[jibbit]

I’ve long wanted something like this. I’m fascinated where the common elements of contemporary car design come from. Why does every car have a hard lateral crease? When did it originate? It wasn’t on early cars or carriages. I look forward to studying this carefully

[perl4ever]

Creases seem to me to suggest the way cloth folds or ripples, or possibly muscles. Both of which were features of sculpture before cars.

There's also the sharpish edges of air intakes, or fake intakes, due to the association with race cars and fast motorcycles. Sometimes creases make intakes look more integrated in the body.

For a reason, well, people used to complain about contemporary (when that meant 90s) cars being blobby or ovoid. The survival of exotic car companies probably depended on being strikingly attractive and different from mainstream cars. I assume that when you say "hard lateral crease" you would agree that a late 90s Ford Taurus, or a Porsche 928 did not have one.

I think the air intakes are overdone these days and don't like fake ones any more than tailfins. There's something wrong when even the top of the line trim doesn't have all of the intakes functional.

[WalterBright]

I hated tailfins when they were common, and love them now that they're gone. But I saw one at the supermarket last week, and the owner carefully and lovingly drove it away.

The Jetsons look in the early 60's is also way cool.

[bellyfullofbac]

I think the BMW chief designer has had a stroke, he keeps insisting on putting massive front grilles to the front of his car, he must think they look attractive!

[perl4ever]

It's weird to me that even as BMW styling goes off the rails in general, literally (practically) everyone has redone their interiors to imitate BMW. Next years' Honda Civic, for example.

Conversely, BMW replaced the 2 series with a FWD car that looks incredibly like a Kia Forte to me.

I'm sure they did focus groups and nobody actually knows which wheels drive their car. But I am unable to stop noticing the proportions of FWD vs. RWD in where the front wheel wells are located relative to the doors.