Auto Designers running out of ideas?

"LJ909" (lj909) 02/17/2015 at 20:10 • Filed to: None

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Lately to me car designs haven't blown me away like they used to. Most of the new models that have come out or are coming out just seem to be more evolutionary designs rather than revolutionary.

For example, the new 15' Mustang is still basically the same design that debuted 10 years ago:

Just tweaked modernized

Same thing goes for the new for 15' Escalade

Which is just the same Art and Science design that blew us away back in 03

Of COURSE there are differences (smartass people like to point out the obvious, but if you do that your missing the point of this article) but its more or less the same design. I could list a few other cars that have these same issues. So do you guys think we are seeing a plateau of automotive design, where designers will just start tweaking long in the tooth designers because they cant think of something new and original?

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:16

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It's cyclical, as it always has been.

OPPOsaurus WRX > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:18

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 V8 Rustler > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:18

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For example, the new 15' Mustang is still basically the same design that debuted 10 years ago:

This type of changes are the ones you like?

jkm7680 > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:19

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Radical shit is dangerously ugly. Eg: Lexus.

LJ909 > jkm7680 02/17/2015 at 20:20

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Radical shit often also means desperation

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:20

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Why change anything? They're good and the outside design isn't always the best part. Especially with the platforms they're on.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > jkm7680 02/17/2015 at 20:21

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I think the thing Lexus has going is amazing. Their German rivals are all various flavors of boring. It's bold. It stands out.

People may not get it now, but I think it will, in time, be looked at fondly.

Vimto > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:22

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Styling is a careful mix of adding new-ness without upsetting the market to the point where it may negatively effect sales. Also, I have found that as a 20 year old, I find most the most appealing aesthetics are vehicles that were really big when when I was growing up and getting into the hobby. I used to think that every new release was the greatest and best looking version, point blank, but I now sometimes question the choices of the designers. It's part of growing up.

TheHondaBro > jkm7680 02/17/2015 at 20:22

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Or it means a desire to look differently, which is alright in my book. Also, I think the Lexuses (Lexi?) look great.

jkm7680 > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:25

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Exactly.

Lets Just Drive > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:25

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The realities of the world we live in today are such that radical car design is a very difficult thing to bring to market. These concerns include but are not limited to; safety standards (impact and collision) which neuter so many concepts and the 'design by committee' method meaning the vehicle must be road legal (proper height bumpers, passenger impact considerations, light placement and function etc) approved by the marketing guys and not be such a break from tradition that customers get scared off.

The automotive world we live in, how it manifests in 'real world' application, isn't the heady (often deadly) gambit of innovation and design it once was. I need point no further than why we can't have pop-up headlights!

jkm7680 > PanchoVilleneuve ST 02/17/2015 at 20:27

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I find the RC to be probably the most hideous car I've ever seen in my life. It's grossly overstyled and has an excess of all the already undesirable features that Lexus somehow manages to create.

The Germans are more conservative. I'd rather show up to work in a 7-Series than Predator's vehicular doppelganger.

OkCars- 22k Crossroads > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 02/17/2015 at 20:28

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i agree. also, if you were to make drastic changes on, lets say the mustang.

It kind of stops looking like one, so it stops being one. when i was a kid and i saw the Foxbody mustang on the street, i never thought they were a mustang.

E. Julius > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:29

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I think this is entirely cognitive bias and/or false comparisons. There's plenty of exciting new ground being broken. Think i8, CTS, C7, 4C, even the new Chrysler 200s have a very "2010s" look to them that clearly demonstrates design has not plateaued. There will always be follower cars, for which style is a secondary concern and is executed with cost as the primary criterion. These cars will follow design trends that are typically established on the higher end of the market where style is more important. This is nothing new.

The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:32

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And some is just plain creationist, made by the hand of god itself.

Or inbred/hybrid. Like the Murano convertible, the BMW X4/X6...

surlymike > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:32

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I agree that new cars just don't excite me like they used to. There are lots of reasons that they just restyle a design: People are suckers for the "new and shiny". More profits and less risks then a new model/design. Easy to do with computers nowadays. Personally, I hate the trend towards giant grilles and fancy headlights that make every car look like it wants to be an Autobot or Decepticon. I guess I'll just keep buying nice older cars.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > jkm7680 02/17/2015 at 20:35

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"I find the RC to be probably the most hideous car I've ever seen in my life."

Have you seen, like, 4 cars?

jkm7680 > PanchoVilleneuve ST 02/17/2015 at 20:36

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Nope, out of tons of Azteks and everything in between I still find it to look horrible.

dogisbadob > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:42

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I totally agree. There is a huge glut of these stupid "designers" and they're all bored. That's also why we get stupid shit like infotainment and gimmick electronics. We should limit the number of designers to like a single digit per year.

Also, the Mustang should've been made smaller like the FRS/BRZ, but with a sunroof available. Base engine would come from the Focus, with optional engines being a 200-hp version of that engine, and then the 260-hp turbo from the ST, and finally a V8 at the top.

They should've killed the Mustang in 68. In 1969, the Capri debuted, and it went through the 80s. Then the Probe in the late 80s, and the Australian Capri in the 90s. The 70s Capri is the real Mustang II.

Automotive design seems to have peaked 10 years ago.

Leadbull > E. Julius 02/17/2015 at 20:44

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Exactly.

Go take a look at all the '90s blobs and '80s boxes. Very rarely are truly revolutionary designs ever created and implemented in actual production cars. The ones that do come to fruition are called "unique" and "exciting" for a reason.

Not everything can be revolutionary. If everything were revolutionary, then nothing would be revolutionary.

Thunderface > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 20:51

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I'll agree with the caddy....

LJ909 > Lets Just Drive 02/17/2015 at 20:58

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You have a point. But thats one of the reasons I started viewing concept versions of production vehicles as a way of building us up to let us down. Seldom do automakers bring concepts to production like Chrysler used to do in the 90's. I was surprised when the Camaro came back exactly like the concept.

Milky > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 21:05

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Whenever this gets brought up all I can think is how auto ensign hasn't been revolutionary. Just look at ANY era.

VonBelmont > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 21:19

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I feel like designers also ruin great designs by constantly tweaking them. The '05 Stang looks great-it's a great throwback to the '60s original. The new one looks like a throwback to the '90s Mustang.

Ew

Lets Just Drive > dogisbadob 02/17/2015 at 21:23

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Typically ill-informed opinions, phrased as statements, does not make them any more valid.

Placing a maximum on the number of automotive designers working would not help your case, it would ruin it. You've taken a piece of misinformation and formed a proclamation around it and the worst part is that your idea would have exactly the opposite effect .

In the same way as the first, your second paragraph leads with an assertion with no foundation in reality. What you are really saying is that a BRZ/FRS should be available with more power and a sun roof. Why you think the Mustang should fill that role I can't even imagine. But, you probably know better than the marketing departments of Ford, and Toytota/Subaru combined.

I cannot express to you how tired I get of hearing people talk about the Mustang, how it should have done this then or been that then all put forth without the benefit of realization; the success of the Mustang is due to the success of the Mustang and saying "they should have done X" is no more valid than saying that your parents should have won the lottery before you were born because your ass might not exist. The pony is where it is today by virtue of where it has been.

Lastly, automotive design peaked a decade ago? This sounds like sterotypical old-man speak. "Arrr, things were better when I was a lad blarghl blarghl." That's insane and utterly ignores the progression, the evolution, of design.

Yes, there are new rules. Yes, there are different requirements but to say that automotive design peaked in 1995 is batshit crazy talk and that's okay when Mr Regular does it, it's his sthick, but c'mon!

Lets Just Drive > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 21:27

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Times change. Change with them or spend your nights raging against the dying of the light. Lord knows there are a lot of us, the sort who'd stand in front of a tidal wave complaining about how old waves were better only to get inevitably swallowed up.

Find the beauty, man. It'll help.

dogisbadob > Lets Just Drive 02/17/2015 at 21:35

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10 years ago is 2005, not 1995

ZacMS > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 21:58

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Ya the outside of cars hasn't been changing as radically as it has in the past, but the interiors of cars having been evolving at a breakneck pace. Even the inside of a base level car is a pretty nice place to be these days.

Lets Just Drive > dogisbadob 02/17/2015 at 22:06

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Shut up. It's only 2005.

ly2v8-Brian > LJ909 02/17/2015 at 22:08

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No they are not. Accounting and management reign them in, because you have to run a business. People are boring, they want boring.