Open Wide! Bigmouth conversions for Passat, A3

Click image for gallery

Via Dieselstation (an Autoblog fave) comes this utterly disastrous adventure in styling. The current-gen VW Passt is a handsome car, and as such, it can be made to look really great with subtle changes, as we saw at last year's NY Auto Show, where a Passat wearing subtle factory appearance mods really elevated the presence of the staid sedan. The same goes for the Audi A3. The cars are good looking when they roll out of the factory, and both can be made to look cool without doing anything drastic. You know the saying: Less is more.

Unfortunately, that adage is frequently ignored -- and in this particular case, with extreme prejudice. The blame for the Passat depicted above can be laid at the doorstep of German tuning firm, Pro Street Carstyling Concepts, which apparently has a grille fetish so severe that an intervention from friends and family might be in order. This is also demonstrated, to a slightly lesser degree, in the Passat wagon and A3 3-door shown in the attached gallery. We're fans of Audi's single-frame grille, but this shows what happens when the concept is taken too far. What was once distinctive simply becomes... bad.

[Source: Pro Street Carstyling Concepts via Dieselstation]