(FORTUNE Magazine) – For all the progress the U.S. has made, some industries still fall far short of the Europeans and Japanese in design. Many American managers simply aren't trained to appreciate it; the subject rarely comes up in Art History 101, and no top U.S business school teaches it. Rather than bringing designers in early to help shape every aspect of a product, managers tend to call them in late for a superficial face lift. Designers themselves haven't helped much, often disdaining managers as too philistine to fathom their art. To be sure, some clunky U.S. products are hits -- like those notorious Naugahyde reclining armchairs. Increasingly, however, ''people are buying the better designs,'' says Jim Stewart, industrial design manager at Apple Computer. ''That's bad news for U.S. companies that think middle-American taste is still locked into midsize Chevys and fake wood-grain pencil sharpeners.'' Here are five kinds of products that leading professionals interviewed by FORTUNE think U.S. companies design badly: -- Small appliances. Most American-made toasters still have 1950s-style chrome bodies and brown plastic handles. Mr. Coffee seems run-of-the-mill next to the high-tech-look coffee makers designed in West Germany by firms like Braun and Krups. -- Home furniture. Americans can't seem to make inexpensive furniture look stylish. Open the pages of a Sunday newspaper supplement: The ads push cheap imitations of colonial and Louis XVI chests and chairs better suited to a bordello than a bedroom. -- Stoves. European models, German ones especially, tend to have more flair and more handsome controls than the mass-market American variety. The white, boxy shapes and kitschy controls in those dreary Sears displays haven't changed in years. -- Cars. Despite Ford's success with the Taurus, American cars in general still don't match the Europeans and the Japanese. Jeep's crate-shaped Grand Wagoneer is basically a 1960s design, and GM's attempts to shake the look- alike image of its cars have had only modest success so far. -- Air conditioners. American manufacturers dominate the domestic market, but their room air conditioners, often adorned with ugly plastic masquerading as wood, tend to be bulky and noisy.