the xB redesign

Confession: I really enjoyed the styling of the 1st generation Scion xB. This year they offered a redesign, which seems to serve up a laundry list of why I don't buy American cars (or, apparently, cars designed for the American market). I think this NY Times review says it best: "The old xB was like a newly arrived Japanese exchange student who dresses like Max Headroom and pulls live sea urchins out of his lunch bag, blissfully naïve about his lack of assimilation."

Heh - that would be this NY Times review.

Honestly, I think both of them are awful designs.  the first looks like they used caskets as their primary inspiration (big box, small wheels), and the new redesign looks like the inspiration was your average high-school football jock (square jaw, wide shoulders, and shaped mostly by of the auxilary padding they wear).