Not every "classic" car looked good and not every current car looks bad. Just with Chevy models during the muscle car era you had the Greebrier, Vega, or 4 door models of Nova/Chevelle.
Most modern coupes and sedans look like eggs or computer mice. They're bland and uninteresting. Boxy cars from the 80's had way more personality - even the ugly ones.
In my opinion, the Countach or even the DeLorean had a design aesthetic that felt like a pinnacle that we've since strayed far, far away from. I don't want a bar of Dial soap. I want a sci-fi dream.
I'd like it if cars came as a kit you could heavily customize, like a PC. Maybe with the simpler construction of EVs this will become possible. I know I'd put a lot of attention into it.
As vain and unimportant as it may be, appearance is my #1 most valued trait and deciding factor when I buy vehicles. Everything else is secondary.
I do honestly think those cars, and most of the sports cars from the 70's (edit: 80's) look like rolling refrigerators. Especially when they are painted white. I think car design has declined since the 60's, after regulators started becoming too fussy about stuff like "safety" and "pedestrian safety" and "seatbelts" etc etc. As this video shows, there was once a time when you gambled with your life every time you strayed onto the motorway, but the reward was you got to drive a beautiful car like the Bel Air, it was gut wrenching to watch it being destroyed. Nobody will miss that Malibu.
Well, sure. There's always an exception to the rule. Overall, I would agree that classic cars relied more on form than function. This was a pain in that, sometimes the things that would make a car look pretty would break or wear out quickly, making it exceptionally ugly unless it was replaced. This put a kind of strain on the owner that was unfortunate. Other cars just came ugly by default, like you mentioned. As a generally rule though, I would at least say that when a classic car was ugly, it was trying to do something different.
And of course, yes, there are some modern cars that look neat. Usually when I see a modern car (or truck) that looks exceptionally interesting to the eye, it's in a vein of either:
1) "Artificial Badass" (Ford Raptor, H3, etc.)
2) "Speedbro" (Subaru Impreza)
Neither thing is bad, per say. However, what I was advocating is not something to impress or intimidate others, like those cars try to do, but instead to offer something that is simply aesthetically pleasing. Something that doesn't need to imply that the driver is cool or whatever, but just that the driver has some style. Some pzazz. Something for the owner, not the audience. I do that there has been something lost over the decades where average cars that average people could drive and feel happy to have driven it, is gone.
If you're not sure what I mean, consider the following offers that an average person might afford: 2009 Saturn Astra, 2010 Toyota Camry, 2012 Chevrolet Impala, 2009 Honda Civic
There's just nothing there that would make someone be proud to be an owner of any of those cars. They are just these bog standard, sad turds putting around on four wheels. They are the Dell OptiPlex XE3 of the car world. Uninspired. Uninteresting. Drab. It pains me to see these eye sores. The manufacturer could have at least provided interesting coats of paint from the factory. It's just various shades of champagne colored trash, lost in a sea of mediocrity.
To be fair, there are some more recent models of cars that seem to at least attempt to do something with the grill/radiator area to make them stand out in some token gesture, which I feel is reasonable. I just feel awful that there are so many makes and models of cars out there that are essentially indistinguishable from one another...unless you can afford to spend thousands of dollars more to get something vaguely nicer looking, which is a big ask for anyone on a budget.
