What is it with headlight designs in new cars? The designers seem to be competing on who can design the most ugly headlights. Reminds me of the tail fin era of the 60’s. Hopefully this will go away in a few years
Everyone is looking to do something different to differentiate their products. Lighting is relatively inexpensive to do that with.
What designs are you referring to? Audi seems to have the most unique headlights in their newer cars, but I wouldn’t call them ugly.
The one that came to my mind was the Nissan Juke.
Yah, this brings up the addage ;
’’ Just because you CAN does not mean that you MUST.’’
Seems that as soon as the DOT rules changed from sealed beams to aero/plastic headlamps …the challenge was ON to see who could have the most outlandish looking , yet still legal, headlamp assembly.
They ALL seem to have fogotten about routine service at the customer level ! ! !
Who in Gods name should have to pull off a bumper cover to change a BULB ???
I like tail fins.
And when said ugly headilght gets broken the car owner then suffers sticker shock when pricing a new one.
My first thought when reading the original post was the Nissan Juke. Reading further led to the same mountainbike also bringing up the Juke so there must be something to it.
That also leads to the point about whether or not the rest of the Juke is just as ugly as the headlights. In my humble opinion it is.
For a long time I thought the Aztec was the most hideous vehicle on the planet but the Juke has shoved it aside and taken the honors IMO.
Granted, the Aztec was aardvark ugly when it first came on the scene but if it were introduced today it might not seem so bad compared to the Juke, the Smart, the Cube, and so on.
The one that came to my mind was the Nissan Juke.
The Juke’s ugly headlights are entirely appropriate. If you made the headlights attractive, they would clash with the ugliness of the rest of the car. 
We are going to see a lot of unusual headlight designs with the introduction of LEDs for headlights. The eyebrow-shaped headlights on the more expensive Audis are just the start.
+1 to @shadowfax The Juke is one ugly car!
Nissan has produced a bunch of ugly cars in the past, Google Datsun B210 or F10. Mostly with goofy lights and the old-style 7 inch round bulbs.
My biggest gripe is putting the turn signal in the nacelle with the headlight so it’s difficult to see at night.
The plastic headlights on our 1994 Nissan Sentra cost $187 each, plus the bulb. A local company custom made strong plastic covers for $50 a set. We had those on for 17 years and sold them with the car.
I think Nissan cars are uglier now than ever because they are associated with Renault. They build some lovely cars, but also have some hideous ones.
Many of the molded “designer” headlights have a questionable beam pattern…Trying to aim them properly can be a challenge too…
Insightful, I too have ranted about the directional being too close to the headlamps, getting swamped out by them at night. This was a byproduct of lighting module manufacturers developing the technology many years ago to mold the amber right into the clear module, making a single lighting module less costly to the car manufacturers than separate lights. And then Nissan goes and mounts a whole separate light set on the hood! Go figure.
My biggest complaint is that those plastic headlight lenses all seem to develop cataracts as they age.
They do, but they’re easy and cheap to buff off. I wish the cataracts in my eyes had been as easy to fix!
I simply polish mine every time I wax the cars and have never had any yellowing problem.
The headlights don’t work either; fifty feet and then total darkness. Then you can’t just pay $5.99 to fix a burned out one. I also agree that front signal lights are in the wrong place. They should be under the bumper in a dark spot so they can show that they are flashing.
The headlights on my Lincoln Marks are the biggest disgraces for lighting that has ever been inflicted on any car. One street lamp and the lights wash completely out with no idea whether or not the lights are even on. They’re that dim.
Those lamps were made for Ford by Sylvania and the problem is due to the reflectors burning from bulb heat; not yellowed lenses.
Obviously Sylvania cheaped out on the electroplating and plastic. It’s downright pathetic that a modern era automobile has been saddled with something so shoddy.