The M45 is not unattractive, just uninspired. The sheetmetal comes straight off the Gloria sold in Japan, where styling tastes (and car names) can be curious. So the overall lines of the car are inherited from a design never intended to appeal to buyers in the U.S., whether of midsize luxury cars or sports sedans. The roofline is totally prosaic. The lines don't flow, they just sort of exist, spreading horizontally across a front end that's dominated by an unimaginative grille stretching like a forced grin between the headlamp units, three horizontal beams per side with almost no angle. Underlining this spread, literally, is a long dark horizontal air intake.

The molded front and rear body-colored bumpers are new, and represent a designer's valiant attempt to coax the eye into thinking the whole shape is chiseled, but another adjective for the bumpers might be chunky. The rear bumper becomes a smooth part of the deck, leaving only the simple taillights and the license plate recess for definition; and the front bumper looks a bit like a guy with a pinch of snuff inside his bottom lip.

The M45 looks much better in silver than black, because of its dire need for definition. It comes in five other colors, some of which might look better yet.