Law & Order: SUV

ye, the Steve Mattin era at Volvo between Horbury’s two stints is considered a bit lukewarm and faddish, the cars weren’t unattractive but they lost a bit of that pure Scandinavian cool in favor of swoops and curves

BMW grilles have to become smaller eventually to not block the view of the driver...

Like all art, there are trends.

I really like the Polestar 2, but would like it more if it was lowered a couple inches to get rid of that slightly odd proportion. If they make a wagon version it would be a top candidate for my next car.

All of the SUV Coupes have the Eagle proportions, too, and they’re the most loathed car designs made. 

A couple of observations:

Submitted for your disapproval...

It’s CAD brain. There are way fewer constraints for the difference between design phase and production, and safety considerations only makes the design inflated when you can just slap panels over whatever utilitarian bits you’re required to have. Engineers are rarely going to moderate themselves and the corporate…

Oooh the Lexus now has 7 blades for superior shaving comfort!

It’s my theory that as computers/CAD and factory robots etc. got better, suddently things that were very difficult and hence expensive became possible and cheap, and designers have kinda lost their shit a bit and thrown the entire toybox at it because no-one’s told them they can’t anymore.

If modern cars molest people, these should join the sexual offender registry.

I’m not sure why auto designers don’t get it right. What are they drinking that makes them want to crunch and seam every surface. They are so gaudy.

agree with this... i appreciated how they stuck to their boxy look thru the bubble era... while others were so busy focused on what bubbly cars they could produce, they never stopped to think if they should produce them...

No idea what he’s talking about, so much understated design on sale today... ;)

Many many years ago, I went for a tour of Herrenchiemsee Palace. It’s the last of “Mad King Ludwig”’s castles. It’s a copy of Versailles, but with extra gild. It wasn’t finished, but you can see a lot of what it was supposed to be before Bavaria ran out of money and Ludwig ran out of air.

Was there ever a point in time where Volvo didn’t have some of the more nicely designed cars on the road? Even the 80s - 90s era boxes looked good in their own rectilinear way.

Saw a Polestar 1 on the road and it was surprisingly low and wide, really good looking car.
Modern/futuristic designs could be so clean and tasteful but seems like there’s a lot of focus on making cars loud and busy through design, especially normal cars trying to look uselessly aggressive and sporty. 

Volvo has been knocking it out of the park for a while now. The newest V60/V90 are some of the best looking wagons ever made, the XC90 is stunning and was ahead of its time when the current one debuted, and the Polestar 1 is gorgeous as well. Their interior game is also excellent.