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Originally Posted by threpwood
I noticed that many of these Japanese car makers is trying too hard...
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Round A/C vents are European now? I had no idea that they invented the circular dash vent! Many, many, many cars have had various shaped/sized/colored what-have-yous over a wide range of years. It has little to nothing to do with country of origin and everything to do with whatever design trend happens to be popular at the moment. By your logic, I could say that those fancy pants rounded Euro-pee-an A/C vents were ripped off from the Italians. I mean, a 1966 Fiat 124 had round dash vents.
The "euro" taillights that my other car (the 100% Japanese Lexus IS300/Toyota Atezza) unfortunately popularized are used in all sorts of cars from all countries these days. Even ze Germans. Know what? It doesn't mean that they are unoriginal; they are just giving the customer what they want.
Hell, even the "Bangle Butt" isn't even original. A similar design was first used by Hyundai on the 2001 XG300.
The point here is that everything is derivative of everything else. Sure, there are some unique elements that might be indicative of a certain country of origin... but what are we talking about again? The 370z and the Boxster? Yeah. They're both unoriginal derivations of the 1991 Geo Metro Convertible. All Porsche and Nissan did was double the cylinder count and add some leather, so they both suck.
Oh - The design of the Prius is dictated by the wind tunnel. It is a car made to have a very low coefficient of drag, and a truncated teardrop is the current shape of choice. Look at a Honda Insight or, to a lesser extent, a Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. It is that shape for a reason. Now, the inside of the Prius might be ugly as sin, but it is designed for the intended techy audience, and it works.