"When it comes to car design, few enthusiasts are reticent about their likes and dislikes. There are those rare cars that have been transcendentally beautiful and those few that have been breathtakingly ugly - some so awful that they contributed to the demise of the companies that produced them."

"The design profession as we know it today began to develop in the 1920s when the first modern design staff was instituted at General Motors under Harley Earl. To remain competitive, other automakers were soon forced to follow suit. Today, the quality of the design staffs throughout the industry is high and constantly improving. Does that mean ugly cars a thing of the past? Of course not.

The most celebrated aerodynamic disaster was that of DeSoto and Chrysler Airflows. Chrysler was renowned as an engineer's company, and Chrysler's managers were true believers in Frank Lloyd Wright's dictum that form should follow function. As a consequence, the Airflows were brilliantly engineered, with an impressive list of innovations. The public, however, rarely got past the homely looks."

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