Is there a reason that we Americans can't get a beautiful car designed and built by the Big Three? Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of good looking cars here, especially the new offerings from Ford like the Fiesta, Focus, and Taurus, but none of these are beautiful. Yesterday, I said that the movement of speed skaters was what "Usain Bolt would look like if he was running on clouds." What I want is something so beautiful that my jaw literally drops.

Enter the French. Ooh La La and Bonjour and all that. At the Geneva auto show this year, the Frenchies are showing two concepts by Peugeot and Citroën. Peugeot will bring the "5 by Peugeot Concept" while Citroën is carting in the DS High Rider. Let me just say this: WOW. Absolute beauty's from the "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" as Jeremy Clarkson once described them.

Both of these cars incorporate curves, hips, shoulders, and character lines on top of an already beautiful shape without managing to appear chubby like most American cars. It seems as though American designers have 3 design philosophies: Bulky, Blocky, and Powerful. Most cars that you see coming out of American design studios attempt to conform to all three. I'm looking at you, Cadillac.

Oh and another note, a further positive from these two cars. They're both green, very very green. Both cars are powered by clean burning diesel hybrid powertrains. The French are quirky car designers (See: Citroen C6) and if they manage to improve on build quality (which has always been a complaint on the Top Gear survey), these need to be here.

The Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky were two personal favorites and look what happened to those two. Unlike all of those no-talent "celebrity" primadonnas *cough* Paris Hilton *cough* running around, it seems as though beauty can't survive in the American automotive marketplace like it can in the streets of Beverly Hills.

TheCD's Take: The designs of these two autos or whatever you prefer to call them are just stunning. Oh they are good. They're like biblically-Moses-ten-commandments good.

5 Concept by Peugeot
Citroen DS High Rider Concept