Where has the horizontal homogeneity and vertical affinity gone?

Romanosky Automotive Weekly Gazette

Mercedes S Class : A continuous design thread through the decades.

There are almost as many schools of thought regarding automobile design as there are automobile designers. These dictate how closely a new model resembles the previous one, and what styling cues tie together the range of models from a manufacturer's line up. Two ends of the philosophical spectrum might be 'planned obsolescence' and 'vertical affinity/horizontal homogeneity'.

Brooks Stevens responded to a challenging brief just after WWII to design a range of vehicles based on the Willys Jeep - and came up with the Jeepster. Other designs of his included the 1949 Harley Davidson Hydra-glide as well as the 1960's Jeep Wagoneer.

Brooks Stevens Harley-Davidson Hydra-Glide:

So much for 'Planned Obsolescence'.

Ironically, given the longevity of the Harley Davidson motorcycle and Jeep station wagon, Stevens popularized 'planned obsolescence' which he defined as, "instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary". This (re)design philosophy reached its zenith in the 1950's with General Motors Styling Chief Harley Earl, who created the automotive tail fin and wowed the public with his jet aircraft-inspired concept cars.

Harley Earl's Firebird 3 Concept: Before the era of

pedestrian protection legislation.

The VW Beetle challenged the notion that 'bigger and newer is better' with their clever advertising campaign of the 1960's, which promoted the benefits of continuous improvement over change for the sake of change.

Bruno Sacco, who designed all the Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks for the last quarter of the 20th Century, was perhaps the greatest proponent of 'horizontal affinity' and 'horizontal homogeneity'. Mercedes-Benz of that era were instantly recognizable, and had long production runs. They were the safest, most reliable vehicles on the road and had the highest resale value and ownership retention. Functionality and practicality didn't go out of style. Mercedes-Benz sold more 126s (1979-1991) than any other S Class - 818,063 sedans and 74,060 Coupes.

Bruno Sacco's idea of luxury in the W126 S Class:

no glitz, just good visibility and ergonomics.

BMW and Audi followed suit with evolutionary designs and strong brand recognition. Porsches have always looked like Porsches, and nothing else - at least as far as the sports cars go.

The Porsche is literally the posterchild for 'Vertical Affinity'.

Planned obsolescence as a strategy didn't really work out. It turns out that consumers preferred better cars and stronger resale values, rather than the newest style.

When resources are not spent on styling changes, the design can be incrementally improved over the years and the vehicles can be made more reliable. A reliable car that doesn't look dated just happens to be what people look for in buying a used car, and is what increases resale value. Healthy resale values (and residuals on leases) is what sells new cars.

I got nearly 90% of the value of my 2019 Toyota Tundra after two (hard) years and 30,000km. It got its last redesign in 2007! Many Porsche 911s are selling for more as a used car than they were new. Dealers are asking $100,000 over list price for Mercedes-Benz G Wagons that were designed in the 1980's.

I think we know by now that styling cars to look like jet airplanes doesn't work. Adornment is a cheap substitute for proportion. Visibility is more important than cameras and sensors. We know that a smooth body panel goes through the air cleaner than a 'flame surfaced' one with big creases in it. and we know, or should know, that evolutionary design and incremental improvement are what create the best cars, most sales, and largest profits.

Yet when I look at the traffic around me I am struck by how many bad designs there are - mostly cross-overs that are trying to be practical and sporty at the same time, but wind up being neither. The rest of the cars seem so derivative that unless I can read the badge I can't tell what it is.

I have a Mercedes-Benz EQS (the S Class EV) on order for a client and I think Mercedes designers did a good job with that car. It is probably the most refined and most luxurious EV - and perhaps combustion engined vehicle - on the market today. With no bulky engine and gearbox to define the proportions the designers had great freedom. They pushed the 'cab-forward' design far enough to gain significant interior and trunk space, yet have the car look similar to past Mercedes and the other combustion-engined cars in the showroom. I have some reservations about the amount of gadgetry in the interior: do we really need a perfume dispenser, hot stone massage, hand gesture command and multi-coloured LEDs? I struggle to come up with a demographic who all these items would appeal to - but perhaps there is something for everybody. And I'm sure you can turn it all off if you want to.

Mercedes-Benz EQS Interior: It looks simple until the dash lights up.

I can do without the purple LED's...

I walked into the Hyundai dealer last week because I heard the Ionic 5 EV had landed in Calgary. They had a Corvette and a Jaguar convertible in the showroom - and that's all. It was deserted apart from the receptionist who said that they had sold all their cars, apart from the demos which were outside. Unbelievable. Anyway, they had an Ionic 5 which, to their credit, they were keeping as a demo. I think it and its Kia EV6 brother are the best of the non-Tesla affordable EV's.

Hyundai Ionic 5: Is it a better car for having creases in the doors?

I have an Ionic 5 on order, and was anxious to see what it looked like in the flesh - It was hard to get a sense of scale in the photographs. It looks nothing like other Hyundais, but that isn't a bad thing because the brand has yet to really find a cohesive design language. I liked it but I wish they could remove about half of the exterior design elements. Turbine-like plastic indentations on the wheel arches, a big backwards 'Z' pressed into the door panels and cheap-looking 'pixelated' lights don't add anything to the design in my opinion, and clash with the simple mid-century inspired interior. It's like they had a good design, but couldn't stop adding to it.

If they asked my opinion, I would have told them to de-clutter it, and then they would have something that was classically good-looking. Like this 1990's Lancia Delta Integrale below!