From Japan – Famous for its arts, crafts, designs, packaging and presentations in all things from textiles, graphics, interior design, architecture and food – What The Hell happened with their car designs? From the beginning, Japanese cars have always represented ugliness personified? This article will review several Japanese cars from the 1960s to the present, and attempt to find out what went wrong?

Car People and Non-Car People                                                                 There are two types of people in the world, 1) those who see a car as a vehicle to get from point A to point B, (there’s nothing wrong with that) and 2) the  car enthusiasts – connoisseurs of beautiful and superbly built machinery. If you belong to the first group, then this article may be of little interest to you.

Many designers are familiar with the popular adage: Form Follows Function (Luis Sullivan + the Bauhaus) and also Form + Function are = both equally important (Frank Lloyd Wright). But I bet you don’t know what the Japanese say? Function = All. You can clearly see that for Japanese car designers, when it comes to making cars, engineering is the overriding consideration, not design. That’s not surprising coming from a country of engineers.

What’s surprising about the Japanese car industry is that since they have never manufactured a beautiful car, then how in the world did they revolutionize the motorcycle industry both in design and engineering? Japanese motorcycle designs inspired me to purchase my first motorcycle and ride; and they are still at the forefront of the industry today.

From the beginning of the Japanese car industry, their designs were a direct rip-off of American, German and Italian designs. The sides of their cars, (offsides and nearsides) weren’t bad since they were usually direct copies of BMWs and Mercedes (side panels), But, it’s the front of their cars, the face, the DRG (down the road graphic) is where they dropped the ball – or, perhaps they never had the ball to begin with.

All car designers understand that the DRG (down the road graphic) is the most important element of any car design. It’s a fine blend of Anthropomorphism  that produce a recognizable pareidolia. The headlights of course are the eyes, the grille represents the mouth, and the turn signals are the eyebrows. It seems that Japanese car designers never figured that out.

…And the Award For the World’s Ugliest Car  Goes to – Lexus
One of the ugliest Japanese cars are the Lexus models, with that huge gaping mouth and spindle grille, that particular design feature has been around for about 10 years. It was actually inspired by the face of the robots in the TV series Battlestar Galactica.

Engineering wise, Lexus is one of the most reliable cars out there but many long time buyers hate the bulging grille and have moved on to other brands. (there is a rumor that they will tone down the grille soon because of all the negative backlash) (BTW: Lexus is most popular with women whereas Mercedes is more popular with men).

In Japan, one Lexus insider told me that years ago, the company wanted to get away from copying bits and pieces from the European and American cars and decided to strike out on it’s own merits with original designs – Well I guess that didn’t work out so well?

…And in 2nd Place for The World’s Ugliest Car goes to – Toyota
Their front grille designs weren’t too far from the Lexus, in the realm of sci-fi, they copied the face of a Star Wars Trooper, a little Photoshop tweaking and suddenly, a new look. I also dislike their logo, however the company’s heritage began with the “Toyota Spinning and Weaving Company” in 1918, and that logo has represented the company since then, so I’ll let that slide.

Mitsubishi, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Isuzu, Acura, Subaru and Suzuki – they are in the same run of the mill ugliness incarnate. They all look like they collaborated with the WEF. A Japanese marketer told me that in Japan, younger people don’t have the money to own a car, it’s only the older citizens that can afford to purchase one, and they much prefer a conservative (and odd) style, however there’s absolutely no excuse to defile the laws of good taste.

There have been a few attempts at designing beautiful cars, the first two on my list were designed by a foreigner, and the last by a Japanese designer educated in the USA. Here are my top three (almost) beautiful cars.
Toyota 2000T
Datson 240Z
NSX Acura / Honda

Toyota 2000T – Japan’s first Super Car
Albrecht Goertz, a German/American industrial designer was on the Toyota team that designed this car, he stated his inspiration was the Jaguar XK-E. Goertz was a design consultant to Nissan (Datson), Yamaha, Toyota and Honda. This is the sports car that was featured in the James Bond movie, “You only Live Twice.” (I even had a toy model of this car when I was a kid). From the sides and rear, the car is beautiful, however the Japanese team members on the project massacred it with their bizarre front/rear grille and lights combination. The car didn’t sell  well, it was more expensive than most sports cars in its day, especially the Jaguar XK-E, and the Porsche 911, those cars were simply above and beyond the 2000T in every way.

The Datson 240Z – The first Commercially Successful Japanese Sports Car
As with the 2000T, the 240Z was not solely designed  by a Japanese team, but again in part by Albrecht Goertz. You can clearly see his hand in the overall design of the car.  His influence carried over from the Toyota 2000T with the large sweeping rear glass panel and on the rear side panels. However his Japanese teammates butchered it with a poorly executed front end (DRG). *A weird fact: the head of Datson (Nissan) wanted to name the car “My Fair Lady?” fortunately The Texas importer changed the name to the 240Z

The Acura/Honda Sports Car the NSX
When the mid-engined NSX was unveiled in 1991 and became an instant hit. I recall seeing several in silicon valley, only principles of successful tech companies could afford them at a price of over $90K. The car designer was actually Japanese however he received his design training at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California – and it shows. He worked on the prototype at the world famous Pininfarina studio (Italy) in 1984.

Years later the production NSX design was headed by a Japanese team using the original prototype. The aerodynamics and styling were borrowed from an F-16 fighter cockpit and input from a Formula One World Champion at the time, Ayrton Senna. You can also see a clear reference to the Corvette. The current 2022 version is not nearly as elegant as the original.

Conclusion
There are a several Japanese cars that have terrific performance and offer good value for the money – but sadly they lack style and charisma. If you prefer a beautiful car with great performance, better go elsewhere. There are dozens to choose from including: Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Audi, Corvette, American muscle cars etc, and If you have a few extra bucks, there’s always Ferrari and Lamborghini.