Jim stopped by to respond to our story, “Styling comparison: C8 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray versus the original.” He wrote:
“I think it would be nice to know which modern sports cars, if any, you do like. Maybe a McLaren F1 otherwise it may appear that you only like old cars.”
The auto industry is pretty fad conscious. Trends come and go, sometimes with remarkable speed. In recent years automotive design has tended toward busy, gimmicky and often angry-looking shapes. The Corvette C8 strikes me as epitomizing this trend.
In contrast, I am more inclined toward clean, aerodynamic and organic styling. For example, aside from the Cybertruck, Tesla’s design language has been quite clean. So too has a major portion of the Volkswagen Group’s lineup. The newest version of the Prius strikes me as a hopeful direction for Toyota given its recent foray into baroque styling.
If I had to single out a current sports car design, I would be more inclined to select the Mazda Miata over the likes of a Toyota GR86.
By the way, I don’t think you need to go retro to offer a clean design. The Nissan Z tries to evoke that nameplate’s legendary past but I don’t think the overall design hangs together very well — it’s too choppy and bloated.
PHOTOGRAPHY:
- Banner photo: Mazda Miata by Negawa Ohashi via Wikipedia Creative Commons 4.0.
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I find myself losing interest in new cars. It might have something to do with my age, I’ll be 70 this Fall.I don’t really care about all the hyper performance that is available. Also, being retired and we are empty nesters, I just don’t drive that much, so the need for a new reliable car has been diminished. Since I own several later model hobby cars, I usually have something available to drive when my cars have a mechanical issue. Cars have certainly gotten more expensive, and I don’t see many things that make me want to chain myself to a big car payment. I can have a lot more fun playing with my hobby cars at a lower cost. If I really needed a new car I’d buy something simple and cheap.
Another oldie here (66). I found I lost interest in modern cars when the smooth curvy nineties designs started getting boxier and over-busy, with all sorts of odd hashes, slashes, mascara tracks, strange contours and odd appliques being added seemingly at random.
I can no longer drive. My last car was a 2005 Mazda 3. Newer ones I’ve ridden in seem needlessly bigger (that’s another issue) with poorer visibility, for all that they look nice from outside. That MX5 is fairly attractive; unlike Toyota, Mazda seems to largely avoid the needless styling gimmicks.
I don’t feel cars of the ‘teens’ will ever have the iconic appeal of those finned wonders of the fifties. They were also overdone, true, but they mostly had a visual coherence much modern design seems to lack. Head-turning, rather than stomach-turning.
Do I like only old cars? I wouldn’t say that. It just seems that most of the good designs are older.
There are beautiful, boxy new cars (Range Rover) as well as stunning fluidic designs like Prius. Good design should be simple and elegant, not overwrought and confusing, whether or not a car is new or vintage, and it doesn’t make one ‘old’ to appreciate the difference. Our tastes to evolve, too. At one time I was indifferent to a C4 or C5 Corvette; now when I see pristine examples I’m really impressed by its beauty.
If one considers the grill and headlamps as a cars face too many recent cars resemble malevolent alien lifeforms. I’m in the Lexus R X demographic. I might own one were I blind. But then I couldn’t drive it….
First, I will say that automotive design is constantly evolving and that in itself is a good thing, lest we would still be driving those bloated, chrome infused dinosaurs from the late 1950’s. We test drove a new Prius last year. It was noting like our 2010 model year Prius. We found it hard to enter and exit and less spacious than our older Prius. At 66, entering and exiting a vehicle is big concern of ours. Instead, we went with a Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid, not much of styling shocker just practically sized.
Break through designs are rare, but they do drive future direction. Consider the low slung 1953 Studebaker coupes, then Studebaker Avanti, the original Oldsmobile Toronado, the original Cadillac Seville, the Ford Granada/Mercury Monarch, the original Jeep Cherokee, the Chrysler minivans and finally, the AMC Eagle. Each of these designs were breakthroughs in their day and in many ways continue to influence the automotive industry to this day.
To my eyes, the best looking Corvette was the 1970-1972 C3 with the chrome bumpers. I’m sure that the 2025 model is superior in every dynamic I can measure…but it doesn’t look like -art- The same with aircraft. I’d be looking over the F-86 Sabre at an air show, not the F-35.
Art sells. Sex sells. Make me imagine myself in your vehicle. I can’t imagine myself in a new Corvette or Mustang. But I sure can in a new Porsche Boxster. Or that customized Miata that looks like a ‘Vette, the Mitsuoka. Or a WRX.
For awhile, some car brands had fronts that looked like the Cylons from the old 70s Battlestar Galactica. (link https://i.chzbgr.com/original/8598691840/hA61C7F39/scifi-cars-battlestar-galactica-8598691840 ) Then they got gangbanger tears front and rear. Now they look like Mantis overlords. Not a lot catches my eye lately and makes me want it.
Same demographic as most of us here for me too!
We’ve lived thru the chrome-laden, jukebox, straight-cut, coke-bottle, bar-of-soap, square-cut designs, and now we’re into the alien/origami/aggressive-face stuff. This, too, shall pass – as we know!
My two must-haves are elegance and proportion. I own a ’53 Studebaker coupe.
Yep, I’m a Karmann Ghia fanboi. Loved mine, would still have it but for a bad voltage regulator starting a fire. A most elegant and aerodynamic design. The 1st gen Scirocco looked great as well (would love a ’84 GTI 1.8 motor in a ’76 Scirocco), but that was another example of good design. I haven’t online priced a challenger, charger, mustang or camaro at their websites just to see how much they’d be in over a decade.
Having said the above, l will confess to owning a current generation Nissan Murano as a daily driver. Not the greatest(or worst) face – or rear, but l do enjoy the profile. I had an ’07 Monte Carlo for many daily miles and loved it dearly.
My son works for a big Audi store and says that the sedans are being pared back and the A5 Coupe is disappearing – as did the R8. What a shame. SUV’s are handy, but current trends are making me wish for the days when almost 3/4 of new Chevy Novas sold were 2 doors (1971?).
A poster of an original Countach never touched my walls – and never will. Neither will any posters of “alien-faced exotics”. But, please excuse me while l fetch my ’65 Corvair brochure and linger beside my model of a ’66 Riv (and a nice pic of a Peugeot 404 Cabriolet).
Do I like the styling of older cars? Generally, yes. Do I like the styling of newer cars? Generally, yes but with more reservations. Some of these things are going to take a while to grow on me, maybe like a carbuncle. Time will tell.