Blog – Boring? Well no!

You hear it everywhere: modern cars would look more and more alike. Bas van Putten broke a lance for that point of view yesterday, and is certainly not the only one. First of all, I get his point. The specifics he mentions, such as the dynamic turn signals and especially the surfeit of SUVs, do little good for the variety on the road. Moreover, it is true that the insatiable appetite for design quirkiness leads to exaggerated ‘form for function’ solutions and aggressive carriages that justifiably evoke aversion.

Still, I think we’re currently living in a very interesting time when it comes to car design. Think about it: compared to which era is the car world more boring than before? Cars have always been a product of their time, and over the decades, automakers have gone from one trend to the next. Of course, there are distinctive outliers such as the Citroën DS, the Beetle and the first Mini. However, they do not tell the whole story, but are the currants from the huge bowl of porridge that we call ‘the past’. Moreover, there are now also positive design outliers.

Note: this is not about beauty. I am also a fan of the modest, but timeless designs from just before the turn of the century, and sometimes long for the unpretentious style that apparently is no longer possible these days. Today, however, we are talking about variation, and in that regard, I think a golden period is underway.

As an example, I have posted a series of photos above of cars from the 1980s. They are models that have been delivered in Europe, from all kinds of different makes and from all kinds of different segments. Yet they almost all have more or less the same front, perhaps the most universal car front in history. A rectangular combination of headlights and grille, in which the direction indicators were placed on the corners in the vast majority of cases. Japanese cars were often an exception, but only because the ‘corner lights’ housed the side lights and the turn signals were mounted in the bumpers. The latter also applied to the Golf II and the BMW 3-series E30, cars that also received round (!) headlights. Well, that’s exciting!

Apart from the details, it was much the same during this period. Straight lines, sharp folds, no silly frills. All right, this is one period. Was it better in the 1990s? Slippery ice, because in this time a lot of cars appeared that I myself also experience as true design legends. Those cars have often aged very nicely, but I dare to say that even then it was certainly not a fat pot when it comes to variation. Brave hatchbacks and sedans determined the streetscape, a Mustang was hardly tougher than a Mondeo and I can still remember everyone complaining about the fact that you couldn’t really distinguish a Golf GTI from a regular Golf. Striking design at that time was really only reserved for priceless exotics, and the exceptions (Twingo, Multipla) that everyone likes to remember.

If we then look at the car landscape of today, I see much more creativity. Take a look at the spiritual successors of the models shown above. A Mazda 6 is clearly a Mazda, much more than the 1982 626. And take a good look at a Peugeot 308, which can only be of one brand after all. The Ford Focus may not be the best example, but in my view it distinguishes itself more from an Astra than its predecessor from a Kadett. Yesterday, by the way, I drove the all-new Astra, which can be recognized as such from afar with its ‘Vizor’ front and tidy carriage.

In addition, I have so far limited myself to the more conservative models in the range, the more traditional cars with a fuel engine on board. If we also include EVs, cars that often enter an entirely new ‘intermediate segment’, then a variety is created that, in my view, has no equal in recent history. We now have a giant hatchback with a retro coach, a super “MPV” with seven seats and gullwing doors, a crossover with a Mustang nose and a cute robot car that looks like it has escaped from a Pixar movie. What a time!