Examples of poor writing #1 - Excessive use of similes

Yesterday I commented on how poor a writer Cussler is.

Poor writing does not necessarily mean the book is unreadable. Cussler knows how to get the reader interested in the story. But, when a book is uninteresting as to plot and all you have our characters, and the writing is terrible, then you typically lose readers.

(Then there is the other side of the coin, people who read Cussler thinking he writes excellent prose, thus blunting their ability to recognize good writing. Much as people who listen to rap or heavy metal will probaby never be able to recognize actual music.)

Reaading through Cussler, it is not as if every sentence and paragraph is actually bad. It's more his use of conventions - in describing things he always compares them to something else, as in a metaphor - but usually a poorly chosen simile. And occasionally he uses the wrong word entirely.

First, some definitions:
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our god.”

or:

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles" or "All the world's a stage"

Simile:
A figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared, as in “she is like a rose.”

or:
A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as, as in "How like the winter hath my absence been" or "So are you to my thoughts as food to life"
Here are examples from Cussler:

From Polar Shift, a Dirk Pitt novel written with Paul Kemprecos:
First off, the first two paragraphs which show exactly how overboard the author goes with metaphors:

The Mercedes-Benz 770 W150 Grosser Tourenwagen weighed more than four tons and was armoured like a Panzer. But the seven-passenger limousine seemed to float like a ghost over the cushion of new fallen snow, gliding with unlit heeadlights paat slumbering cornfields that sparkled in the blue light of the moon.

As the car neared a darkened farmhouse that lay in a gentle hollow, the driver gently touched the brakes. The car slowed to the speed of a walk and, approached the low-slung, fieldstone structure with the stealth of a cat stalking a mouse.

I don't think a four ton car is going to float over a "cushion" of new fallen snow, to begin with. And "slumbering" cornfields?

More similes:
The ships lined up three miles apart and combed the area like a search party looking for a lost child in the woods.

The arrow-slim kayak flew across the sapphire of Puget Sound as if it had been shot from a bow.

Perhaps not so bad taken on their own, but when you read the books and every other description is of this nature, it simply becomes wearing on the nerves.