Worst era for automotive styling

[hatersaurusrex]

Hey,,,,,, I had that exact car.... White with red top and red leather interior.. Very nice and comfortable car... FREE made it that much better!!!!!    Ok, I put a motor in it, but I got that in trade for a trailer I was going to sell dirt cheap!! So almost free..... 

My .02 is, after 1974, WHAT STYLE??  Especially today. I guess there is style, but every car on the road that costs less than a LAMBO, looks the same to me...

Beggars can't be choosers, man.   I got a 94 Buick Regal for free once, in teal green.   Boring/Ugly? Yes.  3.8 V6 with 140K miles and still reliable as a mofro, also yes.  Solid car, but nothing to write home about unless you're writing home to say 'Wow, GM's dashes have more plastic in them than Joan Rivers' face'

[hatersaurusrex]

And even being Mopar guys, don't tell me this doesn't make you cringe:

[Lennard]

  1976 Ford Mustang II ?

[bobs66440]

For me, it just simply does not get worse than this....

[TheGhost]

77 trans am is a damn fine looking car.  So is the 80 trans am.  The warlock and little red express also looked good.

[Cooter]

Take a look at a 1961 Pug Nosed Dodge and compare....

[twodko]

I think all eras had winners and turkeys. 

[Lennard]

I think all eras had winners and turkeys. 

[Ghoste]

Ah, but do either of you feel that a specific era had way more than their fair share of turkeys?

[TruckDriver]

And even being Mopar guys, don't tell me this doesn't make you cringe:

I actually LOVE this body style Mustang. It looks more like a Mustang then the Fox body cars and un til 2004 cars.

I'd say the 1990's were the worst ever so far.

[Steve P.]

Is that a 75' Pintang???   

[Brock Samson]

I don't care myself for post WWII cars till '55, then they start getting better right up till 72, when everything took a nose dive. For me, after that it's a hit and miss proposition.. I just posted these few pics to show some early (and hated on) '60s Mopes i've come across since i haven't recently posted up.  BTW: Love me a Chrysler 300 F! 

[BrianShaughnessy]

It's mostly anything now...  somebody mentioned gumdrop design... when did it ever go away?

I can't tell any of the JDM things apart and apart from Chrysler,   none of the others look any different to me either.   

There were some ugly cars in the past,  but at least there was something different to choose from.   Designs were a product of their times and the engineering and technology to build them during those times....   not thinking why didn't they do things we consider commonplace today back then. 

[sixpack70]

Pretty much 80's to the early 2000s. There are few cars that are still cool from those eras, but for the most part they suck. I really hate the jelly bean look of most cars. I think this is a similar offshoot to another thread talking about how people view cars as an appliance and not so much something to be fun. Some of the car companies have tried to induce some excitement into their lineups, but for the most part have failed. Cars today look more like bean counters designed them rather than real car designers. Pre 80's cars look like they have a heart and soul infused into them. Even the cheaper cars have a look that the cheap cars of today can't match.

[Larry523]

The "jellybean" era was certainly bad. But the current era seems worse to me. All the cars today, domestic and import, look like boxes with rounded edges. I can't tell one make and model from another! There are a few exceptions of course, like the Challenger, the 'Vette, maybe the 'Stang, but even it's starting to morph from the neoclassic design into modern blandness. Cookie-cutter cars, all!

[Robert96]

They are getting hard to tell apart. I've been a car guy since the 60's and I'm embarrassed sometimes when my daughter asks and I honestly don't know what it is were looking at. Maybe old age isn't helping either.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

The "jellybean" era was certainly bad. But the current era seems worse to me. All the cars today, domestic and import, look like boxes with rounded edges. I can't tell one make and model from another! There are a few exceptions of course, like the Challenger, the 'Vette, maybe the 'Stang, but even it's starting to morph from the neoclassic design into modern blandness. Cookie-cutter cars, all!

Yup, I'll agree; most new cars are very generic looking. However, you do have to admit that new cars really do last. Back in the 60's & 70's no one had a car with 100,000 miles on it; now, everyone does. My first car was a 69 318 Charger that I bought in 1975 for $675.00 with 67,000 miles. Every body panel had major rot holes and the front seats were torn beyond repair. Back then, cars with over 85,000 miles were eyed cautiously as they were one step away from going to the junk yard.

Look at the power that they are squeezing out of cars today, plus you can't beat the economy, and they are comfortable! No need to get a Poineer super tuner and a pair of 6X9 Jensons as the factory stereos are great. A/C, p. windows, ps, pdb are all standard today. New cars handle better, brake better and even a lowly V6 will have better power than a stock 340. When's the last time you heard of a new car needing a valve job or bearings changed?

Today's cars are great in every aspect, except for styling and I don't know why that is.

[Ghoste]

And with how much bigger a committment is required to purchase a new car, they HAVE to last 100k miles or the thing would be junk long before your six year payment plan was up.

[Silver R/T]

Yea, I have to agree with Dino on that one..   In general I think the 80s were a style nightmare, and that is coming from someone who isn't a huge plad fan.

Here's my 80's style nightmare and I love it! 466 big block with 500+ hp.

That's a sharp looking Vette, I don't like most 80s cars but Vettes are exception

[Mike DC]

    
     
Modern bodystyle designers are basically painted into a corner by the demands put on them.  

Crashworthiness, aero, stiffness, weight, cheap/easy assembly, etc.  Everything comes out looking alike because this current look is where the efficiency lies.  Moving the car's appearance in any other direction from here will cost more money or compromise something else.  



And if they did compromise anything else to make the car look cooler again, guys like us would be complaining as loudly as anyone.  We would be saying "it's 2012 and a crappy Toyota delivers better _____ than this thing.  Detroit owes me at least that much in my new Chally/Charger/etc."

         

[Kern Dog]

late 70's-mid 80's

I agree. The cars were getting heavier and slower, then with gas prices nearly doubling in the late 70s, the automakers ditched the fat cars and built tons of FRONT wheel drive shitboxes. By the mid to late 80s, these front wheelers were restyled with aerodynamics in mind, and they looked like rounded blobs of steel and plastic.
The decline gained steam when chrome bumpers faded away.

[A383Wing]

My mid 70's & late 80's cars below.

I think each decade had good designs & bad

Bryan