While we're not quite so disinclined towards the little faux-retro econoboxes ourselves, a writer over at BrooWaha makes a fairly convincing case for the theory that the "PT Cruiser has murdered taste and massacred better judgement, all the while asphyxiating our culture's collective memory." Strong words for a car with such an uncertain future.
The author goes on to say:
Back to the problem. I promised I'd explain why the PT Cruiser is the mobile of death, and I intend to keep that solemn oath. So what do we have here? A car that was designed based on the subconscious desires of American rejects, that was marketed as a masterpiece of precision engineering, that was passed off as a retro-dreammachine by a naive past-its-prime automaker and that made a lot of people feel happy and young again. What's the big deal? Well I'd like to suggest that the big deal is the fact that the design of this car, and the level to which its target audience (intended or accidental) embraced its fantastically offensive appearance and ravenously gobbled up each and every one off of every lot in the first year after it was released, speaks to a general softening of our collective perception of aesthetics.
It's a fairly interesting argument, even if you don't fear the Merchants of Cool consumer sanitized future. [BrooWaha]