Not an Impala or a Taurus, but a 2014 Caprice. Maybe the US car makers will get a clue and figure out that front wheel drive is not the only way to design a car.
At one time, Ford had V10s in pickup trucks (still do in the >1 Ton trucks, as an option to diesels). Not that I am a fan of either, but the Mustang (yes, even the 2015 version) and Camaro are pretty good at picking up some of the styling cues of the late 1960s/early 1970s, within the limitations of current legislation and market demands. We wouldn't be talking about Chrysler any more due to Fiat? More like due to government bail outs in the billions (and not only Chrysler, but GM, too). And it was both the US and the Canadian government as well. Fiat is a European company, as Daimler was. When things get tight, really tight, do not bet on Fiat doing what is in Chrysler's best interest. And for the record, Daimler isn't exactly a little shit car company, either.
Nothing wrong with RAM division. Real issues with market acceptance of Dart, and even Viper (from SRT group). Both have had product lines shut down this year for lack of sales (what is often refereed to as "excess inventory"). Dart is a good design, I actually like the way it looks, but they have to get serious with the paint colours. Light/Baby Blue? Really, what's next, a Sundance version? In a market that seems to be dominated by darker, more aggressive colours? A potentially hot pocket rocket without a coupe/2 Door/hatchback version? Without a high perf version? Look at what Ford has done with the Focus and Fiesta. Both have hotted up versions, both have modern colours, (and only from what I am seeing out on the streets) they seem to be doing well.
The problem with current car design, is that all of the designer for US car companies are coming out of the same limited number of "art colleges" or "design colleges". As such they have the same design principles drilled into them. They are not actually ground up designers in the mold of the designers of old, which all did their own thing, and the next generation of designers learned from them. Now, they go to art school, all go to the the same art classes, and upon graduation, are hired as designers. Look at what has happened at Jaguar. Their middle and top line sedans look identical, and they could be clones of the mid 2000s Ford Taurus if seen from the front. As little as 5 years ago, an XJ sedan had NO resemblance to the S-Type, but both were clearly Jaguars. Now, not only can you not tell them apart from each other, you really can't even tell they are Jaguars from a distance.
Seems like cars are being designed to not offend, as opposed to looking good.
Things seem to just go in trends. The gaping Audi fish mouth is one that is going on now. So is the trend to take the headlight lenses halfway up the fender (for some reason that eludes me, but I suppose it does help to massively increase the price of a headlight lens if it is cracked). The truck trend is to make the front's look "massive", this one probably started by Ram trucks, but carried on by the other two US makers, along with Toyota. Car makers must think it makes their trucks look "tough". Why the wasted effort on design, vs. the same effort in making trucks actually tough is really a triumph of the marketing dept. over the engineering dept. And that is nothing new.
Kostas