
Why cars went from boxy in the 80s to curvy in the 90s - Hooke
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/11/8762373/car-design-curves
======
ryandrake
I hate how all cars on the road look like identical bars of soap. I realize a
lot of this is due to aerodynamics and safety regulations, but it's a shame.
You don't see too many cars anymore that are significantly visually distinct
from a Honda Accord.

~~~
jessriedel
> I realize a lot of this is due to aerodynamics and safety regulations,

I think it's actually almost exclusively fuel economy regulations. Same reason
you can't buy a new washing machine that consistently gets your clothes clean.

~~~
andrewstuart2
You don't see a whole lot of distinct raindrop shapes for a very good reason:
path of least resistance.

~~~
jessriedel
The question isn't "why is there only one shape that minimizes drag?", the
question is "why are all the cars sacrificing so much style and functionality
to reduce drag?". You would expect some buyers to accept slightly less fuel
economy for increased style, especially in luxury case, since they clearly are
willing to pay significantly extra for style in ways that don't conflict with
fuel economy (e.g., leather seats).

The reason is that the market is not being determined by having the consumer
trade off style/functionality for fuel economy. Rather, the fuel economy, and
hence the shape, is being set by statute. That's why even luxury cars have
about the same shape. The only exception are the super luxury cars that make
up such a small fraction of the market that they are negligible in calculating
a manufacturer's fleet-average fuel economy (which is what the regulation
specifies).

~~~
redblacktree
> slightly less fuel economy

I think the issue is that it isn't slight. Air resistance increases in a cubic
ratio to speed. Aerodynamics make a big difference at highway speeds.

~~~
jessriedel
They knew aerodynamics in the 1950's too, and the fuel prices were very
similar in inflation adjusted terms.

[http://inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Oil/Gasolin...](http://inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Oil/Gasoline_inflation_chart.htm)

(And we are _richer_ then we were before, so modern folks are more willing to
pay extra for fashion). The difference between then and now is definitely
regulatory.

~~~
dragonwriter
> And we are richer then we were before

Well, that depends who "we" is. "Car owners" as a whole may well be poorer
than in the 1950s in inflation adjusted terms: median income has gone up some,
but car ownership has moved down the economic scale, too. And there are
different looks at the top end of the market, the part that caters to people
who are willing to pay extra for fashion.

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webwielder2
I don't buy it. Curvy cars were not some high end European flirtation in the
60s. Pretty much all cars in the "old days" were rounded. Random examples:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Deluxe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Deluxe)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker_Lark](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker_Lark)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_180](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_180)

Why publish an article whose premise is so obviously wrong?

~~~
mhandley
I agree. The real question is why did even European cars go boxy in the second
half of the 1970s? A good example is the Ford Cortina Mk 3:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cortina#TC_Mark_III_.28197...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cortina#TC_Mark_III_.281970.E2.80.931976.29)
vs Mk 4:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cortina#Mark_IV_.281976.E2...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cortina#Mark_IV_.281976.E2.80.931979.29)

I think late 70s/early 80s boxy cars were the anomaly - all other eras were
curvy.

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rpcope1
You know, the extra curvy crazy body panels can be cool looking sometimes, but
I still wish they'd ship the engineers that build and design these cars out to
Alaska in the winter and make them disassemble and reassemble the cars a
couple of times before they ship them -- the increasingly custom body panels
and designs has made it much more difficult to fix what's there or even get
the cars apart for service.

~~~
kazinator
Curvy body panels look good as long as there are some sharp curves in the
right places.

If there is nothing but low-curvature, then the vehicle just looks fat.

We look at cars like we look at human bodies. The classic sports car shape has
a waits and hips. :)

Fat can be cute though: if a sub-compact hatch-back is round in the right way.
Classic VW beetle, the new Minis, 5th gen Civic ...

(This still jives with the human body theory. We excuse the little cars for
being chubby because they are babies.)

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Tloewald
As an aside, Bézier curves were invented at Renault.

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webnrrd2k
I always assumed the change in styles was because design tools with Bézier
curves became commonly available, and computers became more common.

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ethana
Reason 1 and 3 are totally baloney. European cars were as much boxy as the
Americans and Japaneses in the same era and technology have nothing to do with
enabling new curvy design either. If you look back to the 50s/60s, cars from
Lincoln, Cadillac, Ford, Bentley, Mercedes, etc were not only curvy but there
were all kinda of crazy complex shapes.

I think people's preference just got tired of the overly designed styles up
until the late 60s. I would point to Cadillac as the one that started the boxy
cars trend. They are still boxy/edgy today, although much more stylized. I
love the newer Cadis design actually, they are so different than anything on
the roads.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
The difference is that the parts on the older curvy cars didn't fit together
all that well. Modern computer designed parts and tooling allow tight
construction without the labor to make things line up. That permits more
adventurous shaping of parts. This really showed in the "ovalized" Ford Taurus
where the rear quarter panels had a long narrow strip extending forward over
the roof. Basically a pointless showoff by engineering.

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busterarm
The 3rd Gen RX-7 was the first to make curves look good.

At least it still had the popup headlights though. I sorely wish those would
make a comeback, but most folks don't like to have to think about whether
their lights are on or not anymore.

~~~
rdl
Also your front end can't be too pointy due to pedestrian impact standards,
and they're heavy. I believe pedestrian impact safety was what actually killed
the pop-ups.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
That and their tendency to break. Another significant change was the allowance
of custom headlight assembly's rather than the few standard sealed bulbs that
had to be stuffed into a popup if you wanted a wedge that looked different
from everybody else.

~~~
tsotha
>That and their tendency to break.

I'm certainly not sorry to see them go. I was getting tired of being blinded
by the car behind me because its owner was too lazy or cheap to fix a
headlight that had broken loose.

~~~
busterarm
Now you just get blinded by every asshole with a cheap HID kit.

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zobzu
i want to pay for a service that summarize articles in 5 lines tops and a few
images (which is honestly the only reason why we click)

Demo for this one:

1) aerodynamics/fuel efficiency

2) cost/machinery able to make curves

Also, didnt have to read it to figure that out ;)

~~~
redblacktree
There is a bot on reddit[1] that attempts this. (sans pictures) It actually
works pretty well.

[1]
[https://www.reddit.com/user/autotldr](https://www.reddit.com/user/autotldr)

~~~
zobzu
this is pretty cool. i need this for HN.

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Splendor
While reading about how European car makers like Porsche were toying with
curved shapes in the 60s, all I could think about was Corvettes in the 50s.

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bnolsen
i'm surprised no one has mentioned this but it seems like the koreans are now
driving automotive style. The 2000's cars pretty much hit jellybean status,
toyota/lexus in particular.

A few years ago I started noticing some of the hyundai models starting to have
a much more aggressive design with harder lines and more angular breaks. I
notice the japanese starting to (IMHO) poorly follow this design.

~~~
busterarm
Not sure I agree. It's nearly universally agreed among auto-journos that the
current Mazda 6 may just be the best looking full-sized sedan...well...ever.

~~~
rhengles
It is a mid-size, not a full-size. And the best looking cars are, imo: (1)
Ford Taurus/Fusion, (2) Audi A8/A6, and (3) Chrysler 300/200.

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brandonmenc
No mention of Chrysler's "cab forward" design, which imo really broke the dam
on this. Average cars didn't start looking curvy until the first Intrepid was
released. At least that's how I remember it.

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woofyman
The first soap shaped american car was the 1983 Mercury cougar. The success of
that led to the Ford Taurus.

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femto
I always thought it was because a curved panel was stronger than a flat panel,
hence curved panels allow a car to be built with less metal.

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secfirstmd
I've always felt the Ford KA (here in Europe) was a big influencer in the
movement towards curvy cars over here.

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ChrisGranger
No mention of the vehicle that epitomizes curves for me, the Volkswagen
Beetle...

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andrewstuart2
Nothing about the Dodge Neon? That thing was sooo slick to my 6-year-old self.

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kstenerud
80s cars were damn ugly, even during the 80s. I breathed a sigh of relief when
they finally started adding curves again.

~~~
busterarm
I disagree. The 70s/80s wedge is still my favorite car shape. Hatchback
Louvers were grand and those 5-mph bumpers look great on some cars (VW,
Volvo...)

Those garish econonoboxes are for-sure terrible though. The Dodge Omni has the
honor of being one of the ugliest cars ever made. Which also makes the fact
that Shelby turned it into one of the most awesome machines ever on the road
(Omni '86 GLHS) that much more satisfying. That said, rally was much more fun
when it was with ugly boxy cars and Group B.

~~~
amorphid
I love 80s Hondas. Especially the late 80s Civic Hatchback.

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qnaal
that video at the bottom ..

Mercedes Benz Cockroachmobile- has aero design gone too far?

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toolsadmin
Vox is non-technical, consumerist trash.

