty bad in the past few years with that huge gaping grill. It looks equally bad on the big ones and the small ones. Although, I could come around for an A5. Nice looking car, grill and all.

Mercedes - I confess: I cant tell them apart. Between confusing letter number combos, and so many models, I gave up a long time ago. There are some nice looking 2 door hardtops out there though that are pretty slick. 

Volvo, Lexus, Infiniti - All better in their smaller models. Period.

And then there are companies who dont make any good looking cars, big or small. Chrysler, I am looking at you. You too Saab, Lincoln, and Suburu.

Corollary:

When setting out to design a smaller car, there isn't as much room to put in a lot of bad stuff. The resulting design is more pure, and when well done, can be more powerful. And more fun!

Nissan: Hot or Not

Well it has been a little while, but I've been thinking about this subject for a while. Nissan is a company that not only has a great 6 cylinder engine, has a good design department. But they dont always hit it just right. Take the Maxima, thier top of the line sports-y lux-o sedan. This model has been around for a long time, through the years has kept up with the times technologically, even been a leader. However, the design of the car has had a varied degree of success. Early generations in the 80's and early 90's looked pretty good, but had an obvious Japanese look to them, especially compared to the American behemouths drifting around them on the road. But consider the more mature iterations:


1992-1994 (3rd Generation):

Hot. With an overall clean look, this car really seemed show Nissan was getting its design team in place. While this looks pretty generic now, I remember being impressed by the clean design where nothing appeared out of place. At a time when Pontiac as slathering their cars with ribbed cladding, scoops, and other unmentionables, this stood out as a better way to go.


4th Generation 1997-1999


Not too Hot. This gen brought in a more full body styling, with a more full look to the hood, the fenders and the roofline. At first I did NOT like it, but over the life of the body style I got to like it pretty well. I warmed up the generally muscular look, which wasnt over done.


5th Generation 2000-2003



Not. This iteration of the car just looked overweight and bulbous. It lost alot of its sporty look due to the high appearance of the roofline, and awkward treatment of the window shape around the c-pillar. The big random blob theory of design seems to have inspired the headlight and grill shapes as well. Take off those sporty wheels, and you have a gawky sedan.


6th Generation 2004-2008



Hot: This more recent design brings the Maxima back into good graces with a solid modern design that is not overly fussy. Certain details were fixed in the later years to help improve the original design, inculding removing the chrome nose guard in the grill, and subtle changes to the headlights. The one odd detail that always gets me is the tail lights (suprised?) that take me right back to a 1958 Impala.


7th Generation: 2009-?



Maybe... Am I alone on this? Did they go overboard? Those headlights just can't be for real. That alone makes me doubt the rest of the design. The ridges down the hood. The somewhat sinister looking grill shape. It seems odd. But the treatment of the doors and rear fenders looks promising. I'll have to wait to see it in person.


Need more? Consider the Sentra. This humble model held down the entry level spot for years, before being undercut by the Versa. But this model has a cinderella story all her own.


3rd Generation 1995-1999


Not so Hot. Not too bad, but no standing out in a crowd with this vehicle.


4th Generation 2000-2006



Definitely Not. What the hell happened. The Random Blob School got control of this redesign, and did not let go. While it may have grown and gotten some new upgrades, just do not look at this car or you will turn into a pillar of greehouse gasses.


5th Generation 200x-present



Hot. This model shows what a little transfusion from France can do. Ooo-la-la. Nissan is back in the saddle. We have family resemblance, style and a fun looking clean little car.

GM Hybrids: +2 MPG!

Poking around on AutoBlog Green, I saw that your nice new Chevy Malibu (and its fraternal twin, the Saturn Aura) both are offered with hybrid technology. Cool, I thought.

   

What is not so cool, is that for a $2500 upcharge on the Malibu, or $3500 on the Aura, you can look forward to an improvement in your gas milage of exactly 2 MPG. That is awesome. No wonder Toyota, Honda, and even Ford are actually selling hybrids. They actually deliver some benefit to the owner, and the planet. Even Nissan is getting into the act with a limited number of Altimas, with parts bought from Toyota. 

If GM is going to bother, they should be able to do better than a hybrid system that gets you 32 MPG vs. 30MPG delivered by their 4-banger. 

Hell, I've said it before, but my '95 Volvo gets 30 on the highway if you treat it nice. If you really want to save money, you can buy an older (and I mean ~1997) Volvo sedan with 100K miles (that means another 100K miles left in it) for about 2 grand. Get the wagon if that makes your pants tight. Think of all that metal and other resources you'd be re-using. That in its own way is pretty "green". And, you save some green on your next car purchase. 

If you want to save the planet, well, thats not so cheap. Just don't throw money away on GM hybrids.

Is Toyota the new Chevy?

Ok, for our first regular posting, lets fire up the way back machine...

Back in the '60s, when I was buying Hershey bars for a dime, it was the "Big 3", and then everyone else. Now, it is pretty much the reverse of that. Toyota is the new Chevy, aping the styling cues of its luxury cousins. Lets call Honda the new Ford, with its luxury divisions not quite ever getting it together. The new Ford (Honda) and the new Chevy(Toyota) still seem to be trading off who is winning the styling wars (personally, I am voting for Honda right now). And who gets to be the new Chrysler? Probably Nissan, since they have their "Imperial" line up all worked out now, and a bevy of trucks to boot. 

My point is that American cars are pretty irrelevant these days. Ford seems like those loose conglomerates of Britain, circa 1963: the Austin/Sunbeam/Healy mess that no one could ever keep straight who is in and who is out. GM might as well be the Toyota of those days, turning out odd looking vehicles that seem to linger in your peripheral vision. Not sure what the hell Chrysler is these days. Foreign cars are where the action is now. That part of the picture is kinda sad. Will these former greats make their comeback? Not if they keep turning out vanilla milkshakes on wheels.

The bright spot these days, is there seem to be more options to choose from. Gone are the small american independents, but we have an increase overall of makes available, giving us some great choices. The wierd thing is that Hyundai makes better looking cars than Chevy (yes, even the new Malibu), and Mazda made the greatest sales advances in '07, arguably a result of pretty good styling overall. 

Style-wise, the fun stuff is happening in the smaller car segments... Land-yacht and truck buyers are stuck wanting their Cordobas and 98's, with or without a cargo bed out back, regardless what it costs to send our boys to secure our energy future.  Oops, I wasnt gonna get political.