New car styling?

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I've started seeing a trend here with the Evo X, the Nissan GT-R, and a few Audis with the big gaping front air intake lots of black body work inside of it.

I will agree that it is very aggressive, but I just think its an eyesore. What do you guys think? Will we be seeing more cars borrowing this design trait in the future?

In general I think car styling is going downhill, the same shapes are just being used over and over, and its getting very boring driving around! :lol:

 

[BlaRo]

God, I hope not.

But car design is one of the trickiest jobs in the world. You spend all of this time slaving away, designing something with passion and emotion and searching for the perfect balance between form and function, something that harkens the future while not straying away into obscene radicalness, and then the accountants and engineers and marketers and safety experts get to it and tone it down, get rid of all its signature elements, shrink the wheels, raise the roofline, and cheapen the car so it looks like a pathetic caricature of your former self, then it gets sent into the real world so "enthusiasts" around the world can take a passing glance at it and shoot it down as "having the front of a Nissan, the side of a Ford, the tailights of a Mitsubishi, the roofline of an Edsel, the lugnuts of a Plymouth Satellite, and fenders that scream 1956 Morris Isis Series II Automatic". It's a far cry from doodling Hot Wheels cars on your Algebra binder like I did.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

God, I hope not.

But car design is one of the trickiest jobs in the world. You spend all of this time slaving away, designing something with passion and emotion and searching for the perfect balance between form and function, something that harkens the future while not straying away into obscene radicalness, and then the accountants and engineers and marketers and safety experts get to it and tone it down, get rid of all its signature elements, shrink the wheels, raise the roofline, and cheapen the car so it looks like a pathetic caricature of your former self, then it gets sent into the real world so "enthusiasts" around the world can take a passing glance at it and shoot it down as "having the front of a Nissan, the side of a Ford, the tailights of a Mitsubishi, the roofline of an Edsel, the lugnuts of a Plymouth Satellite, and fenders that scream 1956 Morris Isis Series II Automatic". It's a far cry from doodling Hot Wheels cars on your Algebra binder like I did.

Well for Nissan's sake, I'm glad they fiddled around with this...

As much as I dont like the final car, that concept was just ghastly! I mean just look at it, it just looks like a sad dog that doesn't know why it exists. That is the first car that I've seen that looks existential.

 

[BigDaveDogg]

Makes an Audi look less bland...and that's kind of a good thing IMO. As for every other vehicle similarly styled it's not appealing.

 

[Magnet]

Similar styling has been around for every single generation of car design there has been. Believe it or not, people don't like stuff that is different, or "ahead of its time". Car makers have tried doing the radical before, and more often than not, they have been colossal failures.

Car designers follow trends of the times, just like every other designer of goods out there. Cars have always looked similar to each other. I'll dig up an old post of mine to prove it.

Oh, and please, some people, we know some cars look like each other. It has happened decade after decade

(1920 Car Forums)
Look chaps, it's the new Chevrolet 12.
http://img504.imageshack.**/img504/8467/chevy12pf9.jpg
OMG, it looks like the Ford Model T
http://img329.imageshack.**/img329/7287/1919fordmodeltsedanad9.jpg

(1960s Car Forums)
Hey fellas, here's the new Ford Galaxie

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 896x600.http://img246.imageshack.**/img246/77/1966fordgalaxiemiller01yo1.jpg
It looks like a Plymouth Fury
http://img514.imageshack.**/img514/2206/copland65fx6.jpg

(80s car forums)
Flock of seagulls! It's the new Vauxhall Cavalier!
http://img184.imageshack.**/img184/9316/vauxhallcavalierlh1.jpg
Looks like a Sierra
http://img518.imageshack.**/img518/6912/finalre2.jpg


Moral of the story? Cars look the same.

 

[tigger]

Imho it looks good in certain applications. Audi does it nicely, but the X and the GTR just look tacky. It's a styling cue that's been used for decades, so I doubt it's going anywhere.

 

[jetsetter]

Car styling peaked (with a few exceptions) about 40+ years ago.

 

[Austere]

Car styling peaked (with a few exceptions) about 40+ years ago.

I agree.
<----

 

[Ottobon]

^^^For all of human history people have always romantisized about the past, usually they "ideal time" being almost exactly 50 years ago. With that said i think focus groups, marketing, and sometimes legislation make it much harder to create a wonderful looking car.

What starfox touched on seems to be more of a trend then something that actually has any real logical strategy behind it, if anything its probably down to marketing influence on design, something probably psychologically related to assertiveness. Basically bullshit.


Personally i'm P.O.'d that cars still have such unforgivable aerodynamics, we've known not only how to make beautiful but aerodynamic car since at least the 1950s and yet all i ever see is extremely boring bricks with some etches of chrome on the

 

[IVIaster]

God, I hope not.

But car design is one of the trickiest jobs in the world. You spend all of this time slaving away, designing something with passion and emotion and searching for the perfect balance between form and function, something that harkens the future while not straying away into obscene radicalness, and then the accountants and engineers and marketers and safety experts get to it and tone it down, get rid of all its signature elements, shrink the wheels, raise the roofline, and cheapen the car so it looks like a pathetic caricature of your former self, then it gets sent into the real world so "enthusiasts" around the world can take a passing glance at it and shoot it down as "having the front of a Nissan, the side of a Ford, the tailights of a Mitsubishi, the roofline of an Edsel, the lugnuts of a Plymouth Satellite, and fenders that scream 1956 Morris Isis Series II Automatic". It's a far cry from doodling Hot Wheels cars on your Algebra binder like I did.

No, the engineer does all the hard work and then the stylist comes and spoils it all

 

[wooflepoof]

Were slowly moving from the retro era and going back to angular styling, albeit in a more futuristic form. Everyone knows fashion is cyclical.

 

[FDaihatsu]

I've started seeing a trend here with the Evo X, the Nissan GT-R, and a few Audis with the big gaping front air intake lots of black body work inside of it.

I will agree that it is very aggressive, but I just think its an eyesore. What do you guys think? Will we be seeing more cars borrowing this design trait in the future?

In general I think car styling is going downhill, the same shapes are just being used over and over, and its getting very boring driving around! :lol:

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I just noticed....they're all trapazoids!!!!

 

[crashmaxx]

No, the engineer does all the hard work and then the stylist comes and spoils it all

+1

Anyway, clearly it depends, the Audi looks great with its new big grill. The Evo X is pretty nice, though somehow in the end it looks kind of fat I guess, something is off for sure, but not the grill. The GT-R grill just looks dumb. Its clear they just painted part of the bumper black to make the opening 'look' bigger. I think it would look better with some of those black parts painted body color, and I hope that will be an option.