Every car has these scowling eye headlights and gaping mouth grilles, like an evil fish, or the Predator movie character.

2019 Yaris:


2019 Camry:


2019 Lexus ES350:


Mazda started this circa the mid-2000s. This is a 2013 MX-5/Miata.

At least Mazdas looked happy.

I hate that Lexus grille. Since so many well-off women from Windermere drive them here, we call it the "bitch pinch."

The Camry is the least objectionable. The Yaris looks like a bass.

Separated at birth? Who had worn it better?

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
I hate that Lexus spittoon...

2019 Corolla:

It looks like the central controller of the Cylons or something.

In fairness to the Yaris, it looks much better (discounting the front end) than older models, and has a much better styled interior. (This is going by pictures; I haven't looked at any cars personally.) Consumer Reports actually rates it pretty highly, also stating that it is built by Mazda.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

The trapezoid grille has been part of the look for a long long time. I think they went with it seeing the 97 F150 and others having a sensible grille design wider at the top than the bottom.

Don't like it. Like Lexus, though.

To me, these grill treatments resemble stylized train cow catchers.
I am not a fan of them

I like the Taco grill. It's the best looking part of the current-gen Tacoma.

The current Lexus, Yaris, & Camry grills are fugly.

I learned this a couple of months ago during a nice long chat with a representative at the local Lexus dealer:

The new Lexus grille is often referred to as "the spindle." It's an homage, if you will, to Toyota's founder's father.

In about 1937, Toyota Motor Corporation was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda -- it was a spinoff from his father's company. Kiichiro's father, Sakichi Toyoda, was an inventor well known for founding Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. Sakichi developed the automatic power loom. Looms use spools (aka: spindles) to feed the strands into the machine.

The new grille is sort of a salute to Sakichi Toyoda, and the contributions made to Japanese industry by him and his son.

Autoevolution mentions the spindle grille very briefly in an article from 2014.

Lexus is very aware that not everyone likes this grille.

The "spindle" design decision wasn't one made flippantly.

Many like it (sales are up lately) and many don't, but it'll be around for a while.

Yes, the Lexus design carries over to Toyota.

And get this: there's there's a bigger version in the works on the upcoming LM van. (Click here for a pic. )

More about Sakichi Toyoda here.

Yes, I'm a bit of a car geek.

quote:

Originally posted by mod29:
I like the Taco grill. It's the best looking part of the current-gen Tacoma.

The current Lexus, Yaris, & Camry grills are fugly.

+1

I like the Tacos and Tundras these days. The old Tundra, with that rounded look, was soooo vanilla.

i'd call that a lack of creativity in design myself.

Styling has never been Toyota's forte, they must be doing something else right.

The Tacos have been their only vehicle to come close, they've always seemed to have a unique stance. Well, until they got too big but even then, better than most of the other Toyota offerings.

Japanese companies seem to have a fetish of having some freakish, over-the-top style of grill or other part of the car, then insist on sticking with it for years despite howls of hate from their (often former) customers.
Acura did this starting with the original CL concept with the car having a stylized arrow designed into the front and back, then continued this in the TL to look like someone hit the back with a stick.
Then there was the snaggletooth grill, which they kept for years and finally abandoned I think last year or so.
Meanwhile they dropped the nice styled 2005 TL model for the "hit-with-an-ugly-stick" one.

Years ago, my wife had the Lexus 300 SUV and loved it. She refuses to buy a current one because she hates the grill.

Toyota is losing their way. They are 100% incapable of building a sporty Toyota on their own. Sadly they have to outsource talent for sporty cars and even then they still don’t look great. The 86 is ok but the new Supra is an ugly, infuriating piece of shit and a big middle finger to former Supra owners like myself who loved what the Supra was.

Those stupid MF’s at Toyota thought this should wear the Supra badge.

Pachinko

quote:

Originally posted by mod29:
I like the Taco grill. It's the best looking part of the current-gen Tacoma.

Funny you say that. The grill immediately made me think of Billy the Big Mouth Bass and is one of the reasons I ended up with my Cherokee.

It was just too ugly for me.

-Rob

What came to mind for me when looking at those front ends is how far removed we are from the “5 mph bumper standard” of the nine year period from ‘73-‘82. Those cars all look like they would take serious damage in a low speed fender bender. Don’t get me wrong, I hated the bumper regulation, but I thought all cars were required to have SOME kind of bumper.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
i'd call that a lack of creativity in design myself.

Maybe, maybe not. But have no fear, Toyota more than makes up for it in durability and quality.

Their cars all look like they were designed by animè cartoonists, to me.