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Another example is the grille area on a car. I think a large mouth-like grille gives the car a personality and can make the car look 'angry' or timid.

Even the Prius is now sporting a frowning, growl like grille.





It's just that desire to have your car be an extension of yourself. The same reason why knights would prefer a muscular horse. It was an extention of their 'manliness'.

As far as a long hood, i have read that this is subliminally suggestive of ones size below the belt. ( I have even read car reviews where the guy describes a particular cars long hood as such )

I think an extreme example of all of this is shown in the design of the Chevy Spark
Tiny wheels, an extremely high belt-line and a super narrow width make this car look as if you could kick it over.
Even with an 'angry' grille, the car just looks ridiculous.

Flared fenders and even a visual 'shoulder' above the wheels can give the car width and that pouncing, low slung look that cars like the Spark lack.

Look at the area above the rear wheels on the Camaro. There is that 'shoulder' that give the car a pouncing look



Look at the 'shoulder' area on the 2nd gen Prius . It's not there.

With the new design, there is a 'visual' shoulder line as well as a small flare :


And yet another example is the size of windows on cars. Large windows look like large eyes. Feminine and cute. Small squinty windows look 'mean'