Modern car designs ugly?

  • Thread starter Neddo
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I can't say i'm a huge fan of some of Spykers design touches, but they're quite unique, and i absolutely adore the rear end (tail lights etc etc) of their cars, especially their LM racecar of a few years ago.
 
Well...

There are still many modern cars that are very simple yet very complex in design.

For example:
tesla_model_s.jpg


There's no vents on the side and very few on the front, but that's obviously because the car doesn't need it.

Here's an example of a non-electric simply designed car:
Q50_three_quarters_front_right_hires.jpg


Nothing on the side and not much going on in the front, yet it's still a very attractive car (to me atleast).

You just have to get around the complicated hypercar nonsense and get into the slower yet still very sporty type of cars.
 
BUT Agera is amazing in it's own right, a car that stands out and as the most feminine hypercar these days! Especially because of name. No offense because some men like to call a car with she or her instead of it's, him and so on.
 
I'm quite a minimalist (maybe even Brutalist) with my own designs, so I also enjoy minimalist automotive design. That's not to say it's under-designed, because minimalist or primitive or restrained can be excruciatingly rigorous as well. See Lancia Stratos, BMW 3.0 CS, Detomaso Longchamp, etc for more details. Automotive design, like most things, is cyclical. We went from organic massing in the 1950s to intricate surface detailing in the 1960s to orthogonal planar design in the 1970s to appendage-ization in the 1980s. The 90s saw a return to organic massing and 2005ish to now has been (with some exceptions) all about surface detailing. Now I can't predict with any certainty that the cycle will continue back to orthogonal and planar design in the next decade, but there a few indicators that it might; such as the Nissan IDX. I have to say though, I'm a little bored by the surface detailing fetishism over the past decade. Thank you Mr. Bangle.
 
I just outright hate grills. To be honest, however much I like the Model S' design, I do wish that Tesla hadn't tried to make it look more traditional with the fake grill thing.
 
You again. :grumpy:

The thread title doesn't say that the cars have to be sold or have to be in production. It's all about modern design and the Jaguar Growler concept car is a modern deseign of the Jaguar E-type. BTW, this car exists.

Satisfied?

Well I wasn't trying to be pedantic, I'm asking you if there are any retro designs that you think work and actually exist.

It's easy to design a good looking car, it's much harder to make it.
 
Interesting subject. It annoys me when a lot (not all) of car companies design teams, just seem to copy and paste the current design language of the day.. I remember it happening (noticeably) back in the early-mid 00's with those bewinged/finned pod driving lights, housed in the lower front bumper vents (usually chrome...) Nowadays it seems that they're doing the copy paste ugly thing, with overly aggressive grills and headlights.

Design languages may change, but copy and paste has always existed.

mtZFfh9.jpg


This thread would not be complete without All80sCoupes.jpeg
 
Design languages may change, but copy and paste has always existed.

mtZFfh9.jpg


This thread would not be complete without All80sCoupes.jpeg
Thing is, only about six of those look close in resemblance, to me. So i don't really see that as a great example.. However, i agree. The copy paste thing has been around for a very long time, but i feel it's more prevalent know than it ever has been.
 
The only one of those which looks significantly different to the rest is the Porsche 928.
 
The only one of those which looks significantly different to the rest is the Porsche 928.
In your opinion. 👍 My opinion is different of course, that's not to say that both opinions aren't valid.

Another thing to consider with the copy paste thing, is that back in the day, the tooling/manufacturing techniques were different to todays more advanced techniques, though i imagine some surfaces we see on modern concept cars, are still too complicated to reproduce on mass.
 
Design languages may change, but copy and paste has always existed.

mtZFfh9.jpg


This thread would not be complete without All80sCoupes.jpeg

From left to right, top to bottom:

(1st Row) Escort Cosworth with pop-up lights, Escort Cosworth with normal lights, Toyota Supra Celica
(2nd Row) Japanese Escort with pop-up lights, American V8 Escort, Toyota Supra 86
(3rd Row) Camaro, Camaro, that's still the Supra 86
(4th Row) Camaro, Porsche, Japanese Porsche
(5th Row) German RX7, RX7, yet another Camaro

Do I win a cookie?

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I never get tired of that picture, either.
 
vh_113_exterior_side_toright.jpg


Aston Martin knows how to redesing cars. Using front lights of Vanquish and DBS style backlights as a tribute. Few new wheel options and colours and voila, a wonderful car
 
To me, modern car design is way better than the designs that were coming out of the 80's and 90's. The 50's-70's were pretty mediocre too with no real variations nor much of what I would consider elegance, granted you have things like the E-Type Jag, the DB5, and the likes that are all great but for the most part cars were just uninspiring. My favorite designs come from the 20's-40's where cars had class and took on a style of their own.

Modern cars manage to blend aerodynamics and styling to come up with something that looks great. Even basic cars look much better now than they did 10-15 years ago.

What I do dislike about modern car design though is this whole retro thing.
 
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As a lot of people say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I was thinking maybe age is a large factor in thinking modern cars are ugly? I'm a teen and I think the majority of modern cars are beautiful and look much better than older cars and some are looking better and better with every new generation.
 
Well I wasn't trying to be pedantic, I'm asking you if there are any retro designs that you think work and actually exist.

It's easy to design a good looking car, it's much harder to make it.
Ah, ok, fair enough. :)

I thought that it was possible to order the Jaguar Growler. The Swedish company was going to build about 4 cars a year. Delivery was scheduled for 2012. It seems that it's not the case?


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Don't forget the BMW i3 and the i8.


bmw-i3-coupe-concept-3.jpg


BMW-i8-01.jpg
 
Modern concept cars are often breathtaking, and the world would be a much more beautiful place if they weren't watered down beyond all recognition 95% of the time. Apparently, unnecessary laws like pedestrian safety standards are to blame. It really is a grave injustice.
 
I kinda like the production headlights. The concept seems a little too much. The original grill does look better in my opinion though.
 
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