Car design is an incredibly difficult job. You have to fit everything inside a package that seats enough people, carries enough stuff, meets the engineering requirements, and passes safety regulations, all while evoking emotion. Yet, we wouldn’t be car enthusiasts if we didn’t have a mountain of opinions about what makes a good looking car, which ones are ugly, and what should be changed.
If you could be a car designer, which company would you work for and what would you do?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “Have you ever bought a car (or not) because of the color?“.
We happen to be very picky about the colors we like, but we’re glad there are readers who aren’t. If it weren’t for readers like Franxou or streetspirit, who will take anything from rust brown to race car white, it would be very difficult to sell a car and the auto industry would grint to a halt. Others, like Kyuusha Corner can compromise, but as Jonathan P. points out, you can always paint it.
For TheJWT, Franxou, and BW it appears that color matters quite a bit on motorcycles, especially when tied to their racing liveries. For Ian G., iconic colors like Turquoise Blue for the AW11, or Classic Red for the Miata were must-haves. And as speedie‘s story reveals, interesting colors absolutely carry a premium when it comes time to sell a used car (rason number 4,198 not to believe what the dealers tell you).
Some colors were an absolute dealbreaker. ra21benj dodged a bullet because the Toyota 86 he saw happened to be Yuzu Yellow. And with so many grayscale cars out there, Jonathon avoided years of compromise with a gray Honda j Jazz.
The winner this week is BW, whose heroic journey to acquire a Laser Blue NB Miata shows epic dedication to a color.
I was looking for the replacement for my 1997 M Edition which I had decided to sell in Spring 2008. While scouring Autotrader, I spotted a blue Miata on a lot in Florida. It wasn’t just any blue Miata. It was one of the 150ish 2002 Laser Blue Miatas in the US Market. Of course, at the time, I didn’t know any of that. I just knew it was the coolest blue I’d ever seen. I turned to my wife and told her that this was the one. I drove my M Edition from Cincinnati to Knoxville, sold it to a friend, then hopped a 13 hour bus ride to Ocala, Florida, where I bought the car essentially sight unseen. I had had a local look at the car for me, but he had missed the fact that the muffler had a crack around both ends, 3 of the 4 tires were bald, and the 4th had a nail in it (or at least it did by the time I drove the car to Atlanta). The suspension was also blown and the car was exhibiting the characteristic “bucking” at speed caused by the failure of the Cam Position Sensor that most of the NB fleet had not aged enough to encounter. My thread on Miata.net was one of the first journeys into the discovery of the problem.
On the bus ride, before I ever laid eyes on the car in person, I gave the car the name it has worn for the last 18 years: The Tick. Laser Blue, as it happens, closely resembles the color of the suit worn by the comic book superhero. It’s mistaken for any number of other Mazda blues depending on whether it’s clean, dirty, in the light, or in the shade. My goal for the car has pretty much always been OEM Plus: the car that Mazda could have believably sold off the showroom floor if the technology (like Android Auto, for example) had existed at the time. Its modifications include a Bikini top, adjustable coilovers over factory Bilsteins, 15×8 FFD Evo 1 wheels (a near clone of my first dream wheel, the ATS DTC Comp), a rollbar, and a steering wheel spacer. I even rebuilt the car after a 2017 accident at Miatas at the Gap.
All this for a blue car I spotted on Autotrader and just had to have.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
It’s hard to choose. Today, all brands have standard and entirely unoriginal designs, all tailored to please the Chinese audience—or rather, Chinese executives. Since they don’t take risks, they shove trends down our throats to benefit their supply chain producers. For example, forcing manufacturers to adopt low-quality TFT panels (in some cases contradicting their own statements, like Mazda’s hypocrisy in using the exact same excuse for not putting one in the Miata, only to use it in a generic Chinese SUV) made by other Chinese conglomerates like TCL.
Or else it’s a scattergun approach, like the generic restomod-style motorcycles from QJMotor after they acquired several Italian manufacturers.
Well, I think the problem with car design nowadays is precisely this Chinese standardization. Not even Lotus was spared, and they already have a lineup of generic SUVs. What’s worse are the people who actually have the luxury to buy these atrocities.
So, since brands have been so generic lately, I think we’d need a brand that is going through a deep identity crisis, and for that reason, I would choose Honda.
As someone who checked out the new Prelude at Suzuka before it was even launched, I heavily criticized the car’s design, which was basically a Toyota Prius Coupe. Seeing a prestigious brand copying the generic Toyota and Porsche felt very disrespectful to its own history. Ironically, they don’t make these kinds of slip-ups when it comes to motorcycles.
I would launch a car like Nissan did with the Fairlady Z—a car that is new and directly references the golden era cars of the 90s, with clean lines and a design that speaks to the car’s history. Not in philosophy, but in art, which is what actually matters, because that is what we SEE.
It’s different, for example, when we see a natural evolution of design, or an innovative boldness. Spaced-out independent lettering on the back of cars, for instance, was very common on 90s Subarus, and they decided to bring this trend back. When I see that style on a Subaru, I don’t feel like they are just following a trend, for example.
I liked the new Honda One, and I need more cars like that because they are the halo cars that keep a brand at its peak every time we go out to drive these motorsport icons.
Businessmen want to maintain absurd and unrealistic profit constants, as if the world were endlessly prosperous and infinite growth were possible.
Right now the hot job must be at Nissan for while circling the drain, they cannot afford to only make another Rogue or Altima, they have to take risks in order to make it!
It took them balls to bring the Cube and I loved it. A sale flop, but I still believe it was a better and roomier vehicle than the Soul that crushed it on the marketplace. I want to design the next step from the Cube. I would make a cheap but cool wide long low station wagon and name it the Rectangle.
Of course we would then make a crosstrek-ified version for the sale volume and I would hate it.
Me porsche. For sports cars and Honda or Nissan would be my domestic car choices I’d like to work for.. I think there all on amazing paths an have designed some great cars engines other designs.
Choosing a brand is a big challenge… I suppose I have to envy Juan Manuel Diaz (Alfa Romeo and Audi) or Esteban Palazzo (McLaren Senna and other models from the brand), both Argentinian… we’re from the same country.
Above all, I envy them for the adventure of reaching those positions and achieving the result of seeing their car design go into production and, with time as the ultimate judge, maintain its appeal over the years. (If you can find interviews with both of them in Spanish, they’re quite engaging in telling the stories of their journeys within the brands, the rebellious spirit of their creations at Alfa Romeo, their training almost entirely removed from the automotive world to gain an advantage in understanding carbon fiber, and the many fortuitous situations that led them to have the opportunity to demonstrate their talent.) Likewise, I think Nissan would be a good challenge. I believe they’ve lost their way in recent years, and the last thing that achieved something truly different was the ID.X Freeflow.
I’d work for Honda and reference their late 80’s early 90’s design language.
The shapes defined by the fourth-gen Civic line in particular are what I have in mind; rational, functional, practical, cohesive, aerodynamically efficient, modern, unadorned but characterful and instantly recognizable as Honda. Friendly, optimistic, honest, thoughtful design – Dieter Rams with a sense of humor and lightness.
Would there be a market for these cars? Probably, nostalgia for the era is very much part of the 2020s zeitgeist, and we’re already seeing a rebellion from the kind of neo-techy-baroque excesses of the 20-teens as exemplified by the 10th-gen Civic, especially with EVs, albeit in a more self-consciously futuristic way than what I have in mind.
Wagovan forever!
If you think about it a little, let’s say that the silhouette of the Civic Wagovan mutated at one point into the first-generation CR-V and from there to the current era of SUVs.
I’d work for Isuzu. Resurrect a small frame on rail consumer SUV like a Vehicross* with maybe a collaboration with Nissan but bone simple akin to a Slate. Crank windows, Manual Transmission, extremely repairable but I’m willing to give way to a push button 4WD. Respectable off road chops required. Ironically, it would look a little like the new Nissan Juke concept. A pallet for the SEMA crowd & fills that hole the Jimny/Samurai left.
* Great idea but the technology came back to bite it. I used to want one so bad…
I would work for Nissan and take the Sentra platform and tweak it to create a new Pulsar. GTi-R. A all wheel drive hatchback would serve the purpose of reentry into the WRC. A shortened wheelbase with box flares. Also design the new Silvia with a sharp nose, low set headlights and clean lines that recall the S13, S14. S15 but updated with the latest design language in a 2+2 layout.
My heart says Honda for the same reason as Alan, as getting the chance to call back to peak Honda while pushing into the next big era is appealing. The problem is that Honda decided they’re not going to do that, by killing all their EV work and admitting they have no plan B.
So, I think I would like to give Mazda a go. We have been told that the next Miata will be the same ICE-only classic it currently is. And the chance to maybe do the last real ICE sports car from a volume manufacturer is too good to pass up. Doing a love letter to everything that was amazing about light weight and wind-in-the-hair driving would be amazing.
Plus, in order to provide cover for that Miata, the rest of the line-up will probably need to heavily transition into EVs. And while some may hate them, the current Renaults and Hyundai/Kias have kinda shown that you can do fun and funky commuter cars which are EVs. The chance to do some properly Japanese EVs that play with the new space/design possibilities would be really fun. If Honda won’t give me a 5th gen EV Fit, then I’ll take over Mazda and do one of my own, call it the Demio, and give people an affordable family car with personality. And then use the same platform to do a new B-series, and an EV Bongo Friendee for the hell of it. Because the world doesn’t need more $50k cross-overs. But it does need real cars for the people.
I aspired to attend the Art Center College of Design way back when. But realized I just wasn’t good enough nor original enough in my exterior designs. So, given that, I’d go be a stylist for Yugo. Why? Because anything would be better than their original designs so I could still come out looking like the Giugiaro of Yugoslavia. Wait, what? Yugoslavia and Yugo don’t exist anymore? Well, heck, then my talented designs would be considered “revolutionary”!! Revolutionarily ugly perhaps; but still revolutionary.
Да, друже.
I’m lucky enough to say that I am an automotive designer currently working at a major automotive aftermarket company, and before that have been able to work on things ranging from an Infiniti concept car to life-size Hotwheels.
At this point I think the companies that I’d want to work most at would be ones that are driven by enthusiastic executives that realize the importance of making exciting products, and on the surface, present day Nissan and Toyota seem like good examples of that, but of course you won’t know until you’re deep in the belly of the beast yourself.
Things can always change on a whim, so maybe the best place would be some small company you own yourself, so you have complete control; even if it’s not designing actual cars.
I’m assuming the intended question is if we had full-control of the entire company and could control every aspect of our dream project. If so, I would work at Nissan. My 1st project would be a coupe feature a three-box design. 2000lb target dry weight, and a naturally-aspirated 3 or 4-cylinder engine putting out 180hp / 180 lb/ft of torque or better. It should be a dream to work on, and there would also be a lot of resources put into selecting touch points that are satisfactorily tactile. Eventually, this platform would grow to have a sedan and wagon variant as well.