@Deutscher_Döner_Memes No. The message simply is, that this isn't something new. In every decade You have car fashion, what makes a lot of cars looking alike. And also everytime there were ecceptions. I remember car magazines blaming boring confusable car design back to the late 70s...
@@Romiman1 sorry but this isn't the same thing. 1920s cars looked the same because of limitations. there was literally nothing else they could look like because there was nothing before that specific style sans a few experimental cars
In my opinion the biggest reason for this phenomenon is that people (non car people) buy suvs and crossovers over sedans and hatchbacks. I feel like10-15 years ago out of 10 sold cars 5 were sedans, 3 were hatchbacks and 2 suvs, but now 8 suvs, 1 sedan and 1 hatchback. This would explain the article back from the 90s when sedans were the dominant segment. Cars always looked very alike in the same segments because of technology or safety of the era. Nowadays we just see less varied selection of car body styles and segments.
The '5/3/2 vs 8/1/1' point is a good one, but as you say, it's only relevant when comparing current day to 10-15yrs ago. Go back further - especially pre-1980 - and we end up at '8/1/1' again, except its 8 sedans, 1 hatch and 1 'other' (4x4, coupe, etc.)
In 3rd world cars are a lot expensive most people buy hatchback, sedan 2nd and pickup 3rd. People want bigger car buy MPV or van, crossover and SUV are just wasting money, resale value 10 years old Honda HRV and Jazz same price.
In fact i find the cars 90s saloon cars all have a "similar look" like slim grill design, slim headlights, squared off boot, low rake hood. Just look at a mid 90s: toyota corolla, mitsubishi lancer, nissan sentra, vw jetta, mazda 323, honda accord/civic, ford laser!
As a kid, in the late '70s & early '80s, I loved visiting other countries & seeing the array of different cars we never hot to see in the UK. This year, on holiday in Italy, the cars on the road are virtually identical to the ones the streets of England.
Well, yes, some modern cars look too similar to each other, but I also wanna point out, how a lot of modern cars also look very generic, bland, plain and uninteresting. Being a 90's kid, even back then, the cars looked like the design teams did actually put some real effort into their overall appearance and style. Now the cars feel like the designers don't even try at all just for the sake of cost cutting measures.
I considered covering interior samey-ness in this video, but I decided against it to keep the video focused - I might do a sequel at some point, as I have plenty to say on interior design as well!
I've always thought the same, I still don't want a modern car though. A lot of modern cars are the same format too, crossovers or softroaders. We did used to have more variety in that area. Anyway, good to have you back, good thought provoking vid. 🤘
It really is mostly a matter of nearly all manufacturers fighting for the same consumer, and today's market asks for crossovers and SUVs. Ironically, they all jump into the current product and design trends in an attempt to stand out from the competition, but I also don't agree that today's cars are "all the same" because some brands do have a recognizable visual identity, despite parts shared with others within a group (ex.: Peugeot, or the new FIAT Panda).
Cars are more homogeneous these days but it's due to buying habits, so many people buy suvs and crossovers that the sameness comes from customers being more boring than manufacturers, it's why Lotus as we knew it is dead.
I appreciate the bit about the Capri - I'm always annoyed by internet warriors claiming an X brand should bring back the Y car (usually a performance one) without realising such cars were selling less and less and killing them off was a matter of market shifting. We might hate SUVs, but the majority like an easier entry and better visibility, so it would be odd for car manufacturers to deny customers what they want. With today's design languages featuring a lot of angles and lines, it's obviously more difficult to differentiate cars than back when they were slabs of cheese with either round or square headlamps.
The thing about Capri is they are sold with a resounding image of the og one, which clearly they're not. People wouldn't complain if they name it after some old SUV or family carrier, but not spirited automobile like capri.
@@Hilmanpanjifirdaus True, what I meant to say was that Ford are very unlikely to use that name again on a v6 petrol coupe, people would complain even if it became an electric redefinition of itself
Ohh if those car guys could read they'd be very upset when you'd hand them that 1992 issue of Autocar... Great content as always, but probably to intellectual compared to the average YT clickbait car stuff. Was the picture of the GTA in the Autodelta shop on purpose when mentioning mass production?
IMO, a key driver for a car's styling, which you overlooked, is fashion. There was a key move away from the boxy/sharp-edged styling of cars from the '70s and early '80s into a smoother, more aerodynamic style, as manufacturer wanted to push the idea that the car you were buying had spent hours in the wind tunnel. I think Audi started the ball rolling.
Most new cars being ugly is subjective, so I won't argue with you there - but generic? I invite you to look at the early-'90s C-Segment - the Renault 19, Citroen ZX, Ford Escort Mk5, Rover 200 R8 and Honda Civic. Similarly, the late-60s/early-70s D-Segment (Hunter, 125, Cortina, Ascona, K70 & Corona), late-80s E-Segment (Granada, 800, Renault 21), or perhaps the late-60s 'personal luxury cars' (Toronado, Grand Prix, Eldorado, Riviera). Cars have always looked generic, as every era has its trends - the current decade is no exception.
Check out the rears of the 1997 Nubira and 2004 Quattroporte... It always made me wonder how such a luxury brand could design a rear that is that similar to a Daewoo from the 90's.
To be honest, this might be a case of the Maserati designers not being aware of Daewoo's products - I'm studying automotive design at university, and have seen multiple examples of other students unknowngly copying models in a similar vein to the Maserati-Daewoo scenario. Especially considering the gap in market between ultra-budget Daewoo and sports-luxury Maserati
I'll say something controversial. I think we are in the best car design era since the 60s and 70s. It feels like mass production has progressed enough so that car brands can go wild with their ideas again, not being bogged down by technical constraints.
That like saying that all Assassin's creed games are great nevermind that all games are big slops of shovelware much like suvs in cars so sorry but no one needs suv
People buy SUVs because they want them - if people only bought the cars they "needed" instead of what they "wanted", we wouldn't have any sports cars or luxury cars either!
@@full-service-historylol people who buys suvs are normies and probably the blame for harming both earth environmental and human lives especially outside cars where driving a huge suv are know killers for pedestrians
People don't buy trains or planes and a bike's styling is chiefly driven by efficiency of design, so variation across manufacturers is often by colour scheme or in the frame detail.
it's so funny that is now see a wave among car enthusiasts (and not ) about the samey look of cars, more than not directed at the new BMW 1 series, literally the brand that needed a bucket of fresch air thrown on their look the most, here's a thing, the new bmw 1 series may be the best looking bmw as far as line flows of the last 50 years, yes, better fron thean the R8, and no, not quite as the I8
While I agree that the new 1-Series is definitely a step-up from the rest of the range, to say it's one of, if not the best-looking BMW from the last 50 years is a rather interesting take. Instead of calling you wrong like most would, I'd genuinely love to hear more about why you regard the model so highly.
@@full-service-history a simple metric, it doesn't look like a bmw, i have no quarrels witht he previous signature look specifically or the brand, but when all the models loom the same, just changing one makes it stand out, and the new 1 series not onyl looks different, it looks sharp
Vintage cars look similar and cars from the 1960s are similar but different enough to tell the difference between a Hillman Hunter and a Ford Cortina and today we have a Suzuki Baleno were there is a Nissan that looks similar and my 1997 Toyota Hilux is similar to other utes of the 1990s which with its aluminium tray they do look very similar and of course the Mazdas were those wannabe MGs from China are similar from a distance and it comes down to JDM people movers which we get a lot of them in Australia and a popular model the Nissan Elgrand is similar to certain models of the Toyota Alphard also a certain Kia is similar to the Toyota Camery it seems Kias reputation for reliability as compared to Toyota's reputation for reliability is miles apart are they thinking if it looks like a Toyota Camery maybe they are trying to fool the public that the Kia is as good as a Toyota and we all know Kia and Hyundai don't have the best reputation for reliability also the difference between Mazda and Chinese MGs for reliability is mike's apart the Mazda been 1000 times better than the Chinese MGs and do you think the Chinese MGs will be around in 50 to 60 years were tge British built MGs are still around
Great vid cutting through the knee jerk stuff you see parroted across comment sections everywhere. Also, "The RWD Rover 75 (or was this the 45?) can't hurt you." *The RWD Rover 75*
as a person who constantly keeps their eye on all manner of little details in car designs i could almost always tell any car of my era apart just by looking at the little details on a headlight or such, and the fact that some of them seemed like a fair base understanding of boring cars selling and people usually being interested in more reasonable facts (i.e practicality, bang for buck, safety be that pedestrian or your own or just how easy they were to live with ((reliability)) ) and because of this the bigger picture of "all cars looking the same" never even once occured to me before people started complaining about it as i dont really pay attention to it because as i said above if it sells a car maker will probably keep making it, and as i wasnt really as much a modern car buyer it didnt really mean alot to me if they sold a boring crossover every 2 minutes as i would just simply ignore them on the big picture and wait for anything interesting to come out, and since i've always kept my eye on details of car design i still sometime have a hard time seeing why people say all of them look the same, when i can just point to the 1920s30s to 70s80s and 90s cars, and i kept 40s50s and 60s out of that as thats where car design was at its most unique, but the cars back then lacked in other areas drasticly, as in most commonly Rust, Reliability, comfort features, anti theft or just the basics of anything safety.
Look at those boxy cars of the late 1920s. You can't distinguish a Ford from a Cadillac...
if u need to compare cars from 1920 to justify the same boring looking cars nowadays, then everything is said.
@Deutscher_Döner_Memes No. The message simply is, that this isn't something new.
In every decade You have car fashion, what makes a lot of cars looking alike.
And also everytime there were ecceptions.
I remember car magazines blaming boring confusable car design back to the late 70s...
The problem is cars nowadays are offensively ugly
@@Romiman1 sorry but this isn't the same thing. 1920s cars looked the same because of limitations. there was literally nothing else they could look like because there was nothing before that specific style sans a few experimental cars
In my opinion the biggest reason for this phenomenon is that people (non car people) buy suvs and crossovers over sedans and hatchbacks. I feel like10-15 years ago out of 10 sold cars 5 were sedans, 3 were hatchbacks and 2 suvs, but now 8 suvs, 1 sedan and 1 hatchback. This would explain the article back from the 90s when sedans were the dominant segment. Cars always looked very alike in the same segments because of technology or safety of the era. Nowadays we just see less varied selection of car body styles and segments.
The '5/3/2 vs 8/1/1' point is a good one, but as you say, it's only relevant when comparing current day to 10-15yrs ago. Go back further - especially pre-1980 - and we end up at '8/1/1' again, except its 8 sedans, 1 hatch and 1 'other' (4x4, coupe, etc.)
In 3rd world cars are a lot expensive most people buy hatchback, sedan 2nd and pickup 3rd.
People want bigger car buy MPV or van, crossover and SUV are just wasting money, resale value 10 years old Honda HRV and Jazz same price.
In fact i find the cars 90s saloon cars all have a "similar look" like slim grill design, slim headlights, squared off boot, low rake hood.
Just look at a mid 90s: toyota corolla, mitsubishi lancer, nissan sentra, vw jetta, mazda 323, honda accord/civic, ford laser!
Definitely, an older version of this video's script had me using a lot of early-90s cars as examples of similar design.
As a kid, in the late '70s & early '80s, I loved visiting other countries & seeing the array of different cars we never hot to see in the UK.
This year, on holiday in Italy, the cars on the road are virtually identical to the ones the streets of England.
Good point, to see true "foreign market specials" we have to go much further afield now, to Asia or the Americas!
Well, yes, some modern cars look too similar to each other, but I also wanna point out, how a lot of modern cars also look very generic, bland, plain and uninteresting. Being a 90's kid, even back then, the cars looked like the design teams did actually put some real effort into their overall appearance and style. Now the cars feel like the designers don't even try at all just for the sake of cost cutting measures.
The cars interior never has been so similar, more than exterior design. Change my mind.
I considered covering interior samey-ness in this video, but I decided against it to keep the video focused - I might do a sequel at some point, as I have plenty to say on interior design as well!
I've always thought the same, I still don't want a modern car though. A lot of modern cars are the same format too, crossovers or softroaders. We did used to have more variety in that area.
Anyway, good to have you back, good thought provoking vid. 🤘
It really is mostly a matter of nearly all manufacturers fighting for the same consumer, and today's market asks for crossovers and SUVs. Ironically, they all jump into the current product and design trends in an attempt to stand out from the competition, but I also don't agree that today's cars are "all the same" because some brands do have a recognizable visual identity, despite parts shared with others within a group (ex.: Peugeot, or the new FIAT Panda).
4:51 - aah, mid - 00's Moscow where one could meet almost any car from the world. Nowadays it's not the same.
Well As a gen z I prefer the old boxy giant large long sharp brutal looking 70’s 80’s American cars
Cars are more homogeneous these days but it's due to buying habits, so many people buy suvs and crossovers that the sameness comes from customers being more boring than manufacturers, it's why Lotus as we knew it is dead.
Great little snippet on automotive design.
Now you got me interested in the topic of automotive paint throughout the decades.
I appreciate the bit about the Capri - I'm always annoyed by internet warriors claiming an X brand should bring back the Y car (usually a performance one) without realising such cars were selling less and less and killing them off was a matter of market shifting. We might hate SUVs, but the majority like an easier entry and better visibility, so it would be odd for car manufacturers to deny customers what they want. With today's design languages featuring a lot of angles and lines, it's obviously more difficult to differentiate cars than back when they were slabs of cheese with either round or square headlamps.
Blame capitalism and it fuckery on car industry and gaming industry
@@siddheshpillai3807without capitalism the automotive industry would never have developed the wag it did, cars are not build as a service for mankind
The thing about Capri is they are sold with a resounding image of the og one, which clearly they're not. People wouldn't complain if they name it after some old SUV or family carrier, but not spirited automobile like capri.
@@Hilmanpanjifirdaus True, what I meant to say was that Ford are very unlikely to use that name again on a v6 petrol coupe, people would complain even if it became an electric redefinition of itself
@@lucwijngaard8413 oh really? because tesla is proof that car industry is cooked!!
Ohh if those car guys could read they'd be very upset when you'd hand them that 1992 issue of Autocar... Great content as always, but probably to intellectual compared to the average YT clickbait car stuff. Was the picture of the GTA in the Autodelta shop on purpose when mentioning mass production?
No, the GTA pic was just one of the better images when looking for pictures of car factories under Creative Commons license
@@full-service-history Ah thought it was a multi layer joke
IMO, a key driver for a car's styling, which you overlooked, is fashion.
There was a key move away from the boxy/sharp-edged styling of cars from the '70s and early '80s into a smoother, more aerodynamic style, as manufacturer wanted to push the idea that the car you were buying had spent hours in the wind tunnel.
I think Audi started the ball rolling.
most new cars are ugly and generic
and there is no coping in this world to change that
Most new cars being ugly is subjective, so I won't argue with you there - but generic?
I invite you to look at the early-'90s C-Segment - the Renault 19, Citroen ZX, Ford Escort Mk5, Rover 200 R8 and Honda Civic. Similarly, the late-60s/early-70s D-Segment (Hunter, 125, Cortina, Ascona, K70 & Corona), late-80s E-Segment (Granada, 800, Renault 21), or perhaps the late-60s 'personal luxury cars' (Toronado, Grand Prix, Eldorado, Riviera). Cars have always looked generic, as every era has its trends - the current decade is no exception.
What does me is, they are the same engine wise. Its worrying how executive brands are using french rotbox engines
Great video!
Check out the rears of the 1997 Nubira and 2004 Quattroporte... It always made me wonder how such a luxury brand could design a rear that is that similar to a Daewoo from the 90's.
To be honest, this might be a case of the Maserati designers not being aware of Daewoo's products - I'm studying automotive design at university, and have seen multiple examples of other students unknowngly copying models in a similar vein to the Maserati-Daewoo scenario. Especially considering the gap in market between ultra-budget Daewoo and sports-luxury Maserati
@full-service-history it's still a fun comparsion
They always have, i mean look at Dodge and Plymouth, or Chevrolet and Pontiac!
I'll say something controversial. I think we are in the best car design era since the 60s and 70s.
It feels like mass production has progressed enough so that car brands can go wild with their ideas again, not being bogged down by technical constraints.
disagree
That like saying that all Assassin's creed games are great nevermind that all games are big slops of shovelware much like suvs in cars so sorry but no one needs suv
People buy SUVs because they want them - if people only bought the cars they "needed" instead of what they "wanted", we wouldn't have any sports cars or luxury cars either!
@@full-service-historylol people who buys suvs are normies and probably the blame for harming both earth environmental and human lives especially outside cars where driving a huge suv are know killers for pedestrians
I don't mind the 1 series looking like a Kia, it serves the same purpose as a Kia and it's not a car for me either way
"Every car looks the same"
Every train look the same
Every plane looks the same
EVERY BIKE LOOKS THE SAME,
How is this is a car only problem
People don't buy trains or planes and a bike's styling is chiefly driven by efficiency of design, so variation across manufacturers is often by colour scheme or in the frame detail.
bullshit
it's so funny that is now see a wave among car enthusiasts (and not ) about the samey look of cars, more than not directed at the new BMW 1 series, literally the brand that needed a bucket of fresch air thrown on their look the most, here's a thing, the new bmw 1 series may be the best looking bmw as far as line flows of the last 50 years, yes, better fron thean the R8, and no, not quite as the I8
While I agree that the new 1-Series is definitely a step-up from the rest of the range, to say it's one of, if not the best-looking BMW from the last 50 years is a rather interesting take. Instead of calling you wrong like most would, I'd genuinely love to hear more about why you regard the model so highly.
@@full-service-history a simple metric, it doesn't look like a bmw, i have no quarrels witht he previous signature look specifically or the brand, but when all the models loom the same, just changing one makes it stand out, and the new 1 series not onyl looks different, it looks sharp
bruddah you are delusional who let u out the physc ward
Vintage cars look similar and cars from the 1960s are similar but different enough to tell the difference between a Hillman Hunter and a Ford Cortina and today we have a Suzuki Baleno were there is a Nissan that looks similar and my 1997 Toyota Hilux is similar to other utes of the 1990s which with its aluminium tray they do look very similar and of course the Mazdas were those wannabe MGs from China are similar from a distance and it comes down to JDM people movers which we get a lot of them in Australia and a popular model the Nissan Elgrand is similar to certain models of the Toyota Alphard also a certain Kia is similar to the Toyota Camery it seems Kias reputation for reliability as compared to Toyota's reputation for reliability is miles apart are they thinking if it looks like a Toyota Camery maybe they are trying to fool the public that the Kia is as good as a Toyota and we all know Kia and Hyundai don't have the best reputation for reliability also the difference between Mazda and Chinese MGs for reliability is mike's apart the Mazda been 1000 times better than the Chinese MGs and do you think the Chinese MGs will be around in 50 to 60 years were tge British built MGs are still around
Great vid cutting through the knee jerk stuff you see parroted across comment sections everywhere.
Also, "The RWD Rover 75 (or was this the 45?) can't hurt you."
*The RWD Rover 75*
All use same steering wheel different company logo.
I think this is a case of "convergent evolution", where there is one design that is the most effective, so all companies naturally end up at it
as a person who constantly keeps their eye on all manner of little details in car designs i could almost always tell any car of my era apart just by looking at the little details on a headlight or such, and the fact that some of them seemed like a fair base understanding of boring cars selling and people usually being interested in more reasonable facts (i.e practicality, bang for buck, safety be that pedestrian or your own or just how easy they were to live with ((reliability)) ) and because of this the bigger picture of "all cars looking the same" never even once occured to me before people started complaining about it as i dont really pay attention to it because as i said above if it sells a car maker will probably keep making it, and as i wasnt really as much a modern car buyer it didnt really mean alot to me if they sold a boring crossover every 2 minutes as i would just simply ignore them on the big picture and wait for anything interesting to come out, and since i've always kept my eye on details of car design i still sometime have a hard time seeing why people say all of them look the same, when i can just point to the 1920s30s to 70s80s and 90s cars, and i kept 40s50s and 60s out of that as thats where car design was at its most unique, but the cars back then lacked in other areas drasticly, as in most commonly Rust, Reliability, comfort features, anti theft or just the basics of anything safety.