A blog devoted to RANTS ON AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN, car reviews, and - above all - fugly autos. whether looking for vehicular plagiarism or rides of extreme tastelessness, you've come to the right place.


Sunday, February 21, 2010

Attack of the Clones: UnImpreza

When the new for 2008 Impreza debuted, it got a lot of flack for being ugly. And although it's grown on me a bit, I still find it less than attractive. And less unique (or attractive) than it's predecessor. And it's a bit of a conglomerate of numerous other make's models, making it a bit of a slightly homely "everycar".

The 5-door hatch is seemingly the most popular model, and the most drastically changed. While the previous Impreza carried over a lot of (unique) styling features from the previous (and first) generation, the 2008 broke the mold. Apparently when they broke the mold, the stole the one Mazda used for the Mazda 3. The DLO is strikingly similar as is the rear spoiler. The front end of the Impreza also looks remarkably like the 3, with similar looking headlights and similarly placed openings and fog lights. The grille setup is different, but it's finicky treatment is one of the front end's worst features.


The DLO and rear end treatment of the 4 door sedan though is remarkably Korean - not something most car-makers would aspire to. The DLO itself is very Daewoo Lacetti / Suzuki Verona / Chevrolet Optra, with it's tails also having a similar look (yet a bit too vertically oriented). When I first saw the tails, the Kia Rio instantly came to mind. Those tails also feature another fugly trait that seems to be increasingly common - strange cutlines. Why are they curved along the bottom? It doesn't follow any of the body lines... It just ends up looking like a manufacturer error, or that the car's been in an accident.

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