[aas5]

It's all done to make your car buying experience better. Imagine coming to a dealership and just saying: "I'll take the smaller one; how much do you charge per lb again?"

[pgviper]

Originally Posted by zer0cool

Totally, when I see a BMW, I know it's a BMW. Same goes with Audi, Porsche, etc, premium brands.

I think it began with Porsche... 911 is the regular frog. Boxster and Cayman are the slightly leaner frogs. Panameras are longer frogs, and Cayennes and Macans are differerent degrees of fat frogs.

It's the regular brand cars that I can't tell which brands they are when I see them... Is it a Toyota, or Honda, or Hyundai, or what?? Need to get closer to see.

Definitely creates brand recognition effects.

HAHAHA, never heard the term "frog" used for a porsche but I love it! Definitely going to start using that lol.

[cenix]

One word: price reduction and profit generation. One word, right?

[KingOfJericho]

Originally Posted by pgviper

HAHAHA, never heard the term "frog" used for a porsche but I love it! Definitely going to start using that lol.

Oh man - from the first time I laid eyes on a Porsche as a child, I always thought it looked like a frog and it stuck with me ever since.

[CirrusSR22]

The good old days when they all looked different.


Oh, wait.

[954Stealth]

The differences really come out at night when you see headlight and tail light variations and all the new LED configurations. For body style though yeah there's not that much difference but it all comes down to brand recognition as people have already posted

[Chihuahua]

Originally Posted by Year's_End

his work is fantastic. i miss the Bangle era. it's what got me into modern car design and BMWs.

+1, he's the most influential car designer of the past 15 years, if not more. Waaaay ahead of his time. I plan on holding onto my E60 for a long time.

[c63er]

It's a very true observation about car design these days. But as with anything it's a mix of regulations, safety standard along with marketing that goes into the change.

Don't forget there has been a massive demographic shift in worldwide car buying so cars aren't necessarily being designed specifically the the American, German or British taste anymore. So if a car maker is smart they will have designs that will appeal more to the Asian market or atleast something that appeals to many markets.

Hence. Less polarizing designs. Those 70s BMW designs we love would be considered very polarizing if it were the very first time you've ever seen it.

[paradoxical3]

In my opinion, it is because of reduced influence of single designers in positions of power, and a move to design-by-committee approaches.

Say what you want about Bangle, but you know who he is. You know names like Pininfarina and Ian Callum, but nowadays do you know who is running the design houses of the car companies?

Things like fuel efficiency standards and CAD have reduced the priority that companies place on design talent, and like so many other things nowadays, people mistakenly believe that you can replace a single creative individual with a team of less creative ones. When you set a group of people to perform a task without an individualistic and exceptional leader, the task will be completed as an "average" of the people in the group. What you are seeing across the automotive industry is a switch to function over form. Groups of designers across the industry are bound by similar restrictions (pedestrian safety, fuel efficiency, etc), and thus they churn out similar results.

The only way that this is prevented is if you have someone like Callum (Jaguar) who says, "Stop, that's not good enough. Try again" enough times that something truly remarkable is created, like the F-Type. Sadly, most designers don't have that kind of cachet and will just get overruled.

This occurs in every industry and if you look around at things, you will start realizing how bland and under-designed our world is today. What ever I purchase, I make a conscious effort to choose something that is well and beautifully designed, be it a mechanical pencil or a car. I encourage you to do the same - reward good design and your life will be a little bit nicer.