The Geneva motor show, as of writing this, is only few days away, manufacturers are scrambling to get their projects on display for the people, journalists and the rest of the world to see. It’s an important factor that companies take in consideration, as first impressions and reviews from journalists impact the sales of the cars greatly. But if you have kept up with the latest models releasing, you maybe have noticed that most of the cars are starting to look more like the same. For instance, if you take BMW, all their cars look the same from the front and the back, with minor changes according the vehicle class. Interiors also are almost copies from on another. You are sitting in two different cars from the same year, with almost identical interiors. Why is this happening? why aren’t we seeing any interesting designs we used to see from back in the day?
Costs
Manufacturers now days are trying to cut down on costs on each vehicle produced, to increase better value for customer and to improve profits on every unit sold. If you have a look at any vehicles price, every year is an increase, and probably more then 1 or 2 percent on top of the inflation. You will notice that the cars aren’t getting cheap, there is also a case that they are taking the profits to them selves and putting them in to research and development departments, as this is significant cost to develop new technologies in ever so evolving competition. It also decreases costs immensely if you develop one style, one interior for many ranges of the vehicle class. This cuts costs dramatically, but dulls out the release of every new car, as you can already imagine how it will look, judging from the previous year/model. If you’re tired of all looking the same interior, take a look here
Trends
This generation the consumer demands switched, no longer there is so much of demand that the car to look different, most people aren’t too concerned that the vehicle looks the same or isn’t really changed from previous year. Todays trends are focused on the fuel economy, that there is enough space in the back for people, electric drive is on the rise as well. If you want a car to reach 50 mpg, you need the car to be aerodynamic enough, so most of the design is based on computers, and that’s a common trend you see that most of the cars look the same, as it’s just to increase the air resistances traveling, as it’s greatly impacts the efficiency of the car. Safety features also make the cars bigger over the years. You can’t fight physics, if you want the car to be structurally stronger, it must get bigger and heavier. These trends make the cars all the same with different badges and different headlights, this trend isn’t likely to go away soon.
