Good Car = Ugly Car?

The Nissan Cube. The Ugly Duckling that could?


In May of 2008, Nissan announced that it will market an all-electric car in the USA in 2010. It will be an emissions-free, environmentally-friendly car. It will also be small, which isn't surprising, because one assumes that the technology is not yet advanced enough to power a bigger car effectively. I understand that perfectly.

The car will also be ugly. Apparently, the design of choice is likely to be the Nissan Cube. This I will never understand. Why does a good car have to be ugly? Can't we have at least a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down?

I am told that younger, hipper car buyers like these square cars. I don't know about that, but I do see one or two models of the Honda Element in the parking lot at SUNY Oswego, where I work. They are bigger versions of the Nissan Cube pictured above, and they are butt-ugly, in my humble opinion. When you go to the Honda website, there is "young people's" music and they have colorful graphics that feature a skateboard, so obviously the car isn't aimed at old fogies like me. Thank God for that.

But I have two questions. First, in this lousy economy, with credit shrunken down to nothing, are there enough youngsters out there to buy these funky-looking cars? And second, why can't an old bag like me help the environment by buying an all-electric, environmentally-friendly Nissan that looks like my idea of a car? What I mean is, why can't there be one that looks like the Nissan Sentra, even if it is smaller? Yes, those kids are young and hip and all that, but I have money. Why not target me for a change?

Of course, there is another problem. In my part of the world, Oswego, NY, where it is winter for at least five months of the year, and where winter means lots of snow and ice, and where shrinking municipal budgets mean less plowing and sanding, a really small car doesn't look so good. I mean, you can save a lot of money on fuel and help reduce emissions if you leave your car in the garage all winter, but how feasible is that? Besides, I don't need a new car to help the environment in that way; I can just take the bus to work. Not a bad idea, but it won't help the auto industry.