All styles come and go with time
Boxier style then more of a curved look to cars and then back to the box style

Also push button start with nissians. Back in the day that'* what was avalable then eveyone went to the current turn key ignition then to the "new" push buttons.

Styles and trends will come and go as long as cars are produced

I think it depends on the cladding. Some looks clean and some looks tacky. The Bonnevilles caldding still looks clean to me, where as some cars go too far and it just looks like shaped plastic on the side.

I agree. I really like the side cladding.
What is funny is when they came out with the GXP and said Pontiac finally cleaned up the body armour but it has the same cladding minus only the ribbing.

It adds styling. Everyone has different tastes. :?

I only wished it extended up a bit more so the sides doesn't dent as easy with such thin sheet metal.

I certainly agree about the GTO...a quick glance will confuse it for a cavalier.

Talk about 'watering down', look at the new Ford Taurus...its exactly the same as the Ford 500 except for the headlight design and the body lines moved very slightly. And the Fusion is too far from either of those :?

No one confuses the Holden Menaro or Vauxhall VX-R with a Cavy. The GTO is a Holden, similarly the G8. The comparision with the Cavy is an unfortunate coincidence. Luckily Chevy doesn't have a previous car that looks like the G8 body style.

Same car just rebadged to pick up sales #'*

I like my cladding on the 94 and the 03. The GXP'* is very nice too. I remember reading an auto magazine'* review of the GXP not too long ago. One of the things they said was that they liked how Pontiac got rid of the cladding.

Many critics of the cladding argue that it makes the cars look cheap. I don't fully agree. I think GM used cladding mostly to make the cars stand out (as others have already stated). Pontiac IS "driving excitement" as we all know. The aggressive styling is part of that. And maybe the cladding is also cheaper to produce than making the same body lines and ridges in the metal itself. Either way, I like the aggressive styling/cladding of the Bonnevilles (SSE/SSEi, most SLEs) and most other GM cars like the GA GT, and the 94-95 Grand Prixs.

I also don't have anything against Nissans, Infinitis, Audis, BMWs, and other imports that don't have cladding. They demonstrate that the lack of cladding can still be aggressive and unique. The cleaner look of no cladding is nice also.