Automakers can call their new styling gimmicks whatever they want to, but it won’t change the fact that many of the newer designs are strikingly ugly. In all fairness, I’ll cut them a little slack for taking risks, a welcome change from every new car looking the same, but come on!

Automakers can call their new styling gimmicks whatever they want to, but it won’t change the fact that many of the newer designs are strikingly ugly. In all fairness, I’ll cut them a little slack for taking risks, a welcome change from every new car looking the same, but come on! Do they really have to make cars so completely hideous?

What happened to being original and stylish at the same time? Some of these newer designs seem like automakers are playing a joke on consumers. I can almost hear them giggling and saying, “Let’s design the most off the wall car, truck, or SUV that we can come up with and see how many people with more money than sense will buy one.”

Of course, some of the newer models are a good value because of good gas mileage, highly rated performance, or name recognition associated with reliability, but why can’t they look as good as they perform?

Most of us remember when Pontiac tried to market their wares to younger generations (including mine) with the slogan, “This isn’t your father’s Oldsmobile.” Well, automakers today have taken the generation gap to a new level.

Speaking of Pontiac, the retro looking PT Cruiser was a hit because of its styling, but there is no clear reason why they were able to sell even one Aztek, a boxy, strange looking, truly ugly sports vehicle. They obviously didn’t sell too many of them, because the Aztek seems to be discontinued.

So, why make something so ugly? There seems to be a love it/hate it mentality amongst car buyers today, according to J.D. Powers and Associates, and automakers are catering to the younger consumers’ love of all things dramatic. I hate to break it to them, but by doing so, they may have gone too far to the extreme and created vehicles that will turn off more buyers than they turn on.

Still, these unique (and ugly) vehicles often sell at high-end prices, allowing manufacturers to make a great deal of money from peculiar, obscure styling instead of real innovation in regard to working parts.

In the effort to avoid all things beige and bland, some young, “hip” consumers actually purchase ugly cars just because they are so different. Unfortunately, for those pushing extreme styling, the rise in gas prices may lead buyers to look for more fuel-efficient cars instead of these whacky new styles, which could put a quick end to radically ugly car designs.

This is good news for those of us that prefer stylish lines and real features in the cars we buy. Not that we’re happy about gas prices, but it sure will be nice to see cars that look like cars instead of looking like something a small child drew up. Do what you want, but I refuse to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a car that offers me nothing but ugly.

If automakers are so desperate for style, they should take a walk down memory lane and create new versions of some of their most popular styles from the past. You know, go “retro.”

I’d be willing to bet that even the hippest of the hip could appreciate a brand new car styled like a classic, and manufacturers would be assured of making big bucks. They could seduce “mature” consumers along with Generation Y, and most of all, cars would be something to look at again.