Bad Design...and It's Coming Up Everywhere.

[VooDooXII]

I first noticed it on the BMW 7-series, after the mild facelift.

http://www.chooseyouritem.com/autos/photos/148000/148034.jpg

See how the tail-lights don't match up on the bottom? I don't understand this...I don't think it looks good at all. I think if they lined up on the bottom and not the top, then it'd look a bit better. Remember how BMW used to have L shaped tail-lights? Now they've gone the wrong way about it. Look at the back of the new 3-series coupe.

http://static.flickr.com/48/133915627_e8a39850ba.jpg

I think it looks incomplete. SAAB did it too with their new 9-5...it looks okay here but there's still just something weird about tail-lights not matching up at the bottom.

http://www.familycar.com/RoadTests/Saab9-5/Images/LeftRear.jpg

Audi seems to have done a good job with this design because it isn't as abrubt. The lights don't have hard edges which make them look mismatched. Look at the A3 and A4.

http://www.webwombat.com.au/motoring/images/audi-s4-2.jpg
http://www.uncrate.com/men/images/audi-a3.jpg

I think Audi lost it with their upcoming A5 though. I think it would've looked better if they had done those simple A6 tails, or the sweeping lights like those on the A4. The upcoming Impreza 5-door also has those triangular inner sections. Even the new Cayenne has those little kinks on the inner part of the tail-lights. This isn't quite as bad as the chopped off look of the BMW's lights...but I think it could've been done better.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/149/409616249_f2509cd668_o.jpg
http://www.subaruwrxnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/2008-subaru-impreza-wrx-hatch-back.jpg
http://www.openroadpodcast.com/garage/detroit/porschecayenne/files/page48_2.jpg

I don't know...to me, I feel like the designers came up with a great looking car, but the clean styling's marred from one view because of a minor detail. I think it's unnecessary. It's a potentially clean design. There's no need to cut off a piece here or there. If you must, at least do it so that it looks correct. I really wonder what they were thinking sometimes. Can't please everyone though...

Anyway...what do you guys think?

[IndianStig]

Good call. I hate it on the Subbie, fucking altezza's its okay, black out FTW.

[VooDooXII]

I don't like how the Impreza looks anyway. I was just making a reference to the triangle tails.

That A5 though...it's not too bad. That car is deadly sexy.

[OneSlow5pt0]

the subaru looks like a ricer focus

[ash7]

the subaru looks like a ricer focus

i was thinking the same thing. lol

put a wing on that thing, and call it a day.

But voodoo is right... the "triangle" craze is making the tail ends of cars look horrible...

-jonathan

[SixSquared]

It happens.. a lot of things have been "upside down" in car design lately... cars are beginning to "frown" instead of "smile"... IE the front air dams have the points facing downwards instead of upwards. It's good design in the sense that it is new and innovative, and it's boldly breaking away from the norms (both the triangle butts and the frowning fronts), but it's going to take people a while to get used to. Whenever radical changes like that are made, it starts as just that.. a radical change.. then it grows on people to become the norm. Take, for example, the Dodge Ram trucks.. Dodge was the first to do the "18 wheeler style" front, with the massive grille and the smaller lights on the side. I remember the first time I saw it I thought it was fugly. But it grew on me, and now I love the design, and it has become synonymous with Dodge's design language. And it's becoming the norm in truck design.. the new Ford super duty trucks have the same design style, and it's spreading.

Give the triangle butts some time. New design is like getting a new car.. you have this new, awesome thing, but it takes time to see how far it will go, how well it will perform... right now auto designers have this new "look" going for cars.. they're getting a lot more angular and edgy. But they don't know how much edge is ok and how much is too much. The only way for them to know is to look at customer feedback and sales numbers, which take a while to accumulate into any kind of usable data. It's something new they're trying, and in the coming years, they'll tweak designs and smooth here and edge there and they'll be making cars that are absolutely sick. A car that will be made in 2020, I can guarantee you, you would look at now and say "that is SO ugly", because it will have design aspects that you're not used to, and there won't be a logical design sequence. BMW is the best company, imho, to look for with design sequencing.. you see the generations of 3 series, for example, and you see them maturing and evolving. But if you take a way old school 3 series, from the 70s for example, and put it next to a brand new 2007 m3, the connection is lost. Design is just as much about evolving a concept as it is creating a new concept.

Cliff's Notes - Give it time.. they'll figure it out and make cars that are truly sick.

And yes, I do intend on having a hand in it. :D

[OneSlow5pt0]

yea,i i do like the BMWs style of doing this new style

[speedminded]

What happened to the art deco period/1930's when cars were good looking with all smooth lines? ie Bugatti Model 57, Auburn Boattail, Alfa Romeo 8c, Duesenburg J-SJ, Mercedes 500-540k, etc.

[VooDooXII]

I don't know if I'll grow into that style...though like I said, I think Audi's done it best so far. I did like the Ram when it first came out...but yea, I guess to each, their own.

I'll just wait until I get out of Tech...then I'll design the cars myself, and they'll look super sexy...to me.

[SixSquared]

Not if I get to designing them first. :P

[VooDooXII]

Haha, you're on!

[SixSquared]

Bring it! I'm not scurred!

PS.. I can't wait until January... wheeeeeeee off to Europe with me.. watch out Pininfarina factory.. :D

[VooDooXII]

Okay...now I'm jealous.

[SixSquared]

^^ Are you an industrial design major? Tech has a kick ass ID program.. if I wasn't at SCAD that's where I'd be... Tech's program is, obviously, more engineered based than I like... SCAD is more about form, whereas Tech is more about function. But they have a damn good program.

[VooDooXII]

I'm actually in Mechanical Engineering. It's a broad field and I thought I'd have more options there. I may switch while I'm still fresh into Tech, or I may try to take more design electives when the time comes.

[SixSquared]

gotcha. Mechanical engineers build.. ID people design.. usually one would never ever want to be in the other's shoes... ID people would never want to have to build the things they design, and mech. engineer people would never want to have to design the things that they get handed from designers. ID and ME people also tend to butt heads a lot.. ME people are trained to keep costs down, and how to produce the most of something for the least amount of money, which to an ID person, usually involves taking the soul and feel of a design out of it. An ME person would say that the carbon fiber accents on the inside of a car will cost too much.. an ID person would say "BUT THEY'RE COOL DAMMIT!"

[VooDooXII]

Dammit...I need to be in ID. I think way more about form rather than function.

[SixSquared]

Check out the ID department at Tech.. like I said.. DAMN good program.

[changaroo]

ID at tech = studio, studio at tech = death.

plus who says u cant be an ME that goes, DAMN I LIKE CARBON FIBER :P

[SixSquared]

If 1 studio at tech is death, then 3 studios at SCAD is a damn massacre... It's hard work, but it's worth it in the end.

And you can't be an ME who says you like carbon fiber because carbon fiber = $$$$$$$$$$

[changaroo]

i dunno how studio at SCAD is, but im sure its pretty bad. i have a few friends that literally lived in studio all semester, i never saw em again :D

but anyways with the whole ME has to deal with minimizing costs, ill break the stereotype!

[VooDooXII]

Carbon Fiber = MSE...very up-and-coming.

[SixSquared]

It's up and coming, but it's still not practical to offer real cf on hondas.. that's why you see the real thing on high end sports cars, but not s2000s and whatnot.

and ekcivic9... you keep breaking that stereotype... I like to be employed. :P You can break stereotypes all you like, but you gotta be a big name designer like Luigi Colani to pull off breaking the stereotypes and making bank doing it.

[DJ Raijin]

speaking of failing designs.....anyone seen the new Lancers yet?
http://www.motorauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/Mitsubishi/Lancer/1/lancer_small.jpg

one of my neighbors bought one right when they came out and I threw up a lil in my mouth. what have they done to my wet dream?

[speedminded]

speaking of failing designs.....anyone seen the new Lancers yet?
http://www.motorauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/Mitsubishi/Lancer/1/lancer_small.jpg

one of my neighbors bought one right when they came out and I threw up a lil in my mouth. what have they done to my wet dream?i felt the same way when the first lancer came out :tongue: Luckily the EVO made up for it!

[VooDooXII]

I like how the new Lancer looks.

That's another styling bit, a trapezoidal or pentagonal grille.

That doesn't look too bad though.

[DJ Raijin]

the ass end is god awful! it looks like its turned up like a duck's behind. the lines don't work at all....it's a box car, why smooth out the hard edges???? it just doesn't make any sense at all....:thinking: