Petty design elements that you hate about otherwise great cars?

Recon1342 said:

Any of the current Lexus grilles.

The LC looks like such a fun car, and then they went and put a grille on the front end that puts a whale shark to shame.

 

I see "largemouth bass".

In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :

I blame the mid-Oughties Audi Trout Pout for starting this horrible grille crap:

If only we had known how much worse it could get.

In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 and Duke :

VolvoHeretic has a point too... 

Is it a grille? Or is it a strainer for small children and stray pedestrians?

Someone, it may have been Bob Lutz, referred to the design language of modern cars as 'angry appliances'.

I absolutely love Audi wagons and want to lust after the new RS 6 (not that I could afford one...) but the stock rims look too ginormous to me. Admittedly, I am old, but a 19" or even 20" may soften the Hot Wheels look to me. 

All the plastic in newer Porsche interiors.

Black wheels.  They look horrible on anything.  

In reply to Sonic :

Unless they have a polished rim to differentiate the wheel from the tire.

But I prefer no black wheels at all, with rare exceptions.

Trent said:

Mercedes putting two and sometimes three emblems within centimeters of each other

Drives me absolutely bonkers. I try not to get annoyed by it on the missus CLK but everytime it catches my eye I cringe

I could also add the whole "1930's chrome tombstone grill on an otherwise modern looking sedan" thing that Mercedes did for decades but they have moved past that it seems.

To be fair the grille on the w201 is a cheap aftermarket one but yeah that's silly.  I do think this looks good though.  

Old_Town said:

I absolutely love Audi wagons and want to lust after the new RS 6 (not that I could afford one...) but the stock rims look too ginormous to me. Admittedly, I am old, but a 19" or even 20" may soften the Hot Wheels look to me. 

 

The smallest that will fit over the front brakes is 21s -- they are freaking enormous brakes.

Rotiform makes a clone of the old AVUS wheels that came on 90s and early 2000s Audis.  IMHO these are the wheels Audi *should* have put on the car.  And they actually kind of did -- the 2025 RS6 GT has something very similar (although in white, rather than silver)

Beer Baron 🍺 said:

Recon1342 said:

Any of the current Lexus grilles.

The LC looks like such a fun car, and then they went and put a grille on the front end that puts a whale shark to shame.

 

I see "largemouth bass".

That style has been known as The Predator since day one.

In reply to Appleseed :

Another one- Now that everything is LED, chaser taillights (and front signal lights) are popping up on everything. 

They were cool on the Mustangs and Cougars in the '60s and '70s, but your lights just look like the circuit board is having a seizure.

In reply to Recon1342 :

If you are talking about the brake lights that blink a bunch of times every time you tap the brakes like the failing brake light switch of a 1997 Ford Crown Vic, then yes, that is SUPER annoying. Pair that with retina-searing LED lights and it makes me want to take a baseball bat to their taillights. I'm guessing this is the result of some sort of aftermarket pedal CANBUS device like a Pedal Commander or the like. I see this most on late model Nissans, especially Altimas and Talltimas (Rogues). 

 

The C8 Corvette. Not a good line on it.

Tony Sestito said:

In reply to Recon1342 :

If you are talking about the brake lights that blink a bunch of times every time you tap the brakes like the failing brake light switch of a 1997 Ford Crown Vic, then yes, that is SUPER annoying. Pair that with retina-searing LED lights and it makes me want to take a baseball bat to their taillights. I'm guessing this is the result of some sort of aftermarket pedal CANBUS device like a Pedal Commander or the like. I see this most on late model Nissans, especially Altimas and Talltimas (Rogues). 

 

Believe it or not that's usually a dealer add-on. When I was at audi we had to wire those things into almost every new car. I can't remember the name of them but it purposefully would blink the CHMSL a few times when the pedal was pressed. I think later on it could be coded in with the factory software though.

einy (Forum Supporter) said:

It annoys me that the Chevy Bolt has some generic looking (to me at least) geometrical pattern visible in the brake / tail lights when they light up, instead of a series of lightning bolts.  Seems like a completely wasted visual opportunity to me.

 

Likely a PR decision to not have a pair of lightning bolts on the back of a car.

Thanks for ruining the ATSV for me Puddy. It's like someone plopped a Catera gauge cluster in there. 

Actually came here to comment the opposite end of that spectrum: floating gauge screen panel things in interiors. I get that there's cool stuff on the displays, and I don't have a problem with a digital dash, but at least try to integrate it. 

This, from the new M5, is what I don' t like: 

Vs this Mustang cluster as an example, which just looks so much better integrated.

Duke said:

In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :

I blame the mid-Oughties Audi Trout Pout for starting this horrible grille crap:

If only we had known how much worse it could get.

 

On this, hear me out: It looks like Snoopy. 

gearheadE30 said:

Thanks for ruining the ATSV for me Puddy. It's like someone plopped a Catera gauge cluster in there. 

Actually came here to comment the opposite end of that spectrum: floating gauge screen panel things in interiors. I get that there's cool stuff on the displays, and I don't have a problem with a digital dash, but at least try to integrate it. 

This, from the new M5, is what I don' t like: 

Vs this Mustang cluster as an example, which just looks so much better integrated.

That's a last-gen Mustang. I liked that interior a lot. 

On the current-gen car, the designers drank the same tainted Kool-Aid as the BMW folks. 



I don't like this trend of making everything a big tablet. I don't hate the digital gauges, but do hate the implementation. 

Just me?

In reply to crankwalk (Forum Supporter) :

First time I saw the Hyundai on the highway I was approaching it from a distance and I thought it was some variation of JDM minivan with the vertical squarish gate and rectangular taillights. 

This jog down in the side glass drives me absolutely up the wall. Not that I should care on a mini van I'll never own, but there you go.

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

Thank you. That one has puzzled and irritated me ever since I first saw it. It's hard to guess what they were going for. The result is sort of a reverse coke bottle effect that just isn't flattering. 

Always thought the Honda design was controlled by need for side air bags, and opening the sliding door.