Do you remember a few years back when Mazda threatened to adopt a corporate styling theme that was akin to sheets on the clothesline flapping in the breeze? They got so far as a couple of show cars and the 5 Minivan – seen above – before sanity was regained and the wave was quietly retired. Look, styling is always subjective, and as they say, different strokes for different blokes, but dang, that was one weird thing to do to a car! Whether the Edsel’s yak yoke grille, or any number of ’70s Japanese car tropes, automotive history is rife with questionable design cues. Sometimes they are model specific anomalies that come and go without scarring anyone’s baby for life at the sight, while sometimes they are endemic to an entire model line and make you wonder how much Peyote the designers fed the unsuspecting execs to get the atrocity through the gauntlet of corporate approvals. Failed styling themes are not without value. After all, if we don’t fall down once in a while, how will we understand the importance of getting up and learning from our mistakes? Wow, that sounded both profound and incomprehensible. What do you think, which are some of the most profoundly incomprehensible styling memes of the automotive age? Image: CarModelsWorld