No intimidating square-grilled hunks of petro-masculinity here

March 4, 2022 1:55 PM

@friendshapedcar catalogs cars that are shaped like friends. [SLTwitter]

nitter, if you don't want to fight the desktop interface

posted by Freelance Demiurge (21 comments total)

Nothing is more absurd than spending money to obscure your headlights to make your Jeep look angry.

This, on the other hand, is cute as heck.
posted by leotrotsky at 2:08 PM on March 4, 2022 [14 favorites]

I disagree with their choice of the 1998 Impreza over the 2002-2003 version with the IMO super-friendly bugeyes.
posted by aubilenon at 2:21 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I didn't see if these appear in the tweety link, but I have a friend whose Volkswagen had fancy eyelashes.
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:59 PM on March 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

I hate to be one of those “Miata is always the answer” people, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a friendlier-looking car than the NC Miata (2005-2015). It just looks so happy! Almost derpy, really. :D
posted by Mr. Excellent at 3:26 PM on March 4, 2022 [4 favorites]

I have said this before but, in my time, cars have looked like jet planes, then rockets, then shoeboxes and finally, shoes.
posted by y2karl at 3:47 PM on March 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

Some cars are macho; some cars are grand; and some cars are utilitarian. But when a car is described as "cute as a bug's ear," which, of course, is the epitome of cute, no other car springs to mind as quickly as the Nash Metropolitan.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:49 PM on March 4, 2022 [4 favorites]

I kinda think the Miata looks like a catfish.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 4:11 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

finally, shoes.

(does this mean I can post the link to the bugatti music video without being completely off topic?)
posted by kaibutsu at 4:13 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

What get's me is how little ‘consumer’ cars designs have evolved in the last 30 years. I drove a Civic Hatchback from 1992 to 2018 and it never looked particularly out of step with current designs. It would've been comparable to driving a Model T in 1953 or a ‘57 Chevy in 1983….which would've felt like driving a car from another eon.


Thanks y2karl…I've seen trying to figure out the early 2020s car design look and and ‘ugly athletic shoe’ is perfect.
posted by brachiopod at 4:27 PM on March 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

What get's me is how little ‘consumer’ cars designs have evolved in the last 30 years

Not just cars. The linked article is more than ten years old now, but I think is still applicable.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:04 PM on March 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

Aww, they are all buddies.
posted by praemunire at 5:10 PM on March 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

           ___
	 (_____)
	(O\_!_/O)
	 =+===+=      
	 "     "

posted by jim in austin at 5:15 PM on March 4, 2022 [10 favorites]

meep beep, hi!
posted by bartleby at 5:52 PM on March 4, 2022

I never thought I would use the word "elegant" to describe a pickup, but here we are.
posted by bryon at 8:46 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

Should have mentioned ^ that's a 1964 Toyota Crown Pickup.
posted by bryon at 8:47 PM on March 4, 2022

Oh man, hello from Japan, home of the Honda N-One and the Suzuki Lapin and the Daihatsu Canbus. Some extremely cute cars available here, and I say this as someone who is ordinarily very much against the forceful smol beanification of contemporary Japan. But these cars… these cars are in fact legitimate smol beans
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:00 AM on March 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

Probably significant how few of the cars in that account are sold in the US. We think cars should look angry and threatening here.
posted by octothorpe at 4:51 AM on March 5, 2022

brachiopod: What get's me is how little ‘consumer’ cars designs have evolved in the last 30 years.

Some of it is aerodynamics as enforced by fuel economy standards, isn't it? There are only so many shapes that can slip through the air at 60+ mph.
posted by clawsoon at 5:49 AM on March 5, 2022

Nissan Figaro
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:21 AM on March 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Nissan S Cargo
posted by ShooBoo at 1:49 PM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Speaking of the Nissan Figaro and S Cargo, you might enjoy checking out the YouTube channel Aging Wheels for good-natured in-depth looks at various goofy cars. The guy who makes the channel seems to have a genuine love for cars that might not be good, but are at least extremely weird!
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:21 PM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]