Modern cars

Side by side the VW Touareg and the Porsche Cayenne, but for details they could be the same car. In fact the bodies are basically identical as they share a common platform. No chance here for designers to think outside the box, all they can do is tinker with the lights, wheels and intakes. Surprisingly both are similarly priced, somewhere in the 85,000+ Euros bracket... and who really needs such monsters!


Some say all cars today look the same, but they have been saying that ever since I was interested in cars and that goes back to my childhood.

Designing car bodies is an extremely skilled profession and the car industry has some of the most talented artists and designers anywhere. So why is it that all cars look the same, or do they?

Actually if you look closely all cars are very different it is just that the difference is in the detail, which tends to be overlooked. Conceptually most cars are exactly the same; four seats, bonnet and boot with a few exceptions like hatchbacks and people carriers or extreme sports cars.

Part of the problem is that most designs are fashion led. One company creates a successful new concept and the rest follow like sheep. I can hear the managers now, "we want it to look like this", ignoring any original thoughts their designers may have. Although many designers will be influenced by what they see too,  they will at least always try to be different.

Marketing and engineering play a large part in clipping designer's wings partly for dubious reasons and partly to deal with practicalities and realities of selling products.

However car companies have become enormous monsters that cannot be easily steered and they lumber on often in the wrong direction because, like huge container ships, they are difficult to turn and only do so slowly.

Below is a short video I found that reflects some of my views:

The problem with modern cars