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Old 08-14-2012, 05:12 PM   #15 (permalink)
Cd
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In all honesty, I think a lot of economy cars are ' ugly ' because the manufacturers try to target them to young women ( macho men buy pickups right ? )
They style them to look like cartoon cars with ungainly proportions : tiny wheels and huge tall windows .
They then raise the car which draws even more attention to the small wheels which look like spindly legs.

A good example being the first generation Prius, the Echo, late geo metros etc.

And speaking of the Prius, I still have never found that car attractive.

Am I the only one that sees it as too BOXY ? ( the second generation )
Yes ! That's right - boxy. From the side the profile is ok around the windshield to hood , but from the front ? Boxy !

I would speculate that Toyota designed the fist generation Prius to appeal to women, then were surprised to see that men were buying the car too. These men probably fit the stereotype of new adapters that like to be seen, so Toyota designed the 2nd to look totally different from most any car on the road - making it intentionally ' odd' to stand out ( much like the Nissan " Cube " of today )
With sales of the 2nd generation so great, Toyota was surprised . The demographic had changed and now ' average ' people were buying the car - so Toyota started working to ' de ugly ' the car for the 3rd generation.
That's my speculation.
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