What car do you hate that everyone else loves?

RandomViewer wrote: »

Just saw a parade of classic cars go past, must be some motor club, but all 70s and 80s, Escorts, Mantas, Mk1 Golf, few E30 BMW, they were all distinct, didnt need to look for a badge to see what it was, everything lately seems to have been designed by committee

More designed by the market far more than in the "old days". Though like in music we tend to only think of the hits of the old days when looking back. LIke in music there were a lot of misses too. For the most part 70's cars were often badly put together and could be reduced to a pile of iron oxide after a heavy shower, unsafe, woefully underpowered, with brakes that seemed to have only functioned as rear red light switches. But yes there was more variablity in design.

Why? Costs. Margins are very tight and car companies can rarely afford to take risks except at the very low volume high end stuff. Most modern cars share one or two platforms within the brand so there's only so much you can do design wise. Cars need to have all sorts of gadgets that people have come to expect so they share those among the ranges on offer. The more you can share interiors et al from the communal parts bin the less cost and more profit.

Safety is another huge factor. So overhangs are longer to allow for that crumple zone in front and rear, A, and B pillars have to be much thicker to protect in case of impact and rollover and they have to contain airbags too. Doors are much thicker with higher window lines for the same reasons, even the angle of the bonnet is more raked to protect pedestrians. Look at old cars and notice how the bottom of the windscreen lines up with the bottom of the rest of the glass, side windows and the rest. These days there's usually a step up to the windscreen. Then there's more emphasis on practicality, so four doors are in, two door low to the ground racing snake coupes are out. Price another factor. Look at car door handles. Most are a variation on this theme:



It's cheap, is used across the ranges and the industry standard and covers all the safety and reliability bases, so they pretty much all use the same design. Go back to the 1970's and there were as many door handle designs as their were cars.

Plus in the past cars were designed on pen and paper, often enough by one bloke, or a small gang of blokes so individuality was more in play. It still is in the very high end expensive "supercar segment", though even here regulations have changed the shape of them. Take the reissued Ford GT40(first series). Their last year of production was the last year because upcoming new regulations meant they couldn't be produced anymore. They couldn't be produced today. These days cars are designed on and by computers with the safety points and interior features as hard points that can't really be moved, or moved much.

There's also the concept of the world car which really didn't exist much in say the 70's. Cars were far more local market specific and the average car in Italy was very different to the average car in Japan, or America, or the UK. The world car again is cheaper and less risky for the brands and can be sold worldwide so has to have broad, even bland appeal across so many markets, with lots of focus groups trying to insure mass appeal.

Brands themselves have become less and less independent and tend to be one big company with a suite of brands under their control, with shared platforms and parts. Bigger company structures means more hands in the pot so again fewer single visions get to market.

Perspectives change too. To 70's or 80's even 90's eyes most cars on the road today are very large even bloated and heavy, but that's where the market is.

If you look at the Renault Hurrache posted it illustrates pretty much all of these features. Change the grill(which is where designs tend to be most different) and it could be a Ford, Opel, Toyota etc.