RE: Where did all the pretty cars go? PH Blog
Wednesday 10th April 2013
Blame having to write about the BMW X4 recently. But since when did cars get so damned ugly?
Porsche's Matthias Kulla with his handiworkIt's easy to hold strong opinions about design of course; unlike the more nuts and bolts side of the business you don't need a technical understanding to hold a view, claim it as subjective and stand your ground with impunity. Everyone can be right. Winner! The reality is, of course, that designing cars is as technically complex and engineering led as any other part of the process. It's just that its exponents tend to dress better and are more handy at soundbites.
The German brands can do the core stuffWhat's funny is that the major German brands manage their signature cars with such panache. The Mercedes E-Class - more so in pre-facelift form - has a pleasingly hard-edged sense of restrained Teutonic precision and purpose harking back to the glory days of the W124. The 3 Series, Touring especially, remains as sleek and sexy as ever despite the near ubiquity of the 320d. And the cookie-cutter Audi saloon/Avant template remains crisp and distinctive, even if you can't quite tell which of the last three generations of car you're looking at. See also the 991 911 - same dish, sharper yet more subtle seasoning.
And the same people did the X4 and 3 GTAt a recent BMW event we were shown some 'live action' car styling, with lots of earnest young designers with trendy haircuts and square glasses making tiny, millimetric adjustments to full size clay models with scalpels before stepping back to stroke their chins and pose as if on the cover of a glossy design periodical. Intricate stuff. One can only imagine that once their work is done Gunther from the panel beating department takes to the clay model with a shovel and sledgehammer and that's what the measurements for the final sheet metal stamps are taken from.
Kia's transformation has been design ledMeanwhile Gerry McGovern at Land Rover isn't shy of claiming the personal limelight but the cars created under his watch, whether to your taste or not, have real presence and there's a real swagger around Jaguar that's inspiring to see too. Shooting the Astra VXR we had in on test the other day really had me appreciating some of the work in that too - my trackday disco slippers say take the Megane 265 for purist driving thrills but viewed through chunky, black-rimmed glasses with a reflective hand on my chin the Astra is a refined and accomplished piece of design. Even a base-spec five-door is a handsome thing. For the VXR back in the day a big wing and white knuckle torque steer were enough for hot hatch glory but the Astra's body has some real aesthetic sophistication to match the impressive technical spec beneath.
New Astra is a handsome piece of kitAnd if you'd told me a couple of years back I'd conclude a blog about design saying the leaders of the field are Kia and Vauxhall I'd have looked at you in disbelief!
Where did all the pretty cars go? PH Blog
Oi, you in the roll neck and chunky glasses - make our cars look nice again please!
Porsche's Matthias Kulla with his handiwork
Technical and legislative demands make the designer's job ever harder too but indulge in five minutes of four-wheeled people watching and it's hard not to get a bit gloomy about how many unforgivably fugly cars there about these days. Especially the so-called prestige ones.
The German brands can do the core stuff
But then they go off-piste into SUVs, MPVs and crossovers and it all falls apart at the seams. Which is worrying, because off-piste is where many are having to chase the money.
And the same people did the X4 and 3 GT
Interesting too that the last time Audi seemingly bothered to have a car actually designed was the TT and the bloke commonly credited with that is now running Kia. Peter Schreyer's appointment to the top job prompted some snickering at a 'mere' designer taking over the running of the company but if ever there was an example of design transforming a brand's standing within one generation of cars Kia is it. Think I'm wrong? Take the logos off the new cee'd, park your badge snobbery and spend some time studying on merit alone the way the lines flow into each other and how it manages to look hunkered down and purposeful even on poverty spec small wheels - a rare trick and artfully done. So who better to run the show?
Kia's transformation has been design led
New Astra is a handsome piece of kit
Dan
Discussion
Tastes do indeed change but no-one is ver going to look at an X6 or an X4 and say that its a great piece of design. Granted they are challenging but not in the same way as a bangle era BMW, which at least retained the function of purpose. An X6 and X4 are crossovers too far. Perhaps this could be said of all SUV 4x4s.
I think we're actually in a great period for design, with just a few exceptions (some of the odder Bimmers, Fiat 500L(OL), Honda CRV etc). But for the most part, mainstream cars like the Astra, Golf, Fiesta, Focus and Pug 208 all look the best they have in ages, sports cars in particular are sharpening again after the jellymould years (see Boxster/Cayman, SLK, Z4), and supercars are recovering, at least aesthetically, some of the unrestrained design penmanship of the 1970's/80's. Interiors are by-and-large a lot better now too. I think a lot of this has to do with a renewed cultural emphasis on industrial design (see queues outside Apple stores in the middle of a recession, et al).
Familiarity breeds acceptance. I didn't appreciate Bangle'a bravery at the time and still don't now, bravery is good (Fiat Mutipla) but the general flame surfacing look he went for with creases left right and centre combined with odd shut lines and proportioning really offended my eyes.... but the sheer numbers of cars that he has influenced means I don't shudder quite as much. What he did was on the one hand shock and jolt the design industry which is good thing, but on the other create a whole raft of copy cat reactionaries that are colour and wheel dependant...which is very bad IMO. Ghibli..yes you...
The high bonnets and sides are required by crash safety regs, and the overall shape is dictated by computer-designed aerodynamics to minimise every last bit of CO2. This means that the actual shape of the cars are now pretty much standardised. Just take the sillohuettes of the latest superminis to see how similar they now are.
All this leaves the designers is the window dressing.
They can't tailor the grill and lights to the car, as they've already been dictated by the corporate face. And this face is rarely chosen because it actually looks nice - it's chosen to differentiate them from the competition. (Think Peugeot's massive lights and whale gape, or Audi's ever growing mouth, or Ford's new Aston rip-off grill, or VW/Skoda's new inoffensive snore....)
And then they have to add as much bling as possible - overly elaborate DRLs, massive 20 inch wheels to disguise the bulk below the window line, chrome, fake diffusers - as China and Russia like bling. It doesn't matter how bad it looks - in that market more is more.
So in fact you can't really blame the guys in the roll necks and chunky glasses - they hardly get the opportunity to design a car anymore!
All this leaves the designers is the window dressing.
They can't tailor the grill and lights to the car, as they've already been dictated by the corporate face. And this face is rarely chosen because it actually looks nice - it's chosen to differentiate them from the competition. (Think Peugeot's massive lights and whale gape, or Audi's ever growing mouth, or Ford's new Aston rip-off grill, or VW/Skoda's new inoffensive snore....)
And then they have to add as much bling as possible - overly elaborate DRLs, massive 20 inch wheels to disguise the bulk below the window line, chrome, fake diffusers - as China and Russia like bling. It doesn't matter how bad it looks - in that market more is more.
So in fact you can't really blame the guys in the roll necks and chunky glasses - they hardly get the opportunity to design a car anymore!
Edited by Dazed & Confused on Wednesday 10th April 12:19
I really don't see any sleekness in the 3 and 4 series now. They look squashed and grumpy and the new light treatment is horrible. BMW perfected the look with the E46 and have been cocking it up ever since. The Astra does look good and I'd add the Mazda 2 and Fiesta as well. In the B class, things fall apart. I have to say, I rate the Bravo above all others, despite its age. The Giulietta looks good from most angles but needs the front bumper restyled. The after market folk are doing it better:
The MX5 is still a pretty and pert little thing despite too much chrome, and the CX7 is still alone in being a genuinely attractive SUV. Madza do seem to have things sorted better than most but they're about to blow it if the CX5 is anything to go by. The new front grill is just generic and dull. The only German normal cars that are actually well styled are the ever boring but well proportioned Golf and the Passat CC. Audi, Merc and BMW have gone too far into caricature.
The MX5 is still a pretty and pert little thing despite too much chrome, and the CX7 is still alone in being a genuinely attractive SUV. Madza do seem to have things sorted better than most but they're about to blow it if the CX5 is anything to go by. The new front grill is just generic and dull. The only German normal cars that are actually well styled are the ever boring but well proportioned Golf and the Passat CC. Audi, Merc and BMW have gone too far into caricature.
zebedee said:
The Chinese like things that look brash and bold far more than Europeans do. The Chinese are the ones buying new cars, the Europeans aren't.
I reckon that has a lot to do with it, European car makers aren't making cars to appeal (primarily) to us anymore.
This. I reckon that has a lot to do with it, European car makers aren't making cars to appeal (primarily) to us anymore.
And if I were CEO of a major car company, I would be directing my designers, and my marketing teams in the exactly the same way. Go where the money is.
.jpg)
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff