Pontiac Solstice Forum - View Single Post - GM's new design chief goes with gut

Have for years believed that every marque has an "ugly stylist" to make certain of two things:
1) Next years car will look better
2) Nothing but the most expensive model will look right.

This concept goes waaaay back. Consider the first Buick Riviera. The show car had concealed headlamps. 63 and 64 both had open headlights, 65 was the way they initially wanted it to look and then 66 restyled the whole thing.

Or the 68, 69, 70 Buick Skylarks (GM styling used to go in three year increments.) 70 GS was the best looking of all having finally lost the '54 Skylark side chrome. But just to make certin the GS sold, the regular 70 Skylark had really ugly grilles.

GTO/Tempest did the same thing: one look at the grilles or the taillights and you knew if TOL or stripper.

More recently the Fiero had its looks improved every year and when the 87 Grand Prix came out, one look at the bar between the grilles and you knew if interesting or not-so. Same-same when the 90 incarnation of the Bonneville came out, the low line had a one bar grille, the upscales, two bar and a gunsight. All plastic, no difference in cooling, just styling.

So somewhere out there is a whole team of stylists whose sole function is to take a nice end state design and ugly it up for the first years and to make lesser cars look cheaper than the TOL.

Probably very well paid too.

	padgett Founding Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Orlando, Fla (visit occasionally)	Have for years believed that every marque has an "ugly stylist" to make certain of two things: 1) Next years car will look better 2) Nothing but the most expensive model will look right. This concept goes waaaay back. Consider the first Buick Riviera. The show car had concealed headlamps. 63 and 64 both had open headlights, 65 was the way they initially wanted it to look and then 66 restyled the whole thing. Or the 68, 69, 70 Buick Skylarks (GM styling used to go in three year increments.) 70 GS was the best looking of all having finally lost the '54 Skylark side chrome. But just to make certin the GS sold, the regular 70 Skylark had really ugly grilles. GTO/Tempest did the same thing: one look at the grilles or the taillights and you knew if TOL or stripper. More recently the Fiero had its looks improved every year and when the 87 Grand Prix came out, one look at the bar between the grilles and you knew if interesting or not-so. Same-same when the 90 incarnation of the Bonneville came out, the low line had a one bar grille, the upscales, two bar and a gunsight. All plastic, no difference in cooling, just styling. So somewhere out there is a whole team of stylists whose sole function is to take a nice end state design and ugly it up for the first years and to make lesser cars look cheaper than the TOL. Probably very well paid too.