: Retro is fine when you get it right otherwise far better to go
: modern and cutting edge a la Audi R8 or Mclaren...

Yes, the R8 and MP4-12C are both modern but cutting edge? Hmmm. The R8 is a very succesful "Audification" of the donor car, but also pretty sober - with the exception of the "blade" and that isn't present on the Spyder. Probably my personal favourite Audi in the range as it doesn't suffer from the 'same-again but larger/smaller' styling of the saloons, though the A5 runs it close for me too; that's also a sober car, follows the saloon design but is just different enough and works well for me.

For me, the McLaren is also fairly traditionally styled too - not necessarily a bad thing, I like the end result bar the awful plastic mouth, looks too similar to the one marring Laguna Coupes right now.

For cutting edge, you can look at some of the detail aero treatments on the Ferrari 458; Ferrari design is not necessarily the most cohesive nowadays but there is some advanced thinking in the touches - the rear of the Italia has a lot going on, both visually (probably too much) but also technically.

But then, car styling is like watches in that personal tastes vary tremendously (I'm not really a fan of the Monaco, but I hear some people like them a lot :) ) so at the end, it's probably a case of agreeing to disagree.