GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

The (Renault/)Nissan Design Center keeps introducing vehicles with shall we say, 'quirky' styling. The '04 Nissan Quest minivan comes to mind first.I just followed an '05 Nissan Maxima 3.5SE on the road tonight.The recessed rear window treatment is an obvious ripoff of the 1967 Chevelle (and GM body-mates from the Buick, Olds, and Pontiac)! The proportions are odd from any angle, and not nearly as comely as the original.

Aside from the recessed rear window, there's absolutely nothing else similar between the two, so you can't really say Nissan ripped anything off. That''s like saying Carmaker A ripped off Carmaker B's idea to use round headlights instead of square ones.Are there no other cars out there with a recessed rear window like that?

Yeah, all you can say is that they used their idea. That's all. Like psychobroker said, that's the only thing that actually looks similar.Inder

Agreed, the cars are not similar at all, EXCEPT FOR the recessed rear window. That's why it seemed so odd to find a 38-year-old styling cue on a 'new' car design. If it had appeared on a retro (GM) design, I wouldn't have been so surprised.Nissan probably did it for the same reason Chevrolet did it: a more vertical rear window decreases the distortion caused by a steeply sloped pane of glass when looking out the rear. For contrast, in the 1973 Ford Torino fastback (Remember Starsky & Hutch?) it was nearly impossible to see out the back.Add the fact that most of the 'performance' Torinos of that period were raised another couple of inches with larger rear leaf spring shackles, leaving the rear window virtually horizontal, almost parallel to the ground!(More Torino photos at--http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/543876)