Long-Term Automotive Design Trends

[Metar]

Headlights that go further and further into the car:

Peugeot took it to the extreme. The 206 and First-gen 307 were still reasonable - but the 407 (And Coupe), 207, 107, 1007, and MKII 307 all have extremely stretched frontlights:

Also, I noticed the grills are getting a lot bigger:

Old (Audi 80 Avant '91):

New (Audi A4 '03):

Newer (Audi A8 "Security" '06):

Another trend, noticable on the Audis, is going from Boxy ('80s Audis) to round ('90s Audis, A3) to round-with-sharp-egdes.

 

[jammyozzy]

I seem to recall a load of cars in the 90's going too curvy, to the point that they looked like jelly moulds. The Mk 2 Mondeo for example:

But, if you square off some edges (well ok, all the edges) and actually make it look attractive:

Look closely and many of the features are similar. The grills are in the same place and they both have silver surrounds, the fog lights are in the same place, the door handles are on the crease (or what I tend to call the 'fat roll' in the case of the Mk. 2). If you squint even the headlights are similar, they both pull up and back slightly. I guess this shows the 'edginess' trend quite well, and how it can make a car look so much better.

 

[Duke]

Giant whalemouth grilles (which don't need to be large for cooling, and could be smaller are a really stupid trend. Audi is the worst offender by far, but there are others.

Coupled with the previously-noted trend of excessively high beltlines and tiny windows, many new cars have a caricature-bulldog look that is not pleasing at all from the outside, and is positively stifling from the inside.

I too hate the sheepdog-out-the-window look of the excessively deep headlight surrounds (especially since there's mostly nothing in there but cheap plastic chrome surrounds) as epitomized by that crappy Lexus Camry at the top of Doug's post.

 

[harrytuttle]

Reduced driver involvement. It's been going on since day 1. Granted, some improvements (like not having to leave your car to start it) are definite improvements, but others are not (cruise control, self-parking), and others are endlessly debateable (power steering, ABS).

The whole thing's going to bell-curve on us: better & better followed by worse & worse. Not sure where the peak is, but I think we're near it. The less people are involved in what's going on behind the wheel, the less they feel they need to pay attention. End result? No on-road improvement.

Headlights that go further and further into the car:

I think that's due to increased pedestrian safety regulations, requiring more "soft" material between the point of impact and the "hard" engine. To combat this increasingly gallic nose, the headlights are stretched around the corners to make it seem as if they start further back on the car, thus (not really) reducing the look of a overlong front end.

This, of course, is not the correct solution to proper pedestrian safety. Since we can't prevent idiots from crossing the road at random (which is the correct solution), the proper compromise is different materials of the vehicles face and relocation of the hard points (engine, strut towers, etc.). Of course, that requires much more time & money than just stretching the nose out. Until someone actually engineers this properly, we'll have some nosey cars for the next few years.

 

[neanderthal]

Giant whalemouth grilles (which don't need to be large for cooling, and could be smaller are a really stupid trend. Audi is the worst offender by far, but there are others.

i guess you havent read about the development of some of these high peformace cars then.

a great example, albeit one that is rather extreme, is the veyron. cooling was a nightmare for the engineers if they had to follow the design brief, which they did. the have to get pretty clever with routing air around the vehicle and adding flaps and so on.

i read another article about cooling the C6 Z06 brakes, and how the original brake cooling ducts (not really related i know, but you get the idea) didnt cool the brakes enough and the first ones they tried that did ended up causing too much front end lift at high speed. again they had to get creative.

dont underestimate the value of a nice big grille, especially in a performance car.

 

[Sage]

Does an Audi A3 really need a grille that big though? It got along fine for years without it.

That’s what Duke’s aiming at – cars that have ginormous grilles for no good reason other than to be obnoxious.

 

[usedHONDA]

Most of GM seems to be doing just the opposite.

 

[Metar]

Most of GM seems to be doing just the opposite.

And most of VAG is doing that very thing.

 

[Pupik]

The disappearance of yellow tail-light lenses.

 

[ExigeEvan]

'Trolley guards' becoming body coloured. No longer do we see thick black lines on automated shopping trolleys.

 

[iceburns288]

Fenders?

 

[GT4_Rule]

The cars look a lot fatter from the front than yeasrs before, especially in a Japanese car.

 

[High-Test]

Humbug. Round sealed beams and Fins are coming back, baby. just like the chiefs..


I myself would invest in a company that makes fender skirts and spotlights. They'll be all the rage on the new FF Impalas. The sad part is that someone would do that.

 

[Duke]

i guess you havent read about the development of some of these high peformace cars then.

Uhhh, yes I HAVE read about them.

a great example, albeit one that is rather extreme, is the veyron. cooling was a nightmare for the engineers if they had to follow the design brief, which they did. the have to get pretty clever with routing air around the vehicle and adding flaps and so on.

The Veyron is a huge midengine car with a colossal, high-output engine that generates a huge amount of heat in a very tight enclosure. Of course it had cooling problems.

But A4s and S4s, in their previous bodystyles, are not known for cooling problems, thanks to their conventional front-engine layout. So was there any need to inflict THIS:

onto THIS?

The new 'corporate image' grille took the A4/S4 from a car I'd dreamed of owning to something I have no interest in.

For a more pedestrian example, look closely at Subaru B9 Tribeca. That hideous front clip is almost entire fake grille opening. Only the stupid little Alfa-nostril thing in the middle actually goes through to the engine bay. The moustache things are blanked off nearly all the way across.

Stupid and ugly in the extreme.

 

[Dave A]

I completely agree with Duke here, the corporate grille Audi uses does not suit a lot of thier cars. I don't see why car companies feel the need to have a corporate face, just design each car within a set of design principals but tailored to suit that specific model. I find it funny that Audi seem to have completely missed the design criticisms that BMW's were getting during the 90's and the reason why BMW's don't all look the same now.

 

[TheCracker]

I find it funny that Audi seem to have completely missed the design criticisms that BMW's were getting during the 90's and the reason why BMW's don't all look the same now.

I'd say that BMW are still the worst culprits for this sort of thing. Outside my office window right now are a 5 series, 3 series and 1 series. All are parked facing towards me and you can barely tell the difference between them, certainly not between the 3 & 5's.

Audi's have always towed the corporate face line, i like this recent aggressive grill style. In Europe, at least, the new grills don't stand out as much since the front number plates split the two parts of the grill, making the front end look not all that different from the previous gen.

 

[Tornado]

i guess you havent read about the development of some of these high peformace cars then.

And that applies the everything that is not the Veyron how?

 

[Danoff]

Trends I see:

- Increasing gas mileage
- Smaller AND Bigger cars. We have some of the smallest and largest cars ever on the road today.
- More FWD cars
- More and more safety features.
- Bigger wheels
- More Horsepower
- Smaller Engines/Hoods
- Weight Reduction

 

[Tornado]

- Smaller Engines/Hoods
- Weight Reduction

Well, attempted weight reduction. And engines really haven't gotten any smaller in the past 10 years. If anything they have gotten bigger.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Trends I see:
- Weight Reduction

I can't think of any models that have actually got lighter in their latest incarnations.

 

[Sage]

Jaguar XJ?

 

[Danoff]

I'm not talking about specific models losing weight, they don't. I'm talking about the general overall weight of cars being offered. I guess it fits in with my size comments, because we also have some of the heaviest cars on the road today.

 

[YSSMAN]

I completely agree with Duke here, the corporate grille Audi uses does not suit a lot of thier cars. I don't see why car companies feel the need to have a corporate face, just design each car within a set of design principals but tailored to suit that specific model. I find it funny that Audi seem to have completely missed the design criticisms that BMW's were getting during the 90's and the reason why BMW's don't all look the same now.

The whole idea of a "corporate face" to an automobile is to make the model identifiable as a Mazda, Chevrolet, or Volkswagen as compared to other models on the market. The companies wouldn't want a potential customer to be driving about and see a car they really like, and not knowing what it is, buy something that looks strangely similar. Thus the corporate identity was born.

Here in America the idea runs rampant at GM and Ford, but the automakers have been backing away, giving their cars an identity with models like the Mustang, Camaro, etc. Sure, the regular cars look "similar" but they are different in their own right I suppose.

...It doesn't mean I like it, but I don't mind having all the cars I'd be looking to buy from Chevrolet having the same split-bar grille with the massive gold "bow tie" set in the center. It looks good in most cases, and certainly separates them from the rest of the GM models.

 

[harrytuttle]

Aluminum being used everywhere (engines, chassis/body, interior trim). I guess that falls under "adding lightness", or at least "attempts to add lightness".


Rear drive replacing front drive. All-wheel-drive replacing rear- and front- drive. Front drive being ridiculed. Well, not really....


Bar-of-soap design, and the rebellion against it. Cars started to be progressively smoothed out over the past 15-20 years, with less upright grilles and a slightly hatchbacky rear end. Lexus and Audi are prime examples of that trend. If there's one thing to be thankful for about Chris Bangle's hack & slash detailing, he helped detract from the hideousness that is modern crash requirements for body design. Sometimes one crazy loon can bring sanity back to the group.