Tue 29 Nov 2005
Make no mistake, this is a rant. As if the current Mitsubishi Magna isn’t a bad enough example or corporate turd polishing to make an outdated square fit into a round market peg hole, now Audi are doing it too! Enough of the corporate rhinoplasty already!
Cars for years have had similar elements without having the same front across the range and have done well for it. In the early nineties, put a Bluebird next to an R33 sedan and you see a resemblance. Or the BMW range all had their distinctive kidney grille without having the same everything across the range. Their was a family resemblance, but no ghastly hand me downs.
Mitsubishi, Audi and GM are by far the worst corporate nose job offenders. WHY did Mitsu’ feel the need to made EVO 8 have such a god damned ugly nose the same as their Pajero 4WD? Sure some of this is subjective but cars are not about a corporate ethos, they are about reflecting the attidude of the individual. Frankly I think the Evo 6 and 7 are far better, butcher looking rides than the Evo 8 which looks like a lopsided plaster paris experiment gone wrong. The Pajero and Evo are strengths to the badge but disparate and exclusive; symbiotic but siblings that don’t need (or want) to share the same limelight.
GM are becoming offenders with their Saab grille on the Saabaru and their new Saab SUV. Audi have this atrocious grille, albeit subjective, I loathe the bastard.
Loathed to admit to it as I am, perhaps Honda and BMW do it best and everyone else is just trying too hard. An S2000 and an Accord go together. So too a Z4 and the X5. You look at these cars and you know who makes them. They’re subtle and the rest are overt. And subtlety speaks volumes in enduring style.