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It's not a new thing. Car design has been dictated by regulations for decades and while I'm sure it has definitely stopped some novel designs from getting out t

by Hamcha 4y ago

It's not a new thing. Car design has been dictated by regulations for decades and while I'm sure it has definitely stopped some novel designs from getting out there, I think we can be mostly thankful that we don't live in a sea of heterogeneous (let alone hazardous) designs. Cars can still look cool, but not to the point of being a detriment. USB-C is a pretty lax standard (for good and bad) and at the end of the day, the ultimate reason regulators have to come into play is that the industry didn't deal with this issue internally.

MrBuddyCasino 4y ago
> Cars can still look cool compare cars from 40s-70s to what came after, its a different world you can argue it was worth it, but you can’t argue cars didn’t get homogeneous and boring in the process
- themitigating 4y ago
  Cars within a particular period mostly have the same overall design just like today. There will always be exceptions of course, however take a look at some models from 1966 (Ad heavy site, sorry) https://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-all-cars-made-in-1966/reference https://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-all-cars-made-in-1966/re... I feel like you see one car from 1966 then notice how most cars today are similar, and use that difference.
- peoplefromibiza 4y ago
  > compare cars from 40s-70s to what came after, its a different world Yeah. we understood that they not only pollute the environment and it's stupid to build cars the size of a starship, but also by 1973 the World (except the US) understood that oil is not for granted and fuel efficiency should be a thing. Also safety while we are at it, doesn't sound so bad...
- Hamcha 4y ago
  You need to distinguish design trends from what the regulation enforced. The most obvious examples that come to mind: - Small cars aren't that small anymore to stop them from being blatant death traps. - A lot of the edges have been smoothed and curved to make impact with pedestrians less deadly (also killed pop-up lights and hood ornaments, which is kinda funny considering the Mercedes Benz hood ornament was sometimes jokingly described as a sight to aim for pedestrians) - Thick A pillars due to crash tests regulations While I can blame these for killing out novel or even trademark features of some vehicles lineups, I don't think alone they made everyone homogenize their design, it's just what the industry eventually converged on by themselves. Look at phones, there's no regulation on what a phone should look like, yet today phones are just a fancy screen, nothing like the incredible variety that Nokia alone sported back in the late 90s/early 2000s.
- pixl97 4y ago
  Being that my modern car drives nearly 10 thousand miles before each oil change, gets at least 4x the gas mileage, easily drives over 200k miles before major maintenance, and won't turn me into hamburger if I get in a crash, I will argue its well worth it.
- vel0city 4y ago
  A 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 had a wheelbase of 119" and was 210" long. A 2021 Mustang Mach E has a wheelbase of 107" and is 188.5" long. Which one is humongous? Even if you looked at the original 1964 Mustang, its not that much smaller than the Mach E which is a 5-door crossover. The '64 had a wheelbase of 108" and an overall length of 181.6", just 7 inches shorter for a coupe. Older American cars were often land yachts. The old family sedan of the 1960s are often larger than crossovers of today, they just don't sit as high.
  - pwinnski 4y ago
    The word was homogeneous, which means "of the same kind."
    - vel0city 4y ago
      Oof, I really misread that one.
- sbf501 4y ago
  who cares what your car looks like. owning one is a hassle and a money sink and i resent that i've lived in 5 cities who have de-prioritized mass transit. cars look boring is like saying it's a bummer cancer isn't cool.

by Hamcha 4y ago

MrBuddyCasino 4y ago

> Cars can still look cool compare cars from 40s-70s to what came after, its a different world you can argue it was worth it, but you can’t argue cars didn’t get homogeneous and boring in the process

themitigating 4y ago
Cars within a particular period mostly have the same overall design just like today. There will always be exceptions of course, however take a look at some models from 1966 (Ad heavy site, sorry) https://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-all-cars-made-in-1966/reference https://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-all-cars-made-in-1966/re... I feel like you see one car from 1966 then notice how most cars today are similar, and use that difference.
peoplefromibiza 4y ago
> compare cars from 40s-70s to what came after, its a different world Yeah. we understood that they not only pollute the environment and it's stupid to build cars the size of a starship, but also by 1973 the World (except the US) understood that oil is not for granted and fuel efficiency should be a thing. Also safety while we are at it, doesn't sound so bad...
Hamcha 4y ago
You need to distinguish design trends from what the regulation enforced. The most obvious examples that come to mind: - Small cars aren't that small anymore to stop them from being blatant death traps. - A lot of the edges have been smoothed and curved to make impact with pedestrians less deadly (also killed pop-up lights and hood ornaments, which is kinda funny considering the Mercedes Benz hood ornament was sometimes jokingly described as a sight to aim for pedestrians) - Thick A pillars due to crash tests regulations While I can blame these for killing out novel or even trademark features of some vehicles lineups, I don't think alone they made everyone homogenize their design, it's just what the industry eventually converged on by themselves. Look at phones, there's no regulation on what a phone should look like, yet today phones are just a fancy screen, nothing like the incredible variety that Nokia alone sported back in the late 90s/early 2000s.
pixl97 4y ago
Being that my modern car drives nearly 10 thousand miles before each oil change, gets at least 4x the gas mileage, easily drives over 200k miles before major maintenance, and won't turn me into hamburger if I get in a crash, I will argue its well worth it.
vel0city 4y ago
A 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 had a wheelbase of 119" and was 210" long. A 2021 Mustang Mach E has a wheelbase of 107" and is 188.5" long. Which one is humongous? Even if you looked at the original 1964 Mustang, its not that much smaller than the Mach E which is a 5-door crossover. The '64 had a wheelbase of 108" and an overall length of 181.6", just 7 inches shorter for a coupe. Older American cars were often land yachts. The old family sedan of the 1960s are often larger than crossovers of today, they just don't sit as high.
- pwinnski 4y ago
  The word was homogeneous, which means "of the same kind."
  - vel0city 4y ago
    Oof, I really misread that one.
sbf501 4y ago
who cares what your car looks like. owning one is a hassle and a money sink and i resent that i've lived in 5 cities who have de-prioritized mass transit. cars look boring is like saying it's a bummer cancer isn't cool.