Why do people think cars all look like one another?

[TopHat]

"That car has quite a bit of BMW in it"

"I see some Mazda in the front end"

"omg u see they copied the grt wtf"





I'm quite annoyed by people popping into EVERY THREAD and just saying that X looks a little bit like Y, which looks like Z. Am I alone in this? The only time its acceptable is when it's eye searingly obvious, like on Chinese cars. I nearly SCREAMED when the very 1st post in a thread on GMi was "wow that looks like an aura". I can only imaging what the lot of them would have been like in the 50's, or the 30's even.

 

[niky]

*shrugs*... people are just nitpicky, I guess...

It's okay when it's an obvious rip, like the way some Lexii look like Benzes... but hearing that absolutely everything looks like a 5-series or Mondeo is just plain ridiculous.

I'm guilty of it, too... but what can you do? There are leaders and there are followers... and when you have 1,000,000,000,000 different car designs over the past few decades... it's hard to tell who's original and who's not, anymore.

 

[YSSMAN]

Well obviously there are cars that have greatly impacted the overall style we see in the industry, or in some cases, individual companies. Corvette style features are found in most Chevrolet vehicles, its just what they do... Of course, you generally don't see Corvette stylings in other sports cars. Sometimes, but not frequently.

People tend to identify common themes, and automakers pick up on it. Thats why that fancy BMW hump has become popular, or why the vanilla of family sedans is defined only by how boring Toyota or Honda can make their own.

Meh. Stuff happens. We just have to live with it.

 

[Philly]

I would expect that some designers will see something that they really like in one car and try to make their own on their car. If somebody has a breakthrough in technology, you can only expect that that other people would try and adopt something similar.

That and like niky said about there being so many designs that you can't point fingers for one curve that may very well resemble another unintentionally.

 

[niky]

But Brad has a point... some distinctive features become associated with their innovators... the BMW "hump" is one of the most glaringly obvious... Volvo had a sort of split level trunk before BMW, but BMW made theirs pretty ugly.

So... you'd expect people to copy the sexier Volvo rump? No... BMW is more prestigious... so, obviously, all the second-stringer car designers start making BMW rumps. And it's all the more obvious for it.

Flame-surfacing, though... I think people call on this one too much. People have played with the dimensions of flanks before... putting interesting shapes into them... claiming any wavy line on the side of a car is a flame-surfacing rip-off is as ridiculous as saying the '53 Corvette is a Bangle-rip-off done with the use of CIA clairvoyants looking into the future.

 

[stumpydino]

aston martin and porsche have got the right idea and just copy themselves every time
if theres a trend going then people are bound to replicate it

 

[Keef]

aston martin and porsche have got the right idea and just copy themselves every time

That's a good point. Not only are they all the same within the company, but they've all always had the same good design.

 

[YSSMAN]

Why change a good design only for the sake of change? Its completely pointless! Its pretty much why Porsche design, overall, hasn't changed much since the origional 356. Its why the Corvette hasn't evolved much since 1968. They look good, even with the otherwise minor tweaks they've been given.

I think the issue with "regular" cars is that tastes evolve a bit more quickly. Granted, you take a good look at the 3-series and it still doesn't look like its changed too radically from the E36 from 15 years ago. But, have a look at the Accord, and its a completely different machine. Certain classes of cars are going to be able to accept change more easily than others, and I think the family sedan segment is one of them. I assume, more or less, that it is because the people who are buying the largest portion of them switch out about every 10 or so years, and consequently, the designs occasionally have to become more "radical" to bring people in.

The Mazda6, for example, seems to be a good car to measure it by. The 626 that had preceded it had otherwise been a "me too" design by comparison to other Japanese sedans in its class. If anything, it looked a bit like the Camry with its boxy flavor, and of course, there were some hints of the Maxima as well. As the design evolved, the Mazda still kept pace with the Camry-ish look. However, by the end of the run, the 626 seemed to have been left behind style wise.

The Mazda 6, however, took its own direction and of course made itself very distinctive in the market. Sales, I think, reflected that a bit, brining in a different type of consumer. Its hard to say in any way shape or form that the 6 has had any effect on the market, or for that matter, that the market has had any effect on the 6. Its an awesome car, and I easily prefer it over the Accord (well, kinda) and Camry (definitely) of the same time frame.

 

[exigeracer]

It's called industry trend. You see it in anything that has to be designed, fashion, furniture, product, interiors, architecture, etc etc. In the automotive industry it is easier to spot because there are so few players compared to, say, the Milan runway scene. The ones that are the imitated are the trend setters and are therefore more influential as forerunners in the automotive design field. It's kitsch, it's copying, it's fake, but whatever it is, it is competition and evolution. That is as simple as it gets.

As far as GTP, and one-liner posts like "the back looks like an S2000," well, I've long-since learned to read through those. It is easy to say, but it is a better design analysis if you say why something looks similar or different than the norm.

 

[JCE]

aston martin and porsche have got the right idea and just copy themselves every time
if theres a trend going then people are bound to replicate it

But, it does help that they look bloody fantastic each time.