Interesting how BMW & Mazda etc. are imitating Volvo style. Eh ?

Mazda 6?... The G6 is a Pontiac (and the M6 hasn't been built by BMW yet, but it's coming soon I hear)... I don't find the 6, either one of them to look like any Volvo - but then again I seem to have the image of just about every car on the market memorized since i'm quite a car obsessed person... The G6 I'm not overly familiar with, but I know it isn't similar (it looks like a Pontiac, nuff' said - actually now that they took the plastic cladding off the Pontiacs are looking sexy - too bad about the engineering underneath them tho :-( )... the Mazda 6 is more Japanese style then anything - the lights are slit like... very short in height, but wide, with projector beams... Fairly good looking, but typical Japanese styling of this modern era. The BMW has projector beams also, in a very Euro inspired front end, but the Europeans are leaning maybe a little japanese, due to the simple fact that they are streamlining the vehicles more and more... The Japanese started this streamline the whole front end like it was being hit by way too much air in the wind tunnel look a few years ago - Toyota is really into it with some of their Lexus products, their Sienna, and Camry.... Most of the German/Swedish creations seem to have left the metal forming wind tunnel on a more tame setting, and we're getting fantastic styling out of it.... The only one staying a bit old fashioned is Audi - those new chrome sheild grilles are astonishing!! they are less obvious in person then in print too for those who were worried they'd be ugly and really stand out.

Check out the flame effect on the Bimmers lights, these touches were done by Chris Bangle (it's the tapering blend of the light housing into the body)... Volvo still has fairly squared lights in comparison, however they look very good... I'm drooling over the S40 as a potential car maybe next year... and the V70 wagon still looks like a new design every time I see it - it's truely a classic style.

If you are refering to projector headlamps all looking somewhat alike... well they all do.. kinda, it's just the clear cover over top that gets styled a little differently - then again, how different can you make a squarish opening.

With the old 200 and 700 series cars, there were some similar looking cars too... especially with those US style headlamps up front... I still remember being told "yah they have the same car as you guys" (We had a 1993 960 wagon, these people my friend was refering to had a Cavalier station wagon, early 90's vintage..... I was offended to say the least, the only thing remotely similar was the colour - too bad theirs wasn't metallic paint tho)

New cars in general are all looking really good tho. We still have overstyling (Mazda 3 Sport - the hatchback version... the sedan is handsome) and we still have understyling - cars that have been out too long (Taurus maybe... can't think of a real good one, tho I saw a Suzuki Areo today, and I couldn't help think that in 10-15 years some will still be around still as ugly as ever - it was a new one too, and the hubcap had fallen off... so it was already looking QUITE outdated... it's not an understyled car tho, just styling gone wrong)... there are also classic designs (Volvo V70, Audi's A4, BMW's old 5 Series and 3 Series... to name a few).... IMO of course for car styling, you like what you like. "Eunoia Eigensinn" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

My GF just painted a room in this horrible green color. It's straight out of the '70s, but the hot new color.

Styling just spins like a lazy susan.

My brick is admired by many these days. I've converted a few too, just by having driven with me and looked over the car.