Automotive styling is a tricky beast to tame, the fact of the matter is cars have to be designed to lure the masses and not the specific style of its builder. While parts like the tail light or headlight assembly dictate the “face” of the vehicle there are many other aspects to consider that make a car attractive.
There are some great examples of how headlights can look great but still the car design is a failure. The Pontiac Aztec is a great example of this, the headlamps look like they would be right at home on a sports car but they have been placed on what would turn out to be probably the ugliest car that has ever been released to the public. On the other hand there are cars that have terrible headlamps but for some reason they look great anyway. A great example of this is the new SLS by Mercedes if you look at the parts they don’t look good but once they are all put together it just works and you cant really explain why.
Car design is a major factor in what car people will buy, a few years ago Honda released the civic hatchback SI. It was met with weak sales and Honda took that as the public did not want a sporty version of the Civic. They missed the major factor ….it was really ugly and it doesn’t matter how good a car is if it’s not nice to look at. The fact of the matter a car must look the way people want it to. If you are building a mid-size sedan the car can look kinda bland cause to most “it’s just a car” but if you are building a sports car it must have curves and angles that give the car an aggressive look. They say cars represent their owners and their owners don’t want to drive a car that makes them feel ugly or boring. 
