Jap cars?

Author
Discussion

giblets_

Original Poster:

283 posts

110 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Stupid thought but I've always wondered why a lot of Jap cars are styled so....well..bland? Obviously, there are a few exceptions out there that are still beautiful cars but if you look in the market now, there are some truly horrendous things out there. The new Prius, being one of them.

I'm just wondering, what is it with the Japs? Surely if they were to combine an Italian/German car designer with their Japanese build quality, they would have a potential market leader on their hands?


Alex_225

6,234 posts

200 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
There are certainly some nice Japanese motors out there but some are very odd looking things.

I get the impression with some motors that parts of the car are designed separately. Like one team deals wit the tail lights, another the head lights, someone else the door handles and then they bung it all together afterwards. So it doesn't flow very well.

There's a few 'classic' Japanese cars like the GTRs, Supras etc but personally a lot of them don't do much for me in terms of looks.

JoeMarano

1,042 posts

99 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
I think it's part cultural. Japanese are not known for beauty and such whereas the Italians and French are beautiful to look at witb beautiful cities and buildings. I get the impression Japs make stuff properly for it to serve it'd purpose whereas Europeans go all arty farty and the like

Toyoda

1,557 posts

99 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Suppose it depends which Jap cars you're looking at. With performance models drying up, there's still a few good looking cooking models about e.g. the Jazz Si, the Nissan Note Black Edition with the Dynamic Styling pack. This is the sort of angular styling that screams Jap to me.





routari

157 posts

117 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
They had some nice things going in the 90's, now all you see over there are weirdly styled boxes for the city.

rodericb

6,657 posts

125 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Too right. Koreans and Chinese too. Look how Kia has come along now that they have a bunch of Europeans in design. I don't know how Koreans like their Kias now that the designs have changed......

AshBurrows

2,552 posts

161 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Asian markets favour technical looking, "complicated" vehicles at the moment which wouldn't be considered beautiful by European markets if that's what you mean.

Leins

9,418 posts

147 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
giblets_ said:
Surely if they were to combine an Italian/German car designer with their Japanese build quality, they would have a potential market leader on their hands?
They tried it before, but got the responsibilities a bit lost in translation somehow


mikemike08

1,609 posts

93 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Surelly jap cars are anything but bland ?

LP670

819 posts

125 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
mikemike08 said:
Surelly jap cars are anything but bland ?
thats how i see it too, the audi range is what i call bland. they all look the same just in different scales

giblets_

Original Poster:

283 posts

110 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
LP670 said:
thats how i see it too, the audi range is what i call bland. they all look the same just in different scales
Maybe bland was the wrong term to use, but can you honestly say you look at a new Prius or a Bog spec civic and go "corrr that's beautiful". The Type R civic, whilst quite "loud" looking, is handsome from certain angles. But let's be honest, the majority of these Jap cars are woefully boring to look at/sit in.

I did say in the original post that there are/were some Jap cars that are still very pretty for today's time. But overall, it's a real shame.

neil1jnr

1,460 posts

154 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
LP670 said:
mikemike08 said:
Surelly jap cars are anything but bland ?
thats how i see it too, the audi range is what i call bland. they all look the same just in different scales
+3

Toyoda

1,557 posts

99 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
giblets_ said:
Maybe bland was the wrong term to use, but can you honestly say you look at a new Prius or a Bog spec civic and go "corrr that's beautiful". But let's be honest, the majority of these Jap cars are woefully boring to look at/sit in.

So who would you say makes much better looking cars? The latest Civic isn't my cup of tea either but at least it's a bit different. The new Astra is hideous, the Focus somewhat 'staid', Golf/Leon/A3 etc utterly bland. The Pulsar continues the angular theme I mentioned above and has a half decent engine to match. Other than the GT86, current Toyotas are pretty bland though.


SonicShadow

2,452 posts

153 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
giblets_ said:
LP670 said:
thats how i see it too, the audi range is what i call bland. they all look the same just in different scales
Maybe bland was the wrong term to use, but can you honestly say you look at a new Prius or a Bog spec civic and go "corrr that's beautiful".
Same with 'bog spec' cars from the vast majority of manufacturers regardless of country of origin

HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
I think that since the very beginning of Japanese mass manufactured motor cars the west has been leading and the east following, when it comes to styling at least. Left to their own devices they will come up with some properly out there designs but when they are designing anything to sell in significant numbers on the domestic market and overseas they come over all conservative and produce a poor facsimile of a European or American car.

giblets_

Original Poster:

283 posts

110 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Toyoda said:
So who would you say makes much better looking cars? The latest Civic isn't my cup of tea either but at least it's a bit different. The new Astra is hideous, the Focus somewhat 'staid', Golf/Leon/A3 etc utterly bland. The Pulsar continues the angular theme I mentioned above and has a half decent engine to match.
I'm going to get slated like hell for this but I actually do think that Mercedes are currently doing a top job of their vehicle design..But then again the new IS300H Lexus is a proper nice looking thing IMO. If we're talking hatchbacks/saloons - Look at the new Mondeo, Passat and XE. All very nice looking cars. Then you have the Avensis/Prius which look like bloated insects.

SturdyHSV

10,083 posts

166 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
I believe it's a trait whereby they like to focus and find beauty in small details as opposed to our preference to take an overall view.

Add in their space limitations and presumably taxation regime etc. and their taste will have developed differently over the decades of domestic car production.

Sometimes they nail it though, for 1993 and 1991 respectively, these are pretty excellent designs that (many people think) look good even now (used Wiki images to try and avoid modified examples)





I'm sure someone will now point out that they were designed by a European? hehe

f1nn

2,692 posts

191 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Yep, I'd say the RX7, and also the MK2 MR2 are incredibly good looking designs. The RX7 to my eyes at least, is probably the best looking car to come out of Japan, and a rival to anything Europe produced in the early 90's. I'm talking the early
cars before everything went predictably Japanese and ever more aggressive in susbsequent revisions.

Both the cars I've mentioned, with a little bit of tinkering here and there, would not look out of place if they were launched today, which is the biggest compliment you can pay to what is 25 year old design (and the rest!) IMO.

shakotan

10,679 posts

195 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Ironic that PH censors the word but still happily allows the term J*p...

cib24

1,115 posts

152 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
f1nn said:
Yep, I'd say the RX7, and also the MK2 MR2 are incredibly good looking designs. The RX7 to my eyes at least, is probably the best looking car to come out of Japan, and a rival to anything Europe produced in the early 90's. I'm talking the early
cars before everything went predictably Japanese and ever more aggressive in susbsequent revisions.

Both the cars I've mentioned, with a little bit of tinkering here and there, would not look out of place if they were launched today, which is the biggest compliment you can pay to what is 25 year old design (and the rest!) IMO.
I couldn't agree more about the RX-7. It's a timeless design and still looks fantastic today, in particular the 99-spec versions with the revised bumpers and rear spoiler. But they couldn't sell one today even if they wanted to in particular due to pedestrian safety regulations. The hood line on these cars are so ridiculously low and obviously pop ups wouldn't work either despite how cool they are.