Many people get snookered into buying a fancy-looking car without realizing one important thing. You only get to enjoy the snazzy body styling during one particular time—finding and getting into your car. All the rest of the time, you are in the car, or leaving the car. Can you enjoy the snazzy EXTERIOR styling from the INSIDE of it? No. Can you enjoy the snazzy exterior styling while walking away, back to the car? No—(unless you give yourself an uncomfortable crick in the neck and are willing to run the risk of colliding with hard objects and complete strangers while not watching where you are walking). Because of this, for me it is far more worthwhile to appreciate OTHER PEOPLE’S cars. Thus, when I see a new car model coming out with exceptionally attractive styling, I look forward to seeing it populating the roads because then I’ll get to see it often, and each sighting will give me a little thrill of surprise and delight.
On another matter, I believe that car designers need to understand the most important places for a car to have its best styling touches is the sides and back. I was looking at a picture of a new model car today and it struck me that all the appeal was concentrated on the front end, with the sporty shark-like shape of the hood and headlights. It was all in the nose. But the sides were lackluster, and I couldn’t see the back. I supposed that it was a PR photo that was playing up the best angle to drive sales, if you'll pardon the pun. But I realized that in the real world, drivers and passengers don’t spend much time looking at the front end. Drivers see the front ends of cars usually only in the rear-view mirror, and even then, not for very long, since they have to go back to watching the road in front. However, passengers get plenty of time to see the sides of a car and the back end of a car. And the driver sees the TAIL end of the cars in front of him/her for a good long time. It follows then, that if the styling of the back and the sides is excellent, the car will be a great advertisement for itself on the streets where it is driven every day.
