Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) I am seeing a theme developing here.

Moaning again. Sorry.

I often wonder what it is that influences car designers. I have levelled a "compliment" at certain Audi's in the past.



Perhaps someone in Audi design has a particular hobby in their personal life.



But now we have a new leader. Separated at birth ?

A mother would struggle to love those

They'll sell like hotcakes probably - the public gets what the public (deserves) wants

My Toyota dealer refereed to the 2018 RAV4 as the storm trooper!

Definitely curvier frontage than current one.

Well Alistair its not looking at shapely women that's for sure . But it sure does say a lot for Morgan.

The question is, how do people get in and out of them in a tight parking space, or anyone else for that matter.

Tim

Of course you see a theme. These are mass produced transport boxes and they have to appeal to mass fashion. Hence the colour, hence the shape. Euroboxes.

Saw a cluster of then down our road yesterday. In this case all variants on the Range Rover theme, all in black of course and with tinted windows. I believe a couple were BMW but you would have had to look at the label to be sure.

What surprises me is that, apart from the operating costs and reliability, anyone cares whether the brand is VW ( ie audi, seat, skoda) or renault ( ie Nissan, Mitsubishi) or the various Panzers from Merc and BM.

The days when you had a choice, like the days when the roads were free, are gone.

I did not mean to emphasise the colour, it was just easier to poke a bit of fun if the examples I used were in the same colour as said inspiration. It

I just think that more and more cars are becoming blocky and brutalist in their styling. I have no doubt that the challenges facing many of them cause a lot of it.

Aerodynamics
Impact/Passenger/Pedestrian protection for accidents
Brand consistency

All seem to drive the bulk and shapes and I am certain that forms has to follow function.

I also don't mean to infer they are bad cars or brands. I happen to own a Black ML63s with dark windows (excuse is it was pre-owned and came with them!) which is hardly a slinky.

When I see these things I get the star wars tune stuck in my head, god it's annoying

There is a marketing value in triggering subconscious ideas to give appeal to potential buyers.
The Stormtrooper helmet is a well known image that is held in our minds (unless you have managed to miss anything Starwars). Designers will learn from growing up with these images and they will be used sometimes to influence their design ideas and thus trigger responses in the public. Nostalgia adds to it too.
True originality in design is not that common. It will show up in something totally new and not seen before. Hard to find a good example though.

Absolutely right. I am convinced that cars designed for younger buyers are based on their own, and their children's toys such as whizz wheels and transformers: all quirkiness and angularity!
Images of lifestyle have always been used to market cars but Volvo now seem to have taken this to the extreme. Their own customer facing magazines do not even mention cars now but instead softly portray the world's concept of scandi design in all fields and its association with their own products.

I think the modern marketing dept quote is 'We're not selling a product, we're selling a lifestyle'