see, the trouble with these bland plastic modern cars...

[darrenh]

..is that they all look the bladdy same.

[southside]

My Grandad was saying it in the 80’s, my parents were saying it in the 90’s and now I’m saying it in the 00’s. must be a generational thing 😂

[ratchart]

The Hillman Hunter and Mk2 Cortina are a real case of separated at birth. So much that I din't realise they were two different models for ages.

The odd thing is I was thinking about this very same thing yesterday, how every older generation thinks that the cars of their yout were so much more distinctive than the modern ones. 
Go back to the 50s:-







Chevrolet, Plymouth and Packard, You think somebody was copying their neighbour's homework?

Then we move forward a in time:-






And maybe even

[strikey]

if anyone confuses an sd1 for anything else they reaaaaaly need a labrador and white stick!

I'm sure it probably generational but even so the current crop of offerings are less distinctive than in years gone by. sometimes its a struggle to decipher brand let alone model just from body shape etc.

[ChasR]

Feb 25, 2019 16:55:17 GMT strikey said:

if anyone confuses an sd1 for anything else they reaaaaaly need a labrador and white stick!

I'm sure it probably generational but even so the current crop of offerings are less distinctive than in years gone by. sometimes its a struggle to decipher brand let alone model just from body s Ithape etc.

It's all relative.

To most, a Triumph Dolomite looks similar to a Firenza or an Avenger!

Will Holman summarised these about his child in an PPC back pager. Will was saying how a Jag S-Type and F11 520d looked the same, yet his kid thought the front of his Capri looked like the front another quad lighted 70s car. He had a point. It's all relative.

[generallee]

At least when we had horses they all looked different.

[accord83]

Feb 25, 2019 19:56:05 GMT generallee said:

At least when we had horses they all looked different.

That depended on the Chef.

[rwdrules]

the problem is in the title,
new cars are made of plastic/platinum and sealant,hence they get written off for a broken headlight etc

[turbotechnics]

Feb 25, 2019 16:55:17 GMT strikey said:

if anyone confuses an sd1 for anything else they reaaaaaly need a labrador and white stick!

I'm sure it probably generational but even so the current crop of offerings are less distinctive than in years gone by. sometimes its a struggle to decipher brand let alone model just from body shape etc.

Well if you squint a bit...

[rblote]

yep, all the same

[strikey]

Feb 25, 2019 21:12:10 GMT turbotechnics said:

Feb 25, 2019 16:55:17 GMT strikey said:

if anyone confuses an sd1 for anything else they reaaaaaly need a labrador and white stick!

I'm sure it probably generational but even so the current crop of offerings are less distinctive than in years gone by. sometimes its a struggle to decipher brand let alone model just from body shape etc.

Well if you squint a bit...

yeah yeah yeah....i knew that would come up. hell of a compliment to the rover ,  isn't it?!  hardly going to mistake one for a passat though!

[nickwheeler]

Cars have always looked the same. Once you've fitted all the mechanical bits and covered them with the current fashion, how could it be otherwise?

If you look at thirties cars, you need to see the radiator grille to be certain what make it is.
Fifties Consuls and Cambridges are very similar.
Farina designed a lot of cars for the sixties, which really shows. And as mentioned above, there's no real difference between a Mk2 Cortina or Hillman Hunter, or a mk1 Escort and an Avenger.
Mk1 Fiesta and Mk1 Polo?
Mk3 Escort and Mk1 Astra?
Mk5 Cortina, mk2 Cavalier, Talbot Solara?

etc etc

[johnthesparky]

It’s a path of diminishing returns, aerodynamics etc make all cars more and more similar

I remember thinking the Sierra looked like a jelly mould back in 1982, and that all cars would look the same... but now they look so old and different,

The difference between cars in the 30s and the 40s, or 40s and 50s, but then it starts to spread, and noticeable changes start to take longer as year on year small changes get made and have to accumulate before they are noticeable

In another 20 years how different will the new cars be to current cars though? We are only 13 years away from the auto-pilot cars in Demolition Man though!

[AB car pix]

Of course cars of every era have similar styling cues and themes, but the main point is some eras are distinctly worse!

Similar designs of the 70s or 80s over similar designs of this decade or the last any day.

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Feb 25, 2019 19:56:05 GMT generallee said:

At least when we had horses they all looked different.

Nay!

[strikey]

half the problem with the current crop of offerings is that they are all starting with the generic bloated blob shape then just adding swoops/swages/trim & trinkets to make them look different rather than creating different shapes. yes , decade by decade it has been a case of manufacturers essentially following the same formula , 60/70's 3 box..70/80's hatch...80/90's..well all sorts really but i still think the "generic" look is more prevalent now.

[luckyseven]

Feb 25, 2019 12:20:59 GMT southside said:

My Grandad was saying it in the 80’s, my parents were saying it in the 90’s and now I’m saying it in the 00’s. must be a generational thing 😂

Exactly this


Ford 39 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr


Commander grey 39 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr

It's the same with everything humans do; someone makes something that looks nice or smells good or tastes delicious and other people buy it and then still other people think "I could sell loads of those if I make one almost the same but not quite". Oasis became "the biggest band in the world" according to Noel, but they did it with Beatles music. And where did the Beatles get it from? Anyhoo, I'm off to buy bits for my Beetle. Y'know, the 1930s one that they only stopped making plastic copies of last year? The one that Porsche nicked from NSU and Tatra...

[Knugcab]

I think that one reason why some people feel like "all the cars didn't look the same in the old days" is because there was some cars with really long model runs, and there is almost no such cars anymore.

For example, in 1968, you could buy a VW Beetle from the 30s, a Morris Minor from the 40s, a Volvo Amazon from the 50s, of course many contemporary looking cars like Hillman Hunters....or a NSU Ro80 that looked like it came straight from the future... Of course there is very easy to tell these cars apart, but they really are from different eras.

[vulgalour]

Feb 25, 2019 16:55:17 GMT strikey said:

if anyone confuses an sd1 for anything else they reaaaaaly need a labrador and white stick!

One dog please.

[60six]

Blandness is really at full tilt nowadays though, with most white crossover cars resembling ....