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Car makers have long talked about the "face" of a car - headlights for eyes, grille for a mouth and the bumper as jaws - and auto designers say the difference between a hit and a flop may come down to a vehicle's visage. Car makers used to strive for an inviting face, but lately they're pushing an edgier look: Car faces that look meaner, angrier and, at times, even downright evil.
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Oh, a mean looking mini van. Now that would be a hit!
Posts: 332 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Jan 2006
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Joe Bentley
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
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quote:Originally posted by Nicki: Oh, a mean looking mini van. Now that would be a hit!
Ahhh no it wouldn't
Joe "It's the Schick Electric Razor Car!" Bentley
-------------------- "Existence has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long." - Rorschach, The Watchmen Posts: 8929 | From: Norfolk, Virginia | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
It's funny that this issue has been brought to light. I have always had some sort of issue with seeing cars that have been in front-end accidents - especially if the headlights are broken. For some reason, I equate that image with a shattered skull of some kind. It's always disturbed me, but at least I'm not alone in the whole... seeing faces in cars thing.
-------------------- I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it. Posts: 40 | From: Magical Delaware | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
Somewhat of a hijack, but my 1997 Camry looks confident but not agressive. End hijack.
Moeko's "Life? Where do I get one of those?" Owl
-------------------- We are all equal, be it before the eyes of God, or for our own sake. We are all worthy of the same fundamental rights, freedoms, and, protections. Mindless hatred is unjustifiable. -Squoval Posts: 320 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
Chuck Jordan, former head of Chevy design, once commented on a proposed front end for the C5 Corvette. It had the fresh air grills on the front slightly tipped up at the ends. His comment was something like "That looks like it's smiling at me. When a Corvette comes up behind you, it shouldn't say 'Hi!', it should say 'get outta my way!"
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
This is exactly why I hate the restyled BMWs. They went way beyond "aggressive" to the point where the car just looks really pissed off.
-------------------- "Unseasonable is an odd word to begin with. It sounds like it's describing something that it's impossible to sprinkle pepper on." -- Nonny Posts: 5483 | From: Just south of Folsom Prison, CA | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
I always get this urge to hug and kiss VW Bugs because they look so happy, like they're smiling.
My old maroon thunderbird had been described as having the same facial expression as me when I'm watching someone do something really stupid.( not my car, but same body )
ETA I ment "kiss"! Not "kill"!
-------------------- "I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, EVIL stuff... and I want in."- Homer Simpson Posts: 2161 | From: Delaware | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I think my Saturn looks confused or maybe it's just bored. Could be annoyed, I haven't cleaned it in awhile.
Posts: 30 | From: Martinsburg, WV | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
My car says "I'm ugly and I know it. Please kill me now."
-------------------- "There is no constitutional right to sleep with endangered reptiles." -- Carl Hiaasen Won't somebody please think of the adults! Posts: 8254 | From: Florida | Registered: Oct 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Nocturnal Goddess: The Bittersweet: I always get this urge to hug and kiss VW Bugs because they look so happy, like they're smiling.
Bugs are cute. Besides a New Beetle 'Herbie' lookalike, we've got a Beetle in town that has a giant wind-up key on the trunk lid in place of the VW symbol (some here might be old enough to remember the days before batteries powered everything). The key actually turns when she drives. On any other car, it'd look stupid, but somehow on the Bug, it works.
Delta-'German Engineering is in da House'-V
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
I think my 'buggy'('05PTCruiser) looks happy. Maybe it's just because I smile when I look at it?
-------------------- Contact me for discounts Charter member WNDMDC "I am putting you on hold now.Listen to the elevator music and LIKE it."~My 'J' Posts: 1816 | From: NE, Oregon | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Nocturnal Goddess: The Bittersweet: I always get this urge to hug and kiss VW Bugs because they look so happy, like they're smiling.
Bugs are cute. Besides a New Beetle 'Herbie' lookalike, we've got a Beetle in town that has a giant wind-up key on the trunk lid in place of the VW symbol (some here might be old enough to remember the days before batteries powered everything). The key actually turns when she drives. On any other car, it'd look stupid, but somehow on the Bug, it works.
Delta-'German Engineering is in da House'-V
Oh that sounds just adorable! I used to have a clockwork old-style beetle when I was younger... feel free to PM some pics!
ETA I think there may be something to the "meaner" car faces. My boyfriend has told me, repeatedly, that, no matter how much I may love them, and even though he *loves* the old-style beetle, he refuses get a new style beetle, due to the fact that they're "cutesy chick cars".
Edited to make sence
-------------------- "I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, EVIL stuff... and I want in."- Homer Simpson Posts: 2161 | From: Delaware | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Whenever I see a Chrysler 300C, I always think it's grille was going to eat me.
-------------------- In politics, absurdity is not a handicap - Napoleon Bonaparte Posts: 1801 | From: The Forest City, Ontario | Registered: Dec 2005
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I have a 60 second snack idea for Rachel (Ray): Xanax, vodka, fall asleep.--Adrianne Frost, Best Week Ever. Posts: 2374 | From: Naw-fik, VA y'all | Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
I'm planning to trade in for a Honda Voldemort just as soon as they're available.
-------------------- "No hard feelin's and HOPpy New Year!"--Walt Kelly Hear what you're missing: ARTC podcasts! http://artcpodcast.org/ Posts: 7581 | From: Gainesville, Georgia | Registered: Jun 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Delta-V: His comment was something like "That looks like it's smiling at me. When a Corvette comes up behind you, it shouldn't say 'Hi!', it should say 'get outta my way!"
When the Neons came out, one of the ad campaigns featured the slogan: "Hi!" My friend commented, like in your story, a car shouldn't say "hi", it should say "what are you looking at?"
-------------------- Come on, come on - spin a little tighter Come on, come on - and the world's a little brighter Posts: 5595 | From: Columbus, OH : The Soccer Capital of America | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I call the Subaru Tribeca the "Hannibal Lecter" car because its face looks like it's wearing Hannibal's mask.
There's no doubt in my mind that the face-like appearance of cars started out as accidental, but, because our caveman danger sense psychologically predisposes us to discerning the human form in everything from clouds to shadows to trees, it's only expected that people would start noticing faces in cars. Eventually, car manufacturers were bound to obsess on this subtlety and integrate it into their subliminal marketing.
The next big thing will be to make the engines roar more agressively, or even sound like specific animals. And also, the horn sound could be made more agressive or even made to operate on the same waveform as a fire truck siren to make it subliminally sound more safe. However, I've always wondered why the Ferarri Testarosa's horn sounds so wimpy.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who do not.
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" - The Brain Posts: 587 | From: Colorado | Registered: Jul 2000
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Joe Bentley
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
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quote:Originally posted by chillas: When the Neons came out, one of the ad campaigns featured the slogan: "Hi!" My friend commented, like in your story, a car shouldn't say "hi", it should say "what are you looking at?"
A friend of mine says her Neon looks like the talking Claymation car from the Chevron ads
-------------------- "Existence has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long." - Rorschach, The Watchmen Posts: 8929 | From: Norfolk, Virginia | Registered: Jun 2002
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quote:Originally posted by TwoGuyswithaHat: Whenever I see a Chrysler 300C, I always think it's grille was going to eat me.
Those cars always remind me of Dick Cheney. Since I've always believed that the target audience for these cars would be Neo-Cons, I guess that's a good thing.
Posts: 1651 | From: Columbus, Ohio | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Grand Illusion: The next big thing will be to make the engines roar more agressively, or even sound like specific animals.
Next? Car makers have been tuning exhaust sounds since at least the 1960's. Plenty of cars are tuned to roar at wide-open throttle. Many are tuned to purr at idle. Of course, it's hard to get a 4-banger to sound like anything but a bumble-bee.
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
I've alwas thought my Saturn SL2 looks like an angry anime cat. But I'm weird like that.
-------------------- "In the harsh light of day, your plans seem crude and childish, making it all the more obvious that you need a good planning lamp." >Liquor in the front, poker in the rear< Posts: 424 | From: Edina, Minnesota | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
Re: the sound of horns, I always giggle when my SO honks the horn in his truck. It's a midsized Ford Ranger XLT decked out with all this stuff to make it look rugged but the horn is just wimpy. Kind of like hearing Mike Tyson talk, the sound just doesn't match the body.
-------------------- "I'm a leaf in the wind" New Lungs for George Posts: 2719 | From: the other Portland (US) | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Originally posted by clemtinker: I think my Saturn looks confused or maybe it's just bored. Could be annoyed, I haven't cleaned it in awhile.
My Saturn has the old body style. It doesn't really have much of a facial expression at all, so I guess bored works pretty well. That body style also has a pointy nose.
-------------------- "Unseasonable is an odd word to begin with. It sounds like it's describing something that it's impossible to sprinkle pepper on." -- Nonny Posts: 5483 | From: Just south of Folsom Prison, CA | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
The two cars that I've seen that I judge being sick have to be the 2004 BMW 5 Series car with a curved eye lid to make it mad, and 1998 or 1999 Hyundai Elantra with the tail lights looking like a woman's eyes staring back at you everytime it lights up.
-------------------- Joseph Z Posts: 1356 | From: Woodbridge, VA | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by TwoGuyswithaHat: Whenever I see a Chrysler 300C, I always think it's grille was going to eat me.
Those cars always remind me of Dick Cheney. Since I've always believed that the target audience for these cars would be Neo-Cons, I guess that's a good thing.
quote:Originally posted by 24Kit Kat[/e]: One of the reasons Bob wanted to buy my Acura TLwas its aggressive expression.
Aggressive? My DH2B drives a TL... I've always thought it had a "Come hither" stare, if you know what I mean.
Count me among the 05PTCruiser drivers. I think it has a confidently cheerful-verging-on-giddy face, like a teenager with a crush.
-------------------- "In perfume, as in underwear, the scantiest of applications provides the greatest of returns." -Silas Sparkhammer Posts: 858 | From: Arlington, Texas | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Delta-V: Chuck Jordan, former head of Chevy design, once commented on a proposed front end for the C5 Corvette. It had the fresh air grills on the front slightly tipped up at the ends. His comment was something like "That looks like it's smiling at me. When a Corvette comes up behind you, it shouldn't say 'Hi!', it should say 'get outta my way!"
I like that.
Robbiev -mine says, "Don't bother. I'll be past you momentarily"- 427
-------------------- Every time I see a good looking woman, I think, "0oooh. There's another one I'll never have!"
Corvette. The louder you scream, the faster I'll go. Posts: 1820 | From: Memphis, TN | Registered: Sep 2005
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