What Car Looks Cooler Than It Actually Is?
Sayings like "looks can be deceiving," "don't judge a book by its cover," and "beauty is more than skin deep," are all platitudes meant to encourage people to look beyond external appearances to find the true value of someone or something. In most cases it seems to be the diamond in the rough, the thing with unassuming looks that actually punches above its weight, that makes the headlines, not the sheep in wolves clothing. This applies to the automotive world, too. Which begs the question, what car stands out in your mind as looking a lot cooler than it actually is?
While a car's exterior design alone doesn't necessarily earn it a place in the automotive hall of fame, it can certainly play a big part in the desirability and market value of a particular model. Oftentimes designers write checks that the engineering teams can't live up to, or the finance department stepped in and put the kibosh on all the fun. Here's what I mean.
My answer is the 2017 - 2022 Infiniti Q60
The 2017-2022 Infiniti Q60 is the first car that comes to my mind when I think of a car that looks a lot cooler than it actually is. Its exterior styling is a big positive. The Q60 is sleek yet aggressive, sharp yet supple, rakish yet restrained. It seems as though the exterior styling team really understood the assignment of designing a strikingly beautiful sports coupe.
It's a true shame then, that underneath the svelte exterior lies a supremely disjointed interior design and driving dynamics that fell short of the excellence displayed by the exterior, and of its predecessor, the vaunted Infiniti G35 and G37. For whatever reason, the G35 and G37 (and the brief two years that the G37 coupe was rebadged as the Q60 before its redesign) just absolutely nailed the sweet spot of style, performance, affordability, and driving pleasure. The success of the G35 set the bar mighty high for its successor, but the redesigned Q60 never quite measured up.
What say you, oh Jalopnik audience? What car looks a lot cooler than it actually is? We'll round up the best answers next week.