The Latest "Me-Too" Trend in Automotive Design?

[Cory Wolfe]

As I browsed the various automotive news websites for my daily virtual reading, something hit me. It was a bit of deja-vu from looking over an image. I'm not certain, but it may have been an image of the Subaru WRX STi from the numerous first tests everyone published. Why it hit me now, I haven't the slightest clue. I started digging to find the source. Soon enough, I found what brought on this repetitive phenomenom. What started out as a couple vehicles here and there soon morphed into many. In fact, by the end, I was able to find hints of this design feature in nearly every manufacturer's lineup. All the big automotive names... like GM, Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Kia... All the little automotive names... like Mitsubishi, MG, Subaru, Tesla, Citroen. They all have this one little bit in common...

Can anyone see what I'm seeing?

[balthazar]

The homogenization of auto design? Been seeing it for at least 2 decades now.

Someone could EASILY put together a like GIF of the profiles of sedans and get a similar impression.

Edited February 18, 2014 by balthazar

[smk4565]

A trend I don't like is the high hoods, high belt lines and lowered roof lines to make a sleek look, you can't see out of a lot of these cars. It all different manufacturers too. But everything is designed for crash safety and wind tunnel performance on a computer, so they all look the same.

[David]

They all have the same Mad at the world Head Lamp look. The I am pissed at the world look at me now.

Wish someone would go with a I am an Individual look at me now headlamp design.

[Robert Hall]

Chrysler and Jeep have variations on those light shapes as well. It's part of the whole trend of 'angry' front ends and tiny side windows (for a fortified tank/pillbox look) that has been all the rage over the last decade, design that is reflective of an angry, paranoid safety-at-all-costs world.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[Intrepidation]

http://youtu.be/klLSZooiirk?t=16s

[Intrepidation]

Seems I started a trend way back when....

[David]

Back away from the Coffee and Anime!

[balthazar]

Original Ever Angry :

[Robert Hall]

^ Yep...also in that category IMO is the '59 Dodge and the positively alien psychotic look of the '61 Plymouth.

[David]

Original Ever Angry :

Very true but it has it's own style compared to the Anime cars today.

[thedriver]

you know what? the modern origin of that shape of headlamp is the Pontiac Aztek!

[Robert Hall]

Kind of an upside down shoe shape...

[Cory Wolfe]

It's more the downward kink that is shared on the bottom edge of each headlight rather than the angry look. I never realized how prevalent that little kink is in current designs. It's as if they are adding it to make the design look more interesting without noticing how similar it is to what everyone else is doing.

The homogenization of auto design? Been seeing it for at least 2 decades now.

Someone could EASILY put together a like GIF of the profiles of sedans and get a similar impression.

Yes, but if you really think about it, you could do the same thing with nearly every decade of automotive design. There have always been certain themes in design that are widely copied... or regulated in the case of sealed beam headlights.

[Intrepidation]

Yes, but if you really think about it, you could do the same thing with nearly every decade of automotive design. There have always been certain themes in design that are widely copied... or regulated in the case of sealed beam headlights.

This. While its easy to complain that cars today all share common styling themes, go to any era and you fill find the same thing. A 50's car looks like its from the 50s, an 80's car looks like its from the 80's, etc.

[balthazar]

The deviation to that theory happens after that; when the '2000-teens' cars look like the '2000s' cars, which look like the 1990s cars.

[Drew Dowdell]

eh... that's cherry picking on the last one.

[Drew Dowdell]

From lumbering brougham

To Menacing Luxury

From Stealth Fighter

To Heavy weight fighter

[67impss]

Realy Drew, The comparo would have been a SS and they don't lumber

[Drew Dowdell]

I think the Cruze spyshot thread shows that we may already be well passed "Peak Car".

Impss, there is no current day Impala SS, the current Impala, as excellent as it is, is still luxury tuned in spite of its aggressive looks. The old Caprice did lumber, not that there is anything wrong with that.