The End of Beauty - The triumph of boring
It is a simple question. Why are most production cars so dreadfully boring these days?
Shapeless, styleless and completely lacking in elegance, most cars today are dull beyond belief. To level this criticism at the designers, and them alone, would be unfair as we must assume they are meeting the requirements of the market they serve.
That said most manufacturers appear to be in lock step, each producing models that are indistinguishable one from another.
But what of the consumer? Good design in all things has never been so available as it is today and yet the consumer seems to have lost the ability to discern the good from the pedestrian. It is not just in the choice of cars but also, and especially, in fashion and the built environment. Ugliness and utility have combined to produce a design language that deadens the soul.
Few people dress well these days. Shapeless clothes in dull colours abound. The dress of the streets - jeans, T shirts and trainers - the uniform of the age, are as dull and styleless as the cars driven by today’s consumer.
Contrast today’s cars with those of 50-60 years ago. Consider the sinuous lines of the Citroën DS from the 1970s. Innovative, with hydro-pneumatic suspension and swivelling headlights, this car was the epitome of style at the time.
Consider the Jaguar E Type. Launched in 1961 at the Geneva Motor Show this was a sensation. It is as beautiful today as it was 64 years ago and has stood the test of time as an icon of design. It is hard to imagine any of today’s popular production cars as a design icon 60 years from now.
Designed in the days of the drawing board and set of French curves these cars have a line and fluidity completely absent in the majority of today’s models. Designed with CAD to be built by robots, today’s production car lacks style, soul and any sense of human connection. To sell their beautiful cars manufacturers in the past had only to drape a beautiful woman over the bonnet to create an intense sense of desire. The coincidence of beauty - attractive female adorning a beautiful car - seemed appropriate in those politically incorrect days. Such a marketing approach - even if it were to be permitted in such censorious times - could not possibly work with today's rash of lumpen, dull, boring cars.
To be fair these examples of sublime style would all have been considered to be luxury cars. The average car price in 1961 was less than £1000. The Morris 1100 was around £675 whilst the E Type Jaguar was around £2100 making it inaccessible to all but a few.
Nevertheless, why are there no attractive cars available today at prices available to all? Does the average consumer only desire an average, dull car? Somehow I doubt it.
And of course there is Alfa Romeo….
