New car design .

[Borats Baby]

After several years of really shite cars being designed, are they finally starting to get it right ?

Theres not been a new car in the last 8 - 10 years that I've liked the look of, but more recently 3 or 4 have grabbed my attention....

The most recent is the new Honda Accord,



before that, it was the 407 coupe, now I'm not a big fan of Peugeots at all, but this one I thought was nice !!!



Others I've seen are the Astra Coupe,



Audi A5 coupe,



among others I cant quite recall right now......

Now, you may think these cars are mingin, and most of me really want to agree, but I really like em, and thats a big deal......

..... for me !

[julian2002]

i'd agree in general with you that only a few cars seem to have any sort of design flare in them lately. the 406 coupe was the last truly beautiful car that wasn't priced for international playboys - shocking build quality though. compared to it the 407 coupe a munter.

i quite like the look of the alfa 159, the mazda 6 is quite handsome and the seat leon looks pretty purposeful.

nothing really pushes my buttons lately though.

[gthang]

On the road the new honda accord looks like a fat bloater with under sized wheels. Agree the A5 does look good, I prefer the new face lifted Leon to the Astra.

[Injector]

I'm really liking the new Volvos. Nicest looking sub-£20k new cars on the road IMO.

[gazar]

I think the Fiat Punto design is excellent for a cheaper range of car.



Not quite the standard model

[Borats Baby]

gazar wrote:

I think the Fiat Punto design is excellent for a cheaper range of car.

Not mad on that Gaz.

[harv]

I really like the current BMW 3 series especially from the front... think it so lean looking... the sheet metal really does look like its been stretched to fit...

[HoopsOnToast]

Good looking new cars

Vauxhall Insignia
Alfa Brera
Jaguar XF
Jaguar XK / R
Skoda Superb
VW Passat CC
BMW 135i

New car that looks worse than the one it replaces -

Ford Ka
Ford Mondeo
Renault Megane
Honda Jazz
Subaru Legacy

[s2000db]

I think the new Fiesta's are really funky looking..

[gazar]

Borats Baby wrote:

gazar wrote:

I think the Fiat Punto design is excellent for a cheaper range of car.

Not mad on that Gaz.

Maybe someotherEXAMPLES of giugiaro,s designs may float your boat.

EDIT:dodgy link

[meninblack]

HoopsOnToast wrote:

Good looking new cars

Vauxhall Insignia - Tell me you're joking!
Alfa Brera - OK
Jaguar XF - shapeless, no Jag design language, will age faster than cheese and depreciate like, well, a mid-range Jaguar saloon
Jaguar XK / R - OK
Skoda Superb - bland, bland, bland, bland: looks like a blander Passat
VW Passat CC - badly-executed knock-off of strange droopy Mercedes
BMW 135i - dumpy, too many unresolved/conflicting swage lines

[Samantha]

Got to be said, usually MIB and my tastes are not similar when it comes to cars... but I have to agree with the pink and blobby one on this.

The Insignia is one of the most stunningly ugly cars to hit the road in a long while. That big bloated chrome grill and more chrome across teh back. With such ugly lines, why highlight them!

BMW 1 series, on paper a good car, but grief it has been beat up badly with the ugly stick.

As for the Fords that made Hoops' 'worse' list ...... I think the new Fords are all better looking than the cars they replace, although it is a shame the Ka and the Fiesta are so similar rather than the Ka having it's own identity.

Agree with those that site the Leon as good looking, especially the recent facelifted FR.

[Beobloke]

Both Hoops and the Blobster have got it wrong on the Jaguar XK/R though. It's sadlyyet another example of Jaguar taking a gorgeous Aston Martin andbloody ruining it.

Also, regarding the new Ka, NOTHING could possibly have been worse than the old one........

[subterranean-alien]

I found myself looking at an old 205 the other day and I thought what a good looking car - nothing complicated, no silly 'surface flaming', bulges, retro silly bits just plain, simple good design. Why cant they do that these days??

[rockmeister]

The XF is very colour depedant...red works, pale colours dont IMO.

Lots of the latest designs are using the same design formulae....sweeping lines moving up towards the back and widening, so that the rear wheel arches and the 'boot' are much wider than the cabin, giving it hips and a low swoopy nosed look.

Designers then cock this up at the front with hideous grilles and lights. Alfa in a typically Italian way sculpt the worlds most gorgeous and then stick the offset rectangle of a number plate just in the one place where it will bugger the whole design.

All that said, I like the new accord...at least it made me look, and the passat is very coherent too...nothing is out of place...very germanicly neat.

[Injector]

I'm sick of all these bulbous front light clusters and other such daft protrusions. Also triangular exhausts annoy me and will date sooo much. I preferred the old Ka, the old Fiesta and the old Mondeo to comment on others mentioned here...

[gthang]

the new mondeo (which I can currently driving as a hire car) imo looks crap, borring borring borring. dated design, what a mistake.

[HoopsOnToast]

i was saying which new cars i think look good. IMO

Personally, i would not have any of them, and think they all look crap when compared to older cars give me a Ferarri 412, Series 3 Jaguar XJ or XJS any day! They all look svelte and tight when compared to most new fat cars

[HoopsOnToast]

I agree with injector, and the older Focus, Ka and Mondeo all will be design icons, in the way that they set benchmarks and also follow the same ford design language without all looking the same



and the ST220


IMO

[Jobbo]

MiB - are you thinking of the old shape Skoda Superb? The new one is a bit more interesting than the old lwb Passat clone.

Problem with most new cars is that they have these terribly high bonnets to comply with new pedestrian impact regs. While it's possible to conceal this from some angles, it's not from all...