I may be young, but i remember when caddilacs could be seen a mile away, the mercedes was the first car u say when u looked in a parking lot and when bmw's were really ugly? i was talking to my ad's secretary and she told me stories of her caddilacs and what she thought of them now, just a piece of plastic that looked like any other chevy on the road. does anyone agree.? do u think mercedes, bmw, caddilac, and other car companies have lost the character in their designs? im not sure if anyone really understands what im trying to say, but what do u uys think?

 

YES..all these new cars look the same

 

Look at any decade throughout the history of the automobile, and one could say that cars always "look the same" to other cars in there time.

Although, globally, cars look more similar than past decades where there was a distinctive difference between American cars and foreign cars.

But take a look at any past decade, and cars looked more similar to each other than they do now. Through the 70's and 80's, every car pretty much had the same headlight units (round or square standard inserts). Every car had a rectangular grill. Every car had rectangular tail lights. Heck, every car was a rectangle. Check out any other era, and you'll see the same similarities across the board.

Today, every car has totally unique shapes, headlights, taillights, grills, ect.

 

Depends on how you define "character". It's such a broad word.

You have to keep in mind 30, 20, or even 10 years ago there were a lot less cars on the road worldwide than there are now. Also, with each passing day it becomes harder to make a car look unique because lots of styling cues are constantly being copied or imitated.

Even if you take a car like a Ferrari Enzo; if you saw 10 or 20 of them on the street every day like a Camry or Corolla, believe it or not but eventually people would be calling the Enzo "bland" simply because they would see one so often. The styling would no longer appear to be novel.

Or on the other hand, if you took every 6th gen Camry off of North American streets for a month, then put them back a lot of people would be saying the Camry looks fresh and unique. That's because your mind would get used to the fact that there are no Camrys on the road.

This happens because the human mind is very adaptive and gets used to things quickly.

 

hmm charecter like the a lotus, a nsx, or like i said old cadilacs. even though caddys were popular " back in the day" people could still spot them rite away. it was something about the car made it instantly recognizable. u know wat i mean?

 

The reason: vehicle laws from the height and width of headlights/taillights, ground clearance, mirror size, etc, have created a universal template for all automakers. It's just a matter of "filling in the blank spaces"...

 

GOod points, also, we have many more "world" cars and SUVS that have to fit the needs of everyone.

A fact that I found neat but sad. BMW expects to sell over 100,000 new M3s. That is good for business but it simply means the car is not as special as before.

It is rarer to fine, rare cars with character. The rise of individual wealth and the internet mean more people able to buy cars. This means car makers want to sell more cars. Thus less manuals and automatic Porsches, Lambos, M cars etc.

I will not go to far as to say cars have lost character. I think we just have to realize cars are just different and accept that the character has changed.

 

I know for sure, BMW is not what it used to be. Back when I got into cars in 1999, I appreciated the subtle, understated style that a BMW offered along with the nice sounds their vehicles made. Now, it's all a lot flashier, softer, and more mainstream.

Mercedes has changed quite a bit as well, but some of their models continue to look great. The E-class continues to look pretty good, and the CLS is quite beautiful. I don't like the S or C-class treatments though.