Hyundai has just released the newest version of their best-selling Sonata and let me just get the elephant out of the room: this thing isn't pretty.

Looking at it for the first time, something was just off and then I figured it out. From the front, it reminds me of a fish.

The designers borrowed heavily from the new Hyundai Genesis coupe and working from the front of the car to the back, you can see the design cues in the front bumper, grille, the line that cuts down the side of the car, and in the taillights.

Hyundai is trying to create a new look for the family and though the grilles aren't exactly the same, the shapes and sharp lines are very similar. All of the upscale car brands use the same basic shape for their grilles to create a brand identity. The best example of this is the BMW kidney grille which is found on the front of literally all of its modern cars.

The Sonata features a large chrome grille with angular lines running down the middle, evoking the Genesis Coupe.

The front bumper also borrows design traits from the Genesis in a more subtle way. The basic shape is there but it is subdued, whereas on the Genesis Coupe it is bigger and meaner looking, almost smiling at you but in that mischievous kind of way.

Under the headlights there is a crease on either side of the car leading down to the mouth of the bumper but these only bring to mind the image of a catfish or deep wrinkles on a weathered face.

On the side of the Sonata is a very sharp crease which follows the contour of the taillights from the back, through the door handles, and ends kind-of awkwardly before the front wheel. This line may have worked better if it followed the shape of the window-line in order to give the car a strong shoulder over the rear wheel rather than just have the line fade out into the front quarter panel.

The greenhouse (from the bottom of the windows to the roof) of the car looks to have borrowed heavily from the recent trend in 4-door coupes like the Mercedes-Benz CLS or the Volkswagen CC without actually being as sleek or well proportioned as the Merc or VW. It just screams that it's too long.

A kink in the last piece of glass before the c-pillar like the one found on the Genesis Coupe or on all BMW cars (the Hofmeister Kink as it's called) would have worked very well here to not only make the Genesis look sportier, but to unify the Hyundai brand a bit more.

The tail end of the car looks as though it's squinting at the viewer. Hyundai's designers look like they may have been going for an angry, eyes-brown arced downward look but it doesn't translate well to the rest of the car which isn't terribly imposing.

The taillights and headlights also borrow from the Genesis Coupe in their general style. Hyundai has tried to go from the blockiness of the last generation Sonata to something rounder and more fluid in the lights. The issue though is that the last generation had a classic do-no-wrong style, which may have been a turn-off to some people in that it wasn't daring enough.

The new Sonata is simply too daring. Hyundai's attempt to reinvent itself as luxury and sportiness for the masses worked extremely well for the Genesis coupe but the Sonata's designer has drawn inspiration from too many sources for the look of the car. It's like cooking with too many ingredients, once in a while you'll get a kick from the chili pepper or the garlic, but ultimately it just tastes bad.