My biggest takeaway from a trip to the 2024 Seattle auto show last week was how automakers continue to try to out outdo each other in making their cars and trucks looks scary.
Why? Clotaire Rapaille, arguably the originator of the scary-looking vehicle, posits that car buyers tend to make decisions based upon their “reptilian brain,” which controls basic survival instincts. People most seek freedom from fear, according to Rapaille. A scary-looking car signals to others on the road, “Don’t mess with me” (Peretti, 2014).
It’s not an accident that the scariest-looking cars are often large trucks and sport-utility vehicles. It gives the motorist “superiority in a very dangerous world,” Rapaille has argued. The Hummer epitomizes this trend. “It’s a weapon,” he told The Guardian. “If you want to bump into me I’m going to crush you and I’m going to kill you” (Peretti, 2014).
What does the auto industry’s latest weaponry look like? The good news is that automakers have not yet put machine guns on the roofs of their cars as Rapaille has cheekily suggested (go here for further discussion). The bad news is that scary cars still dominate the industry. In this article let’s focus on the Japanese automakers, who have been among the biggest champions of scary cars.
Toyota continues to lead the scary face parade
Toyota Motor Corporation’s Lexus brand continues to be an industry leader in the scary look. The brand has so many candidates for the Scary Face of the Year Award that I find it hard to pick one.
Will it be the sheer massiveness of the LX (first image below), the industrial blockiness of the GX (second image), or the vaguely shark-like RX?
Meanwhile, the Toyota brand continues to do its part to scare the motorists of America. The latest-generation Tundra (first image below) has been around for a while, but I am still taken aback by its brutalistic — and plasticky — design (go here for further discussion).
Toyota’s newer models have been a mixed bag. The bZ4X (second image) is a remarkably ugly car that looks like it was designed by someone on an acid trip. Yet the latest-generation Prius is one of the most aesthetically pleasing passenger cars currently on the American market.
Toyota clearly has some good designers — the question is whether they are hamstrung by advice from consultants like Rapaille.
Nissan goes for a bit more swoopiness in its fascias
In recent years Nissan hasn’t been quite as aggressive in its styling as Toyota but has tilted more toward scary than Honda. Among its newest models, the Frontier pickup has the blocky sculpting of a Tonka toy but the Pathfinder SUV (first image below) has a more rounded and swept-back fascia. The three-port slits at the top of the grille add a measure of distinctiveness to a design that otherwise has a fairly generic expanse of multi-colored plastic. The “don’t mess with me” vibe is more subdued than with Toyota’s SUVs.
The Nissan Kicks is a bit less imposing, but its lack of traditional headlights gives it an otherworldly quality (second image). Perhaps that would be particularly appealing to immigrants from Mars.
Meanwhile, the Rogue appears to be more aerodynamic than the other two while still maintaining a family resemblance. I’m not sure whether the look is more of a frown or a sneer.
Honda mostly tries to look scarier but hedges its bets
Honda arguably been the least aggressive of Japan’s Big Three automakers in its styling, but it has been inching in the same general direction as Toyota and Nissan. For example, the Pilot SUV (first image below) has an imposing vertical grille with a huge logo swimming in an industrial-strength mesh grille.
Contrast that with the friendly face of the entry-level HR-V (second image). Is the implication here that less affluent people are more neighborly?
Among Honda’s passenger cars, the Accord has an aggressive, forward-thrusting look. However, it still has less if a sci-fi vibe than Toyota’s Camry.
Subaru sort-of tries to be more macho
Subaru has been one of the most “beta” brands in the American market, but it is also shifting toward a more macho look. A case in point is the front end of the Legacy (first image below), which has an assemblage of crevasses and odd angles that make it look menacing.
In comparison, the new Forester’s front end comes off as plain, but it has an excessively blocky shape (second image). I wonder whether the consultants told the designers that the Forester MUST have a large and almost vertical grille to be considered a credible SUV.
The entry-level Impreza is filled with lots of angular sculpting but its fascia is relatively clean and aerodynamic for a contemporary Japanese car. Perhaps the attitude at Subaru is that you have to pay more for a scary car.
Mazda is out of compliance with industry groupthink
Last — and in this case least — is Mazda. Here we have a Japanese automaker that has largely side-stepped the scary-car craze. This can be most obviously seen in the refreshingly clean Miata sports car, but even the brand’s SUVs have relatively friendly front ends.
The CX-30 (image below) may have the happiest face, with a nicely tapered snout and a delicate grille that harkens back to the good-old days, when men were men and cars didn’t look like armored tanks, space ships or weird bugs right out of a sci-fi comic book.
I would imagine that as you are reading this some consultant is trying to convince Mazda’s management that it is out of step with industry design trends — and that to get back in the game it needs to not just catch up, but come out with styling that is even scarier than Toyota’s.
Will management ignore such advice? Or will Mazda’s vehicles someday look virtually indistinguishable from the competition?
Of course, our tour of Japanese automakers is not exhaustive, but I think it offers a decent overview. Some highly paid people are convinced that your reptilian brain can be manipulated into buying their products. Did they get that right?
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RE:SOURCES
- Peretti, Jacques; 2014. ” This article is more than 10 years old SUVs, handwash and FOMO: how the advertising industry embraced fear.” The Guardian. Posted July 6.
Are the Japanese styling designs any worse than some of the gawd-awful designs that came out of Ford’s styling studios in the 1950s ?
…or Virgil Exner in the early sixties!
I can’t stand the Lexus spindle (corset) grille. The latest Prius is better than the previous one. Mazda has a big advantage: Soul Red paint.
Now on to BMW for some scary buck toothed front ends! They make one almost forget the “Bangle Butt.”
Although some of them remind me of the front end of the 1961 Plymouth Belvedere/Fury.
Every time I see a RAV4 coming towards me, I’m expecting an attack by the Storm Troopers. I wonder what was going through the mind of the owner, to purchase such a hideous vehicle. I know I like to joke about SUVs really being UAVs (Urban Assault Vehicles), but it seems Toyota took that idea on board and ran with it. They make me feel vaguely ill.
Styling would stop me buying a current Toyota. Maybe I have an unusually low ugliness threshold. But fortunately we have Mazda, as a thoroughly credible, and superior, option, a brand whose looks need no apologies. I can no longer drive, but my last car was a Mazda.