It happened. Flat tire. No spare.

Yes, I think many Japanese cars have gotten way too cartoonish in appearance, perhaps to appease the crowd of kids growing up (and becoming potential customers) on Anime. I am not a marketing person, but to me they are ridiculous looking. As I said, I respect others's choices and do not judge others' taste, but for me it would not be a sale, especially with lack of a spare. I'm old.... school....

 

This is my second JNC660, and I'd admit the first was more prone to that, due to it's lack of built-in auto-charger. You needed to plug it in, for a guesstimated time period, "every so often", and after use. I'm on my second one, which has the auto-charger, cannot over-charge, and I've set up with Clore, they email me every 3 months with a reminder to recharge it.

 

Well, to me Prime looks as bad as a Thing to you. We are different individuals with different tastes.

 

And you've never seen one in person, right?

 

I have seen many in person. In fact the person who sold me my '07 bought a Prime to replace it and I saw that, but also see them on the road here where I live and also around Boston.

 

There's no accounting for taste. More and more these days, I'm liking this look:



The bumpers in particular. Someone just cut a corner a little to tight about 4 days back, splintered the paint one of our corners, so it's off to the body shop once again. They were up-and-up about it, the deductable's not coming out of our pocket.

Something like the above though, I think it'd just shake it off. And a bit of scrape, it'd wear it proudly.

 

The whole covered and color-matched bumper thing is a boon to body shops. A tiny mishap and it's $500. The old bumpers covered with black plastic (black goes with everything) were much better.

As for pleasant looking cars, I think Tesla Model S and 3 are very nice looking. Clean, flowing lines, no crazy lighting schemes, elegant. Just to set a point of reference for what I consider a pleasing looking design for an exterior of a car.

 

VW's look good to me: eloquent and subdued.

 

Yes, European cars look pretty good. They keep to the understated elegance key rather than "hit you over the head with a two by four with all kinds of lines and lights" of the Asian makes.

 

So, what is the economical, reliable alternative? All other Toyotas & Lexii are excluded due to the cow catcher / Darth Vader look. Looks is many times important, especially to the fairer sex.

 

Sort of like my wife. If a car has a “Ford” emblem, she won’t spend a second looking at it.

To be honest, Ford probably makes some great vehicles today, but she had a lemon of a ‘81 Ford Escort that left her stranded. Many early ‘80s cars were unreliable.

BTW, I wouldn’t mind a ‘73 VW THING. 1973 Volkswagen Thing - Pictures - CarGurus

 

I won't look at a Ford either. Had a 90 Ranger and a 91 Explorer, both total pieces of garbage compounded by horrible and dishonest service providers at the dealers.

 

My friend at work drives a BMW. Hates it because of unreliability and wants to buy a Prime because he likes how mine looks.

Your loss though. Prime = Best car ever.

 

They are rare because VW had to agree to buy them all back due to false advertising as an off-road vehicle, IIRC.

 

I would not buy a BMW or any other car based ONLY on the looks. In fact, there are many cars that I do not consider exactly beautiful that I would buy. And have bought. I've been driving and owning only Volvos since 1998. Widely considered the "Ugly (but safe)" by many, including myself. However, there is nothing in a Volvo that is pretentiously annoying. No crazy styling efforts (that didn't quite work out). It's an honestly basic design born of function. That suits me fine. I also really like the Gen 2 (and by extension Gen 3) Prius. It's a very honest design born of the very idea of this car, which is efficient at moving through space (air). It's certainly funky looking and to this day, 14 years later there is nothing quite that looks like it. The shape accommodates all the trappings of comfort and utility, there is a spare tire, no crazy lighting in the tail lights, just clean and functional like a good car should be. And to boot it is super-reliable, gets great mileage and runs for some miles.

As for the my loss (at not owning a Prime), I will give Prime 14 years to mature and see how it grows on me

 

Dang, you are preaching to my choir.

Considering our age/situation, we just might not get another car: problem solved.

 

I had my 2004 (which I preordred at waited 6 months to get) for 13 years and 150,000 miles. Fabulous car.

My Prime is orders of magnitude better.

 

I appreciate that. And I am happy for you. It's a joy to own a car you like.

 

Say it ain't so! I plan to wear out a few more

 

I heard Volvo quality went downhill after Ford bought them in 1999.