I remember seeing a cartoon many years ago (Stan Mott perhaps?) with a 'face' much like this. The joke is still funny! Not bad from the windshield cowl back; a bit of a modern 300SL Gullwing vibe. Clean but not inspiring -
It looks like a car that the villain in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? would drive. (Not a compliment.) I don't understand. Jaguar's Type 00 gets broadly ridiculed. So...Audi, Rolls and Mercedes all do their own riff on the same idea. Are regulations causing this? Is this the influence of Chinese design preferences? Did a generation of up and coming designers all share a bad batch of mushrooms?
I have seen it hypothesized that the brutal front ends (you may have a better adjective) and high belt lines may be driven in part by pedestrian safety laws in Europe. Yours is the most credible comment I've read, however.
Yes the Ped Pro regulations have driven front end design somewhat, but there are myriad ways to solve any requirements. Each mfg chooses the best design that fits their needs, costs and tastes. Give 10 different designers the same requirements and you'll probably get 10 different solutions. But yes, the Ped Pro requirements have altered the way our vehicles look, not unlike the bumper requirements and rollover std do.
