What they've done with the basic car is simply the next step of "pimp my ride"... To me they just tried to make it look as "cool" as possible by fitting all the "cool" stuff on it they can find...
The original KITT wasn't even a good looking car (well, maybe it was in the 80's) but it looked like a normal (sports) car, which I think was the surprising thing.
Now, they've made it look uber cool and futuristic and created another ugly pimped car in my view.
But I'm still hoping that the new Kight Rider is actually worth watching, there's not any good car-series on the telly atm...