Why Cars are Getting Uglier 

Go on, confess... Which of you DOES like the BMW XM?

I think we are in an era when ugly is considered cool. Attention is more important than admiration.

Don't fall for the "it's needed for performance" from BMW... most of the grilles area is blocked off/fake. Only an amount of space similar to the older grilled and bottom mouth is open for airflow in the newer cars.

I don't mind ugly cars. I hate it that every car looks the same. Only the expensive sport cars have extravagant designs. I miss the times when affordable cars had unique looks.

When a large front grill is a statement of wealth and success, you know that it's also a statement that we're living in a really fucked up times.

It really seems like car design follows this constant cycle where things get ridiculous every 10-20 years.

I think the ugliness goes with the era we're living in. By the way, BMW have lost the plot along time ago. As a former BMW enthusiast and technician, its all over. The golden era of nice cars is over. Its just a race in who can create the latest cartoon character.

It's like a man worked for hours making a lovely smooth design and then some jerk said " run that through AI / computer"

8:36 Love it how on "Beauty lasts forever" they show an Alfa Romeo 🔥

"just because your grandma calls you a handsome boy doesn't mean you are" _cries silently.._

Toyota was ahead of its time, it was the first to make their lineup with all ugly scowling monstrosities.

The way the expert talked about the design, how it was designed by a comity, it remembered me a description from the Pontiac Aztek. The Aztek has, among other inconsistencies, a square form above the front wheels and a rounder form above the rear wheels.

The biggest thing that has been bugging me is the huge grille trend. Sadly, one of the worst offenders imo is Toyota. The Avalon and Tundra right now are just ghastly. I guess they're cool if you like your car to look like a mouth breather.

It's interesting how the same phenomena happens now with electric cars what happened 120 years ago to the first cars: the modern electric cars still have shapes which are completely unnecessary (like the grill in the front of the "engine compartment"), to not look too dissimilar from regular cars. And the fist cars looked exactly like stagecoaches, despite having no technological reason to do so.

"I wouldn't call it ugly but there is a bizarre grotesqueness to it." -Classic

I like the Classic VW Beetle and the French 2CV. They aren't over the top designs but they have unique and intresting characteristics. I like unique and oddball designs that are different from others. Cars that have a friendly look and they aren't perfect. Thier imperfections are what give them personality life and just a simple beauty that you can't hate.

5:35 wow this variant of the m3/m4 would look awesome!

I've also noticed this myself over the last few years. It seems as though car designers are trying to make their cars look more and more like tranformers from the movies. I half expect some of these cars to transform into a huge robot at the traffic lights and start skating.

I've been saying this for a few years! Why do they keep "over-designing" the cars? Less is more, seriously. A car should be pleasing and soothing to the eye, not make you go "uuuuh wtf. Where does that line go? What the hell is that thing there?"

Great topic. Current production cars are all boxy shaped and looking too similar. I needed a new car this last year and just could not get myself to pay $60,000 plus for a luxury car that I just did not like. Finally gave up and bought a 2011 Aston Martin Rapide for less money and just love it. Definitely a gorgeous car design.

Goes the same with the over exaggerated tail lights, sunroof, the less metal in the car the cheaper it is. Also, it helps if the young develops a taste for the ugly things because they were told that is "a good looking design" since they were growing up. (Happens with horrible music too)

i love late 80's early/mid 90's Japan. The very purposeful dimensions and incredible fit and finish on interior bits which still hold up to this day.

8:30 "Beauty is eternal and ugly is ugly.." I've always felt that way, especially when it comes to cars, hearing a guy that designs cars put it into words was awesome!

Because nobody's got the guts to tell someone "NO, that's a bad idea" because they're afraid of hurting someone's feelings

Bruh why did the damn nostrols on the electric bmw get bigger considering that there is no real engine in the front

That XM is profoundly ugly, the single worst parts if some can be isolated from the overall wretchedness, are the front lights.

This period in car design is similar to the 1950s/60s where each car design tried to out-do the others. Back then it was big ugly chrome grills and tail fins. Now it’s aggressive angry angles and gratuitous features. So it’s another baroque phase for car design, just made more angry for a more threatening world. Hopefully the pendulum will swing back at some point, when clean and spare design seems novel again. (Comment by a product designer, car guy, and former car design student)

I worked for a number of years as a business strategy consultant to the global metals steel industry. As a consequence, I periodically worked with clients that produced flat rolled steel for automotive applications. Exposed automotive steel applications (the body panels you see when you look at a car) were some of the most demanding applications in terms of mechanical properties and surface quality. This (exposed automotive) is a market segment that requires commitment from the steel producer - high capital costs for specialized equipment (eg vacuum degassers for ultra low carbon interstitial free grades of steel, etc) and very involved relationships between steel producers and automotive manufacturers regarding the development of new grades of steel. New grades of steel were constantly being developed to provide a combination of desirable properties including light weight, firm ability, and strength. They would use tailor welded blanks (TWBs) to create a body panel that consists of different grades of steel to accommodate the need for different steel properties at different places in the panel. I’ve had several contacts at automotive steel producers as well at automotive manufacturers tell me that often what people think to be bland or even ugly designs are to some degree the consequence of pursuing weight reduction via thinner panels which necessitates more forming of the panel to impart rigidity in lieu of lighter (thinner) body panel material.

Makes me wish we still had cars that used the 1920-1930 designs. I find them way classier than a majority of today's cars

What I'd like to know is, why are headlights getting smaller and brighter? I see it mostly happening with SUV's, and it also seems like the lights are up mounted higher than needed, blinding more and more people at night. It's quite dangerous to me, and I just want to know why headlights have evolved to their current design

POV: you're wondering how i got so many likes.

I personally like the general design idea of the m4 If the grill shapes were just wider though it would look a lot better to keep it from looking so tall and maybe shorten them a bit too

Looking at current BMW designs remind me of Pontiac. Specifically the 1971 GTO or even the Aztek. It could be that the designer had a GTO, or his/her dad owned a Pontiac, or he's a big fan of Breaking Bad (2004 Pontiac Aztek). 😉

Car design currently is a mix bag of amazing masterpieces to dog's breakfast. I guess it's just a tumultuous era and designers are atleast experimenting. But seems like some company lack people with taste to say NO. There are plenty of amazing designs with attainable cars recently eTron GT, Lotus Emira, Genesis (hyundai) new lineup, Most of PSA new lineup, Kia EV6 + ioniq 5 twins. The list of great looking cars in the past few years is massive. Just that the horrific ones really stick in our memory.

All I gotta say is SLS AMG still looks timeless and like it's from the future. None of the Mercedes which came after that doesn't look as fresh as that

Iam a Sri Lankan but I just love American classic muscle cars. But not that much of a fan of modern cars. People say I'm too old school but for me an electric can't even compare to an idle v8

I find that the ridiculously small side rear windows, and the strange body angles, make shoulder checks and reversing accurately, a challenge.

Glad this is being addressed at last! But according to me this begun with the rise of the SUV, which started a race to only get more ponderous and showing-off (with as much flashy details as possible)!

Hey, the PT crusier is a beautiful car! In fact, the first car that attracted me for it's design, I was seriously considering to buy it for how great it looks and how cheap it is now (I mean, a 16 y/o car shouldn't be expensive in the first place but it has a really good price at this time)

0:45 I’ve never heard someone say innovative like that and I think I like it

"Beauty is eternal, ugly is.. ugly." Greatest quote ever

Bet no one thought the original X5 would age so gracefully. Makes me not despise SUVs, almost.

Car's boxy shape back in the days is more on material bending, machines and holding that was used and not yet created. Now with all the plastic and aluminium use in cars, the mahcines have been updated to mold any shape they can think of whereas in the past, steel was not easy to work and mold.

I don't know about you but that 10th gen Civic was pretty good looking, by far my favorite Civic design that actually looks like more in-line with higher-end JDM cars in the previous decade like the 7th gen Celica or even the old Skyline R-34. This made Civic more sporty looking compared to other generations, even better than the current gen and the 9th gen. The only generation Civic designs that I liked before that was the Asia-Pacific 8th gen(America's 8th gen looks terrible ngl) and the EK and EG Civics, specifically the hatchbacks. It was by far the best-looking consumer sedan at the time imo if you live in Asia, better than the Corolla at the time which was its most direct competitor. I've never wanted to buy a sedan again after experiencing SUVs and MPVs for use-case, but that Civic changed my mind which only the Lancer EX did prior that.

I found laughable that a company this famous is tied to their grill/nostrils so much that they put an ugly one on an EV. They should find a new way to stand out. This is becoming ridiculous

Some designs age like fine wine, others like fine milk.

The Audi TT is also one of the most beautiful cars ever built... The 2004 models look like they were bought yesterday. Along with the Thunderbird coupe.

I really want to learn how to make a basic 4 seater rectangular car, with a nice rectangle grill and a hatch back but would it be turned away because it’s not modern?

5:57 mullets are trendy again. Im rocking one😛

I love the fact you can see his little alfa 33 stradale model at 1:34, truly a man of good taste

3:27 lets be honest guys the 2025 BMW in the meme is low key fire hahahahahaha

Bro you nailed that 1st second😂😂

Dude just roasted the entire bmw lineup to use as examples

I think they're planning to introduce a new design language. They did once again with the 7er a couple years ago. Experiments like this gives you a lot of freedoms to make the customers familiar with a new look. Sometimes ugly design is just a stepstone.

Thank god someone is covering this. I have been saying this for a while.

I've always hated the 'bubble' smooth designs of cars that have been the hallmark of car design for 30 years. Even if they are more aerodynamic I wanted something with interesting angles that caught the eye. The BMW car hits those marks for me personally and am interested to see how this style develops if it catches on.

With all my respect but Mazda with its "kudo" design language is one of the finest at the moment and its application in the mazda 3 (an economy car) should be praised to say atleast considering the price level they are competing in which can prevent them from making even more amazing designs !(imagine a super/hyper car mazda with this design language !)

3:06 "I wouldn't call it ugly, but I would call it bizarre grotesqueness." I LOLed.

I remember coming back from the beach last year and seeing the IX, and I legit stood there for a minute trying to figure out where this came from, because I hadn’t seen a bmw like that before, yeah we had an x5 but that looked different

I was born in 2005 and am 18 years old. Which means I'm pretty young. Same for most of my friends who are around the age of 20. But for some reason we all agree that we prefer the looks of 80s and mostly 90s cars. We do like some modern cars, but we're much more into old cars. My favourite car to look at is the Mazda RX7 FC3S(with the round tail lights) for example, or its successor, the Mazda RX7 FD3S. And I also love the BMW e30, or the BMW e36 M3 GT my dad used to drive when he met my mom. I could cite many old cars I like, but many less new cars. I can only think of the Toyota GT86 with a few body mods, or the Audi R8, but that one feels like cheating, just like choosing supercars or hypercars, we're usually not interested in those kinds of cars because we don't think we could ever afford them.

4:00 someone should fix that missing texture on the building :)

Beauty is timeless. The Jaguar E type looks as beautiful now as it did when it first rolled off the line more than 60 years ago.

5:50 Illustrating "boxy car design" with picture of F40... That's enough bullshit from one video.

But what i dont get is fake exhaust tips or fake air intakes this stuff gets me on trees man

I've wondered about current automotive design for several years and it troubles me a bit. I, too, wonder why BMW stepped so far away from some of their organic designs of the 1990s in order to hang art deco grilles on their newest models. Increased air flow to the radiator? OK, I'll buy that. But you can still achieve that goal with design discretion. One of the my greatest disappointments has been the strange evolution of the Subaru WRX, WRX/STI. The 2008-2012 models were very nice in my opinion. Today's offering is both bland and techno-gaudy in my opinion. The car doesn't look like a player anymore. Maybe it's the Bling Effect. People want other people to know that they dropped a bundle on their new SUV or pickup truck so they buy those models that edge toward the grotesque in order to stand out? I don't know. And since I'm not going to be buying a new car for some time, it doesn't really matter.

I totally agree, I've been thinking Car designers have all taken an "Ugly" pill for years. The 90's was the decade for good design. The key is for simple flowing lines, curve it don't crease it. There is also the Western European perspective verses the Asian perspective. New cars do seem to be designed for the Asian market.

I think the 90s Toyota Celica with pop up headlights are pretty, I wish modern cars still had pop up headlights!

I asked the local BMW Dearship the same question. They said: ' many like the larger grills..' ! Bullshit! BMW told them to say that...!

Even the bad examples of 80s cars still look better than most melted soap bars on the road today. 80's and 90's Japanese style is still king in my opinion and it makes me sad safety regulations prevent them from ever being made again while bloated SUVs and pickup trucks and hit a short person at head height because apparently that's safer than flip up lights

Like a friend of mine used to express it : Cancer. Stuff getting out of control, out of touch, and out of hand. And then, suddently.....

80s are my favorite era. Conquest TSI, MK2 and MK3 Supra. Period.

My two recent favorites by leaps and bounds are the new Alfa Remeo Gulia and Mazda 6. Both of those cars are drop dead gorgeous from any angle.

I know, from certain angles new cars look like they have been in an accident!

The bmw's have a face only the lead designer could love. "I wouldn't call it ugly.. grotesque" well that's not wrong.

5:34 that red m3 with the aftermarket grill looks stunning

As a BMW fan and owner myself. The latest X5 launched in 2019 spelled a decline in BMW designs. Still I find the latest X5 pretty good looking up until 2023 model year

BMWs are getting uglier. Just keep that classic look and add a different grill underneath. It shouldn't be rocket science. Bugatti keep a classic look.

if we're talking about the worst aspects to car design we went from Pure Wedge in the 80s to a jelly bean in the 2000s to looking like a Gaming PC with wheels in the 2020s

It used to be that design trends followed the customer’s preferences, now it seems that customers have taken on the “consumer” persona and now don’t make demands they just buy whatever is offered

Weren’t looks subjective? As an Italian i find Alfa Romeo’s design boring but I don’t mind at all the latest from BMW.

In addition to the design concepts he mentioned, good car design should be clean and uncluttered. Many of these have too many angles and protrusions, presumably in an effort to disguise cheap construction.

@3:15 it is like a BMW version of the AZTEK

"Beauty is eternal, ugly is ugly" got me dead😭

8:13 Chris bangle's designs were ridiculed over 15 years ago and even today they are ridiculed. Its indeed iconic, the same way movies like The Room (Oh hi Mark) or Sharknando were iconic, but in a bad way.

On the BMW EVs, the grilles are just a plastic cover. They serve no other purpose than being ugly.

I think Audi has very consistent and timeless design language.

Tbh I like the old civic type r. It's design is crazy and overdone and reminds me of when I would draw cars as a kid with 4 spoilers. I love it.

You're right indeed! Because of modern ugly cars, there is a need and a huge market for vintage classy, well designed automobiles

The problem is that all the classic nice looking styling concepts have already been used in the past. Car designers have a terrible fear of their designs being called "old fashioned" or "dated" or "stale". Apparently "looking like something from 2012" is the worst thing that could happen to a car owner today, even if that 2012 car looked great. So they have to come up with something new no matter how hideous it is. It's all an offshoot of our superficial world today where absolutely everything is judged on what it "looks like" as opposed to how well it does it's job. I even see reviews on guns now where the reviewer babbles about how the weapon in question is "ugly" or "pretty", like it makes the slightest difference LOL!

Love the video! I'd say that over time, cars in general have gotten more and more 'angular' and more 'aggressive' in their design. Having something that stands out compared to the standard teardrop design.

Dude, the Lagonda looks so cool. It looks like a concept car made production.

One factor I've thought about with this is that car makers want to put being "with the times" ahead of everything else - ahead of a coherent design language, ahead of looking in any way good, and so on. And ahead of being distinct from other manufacturers. There seems to be a sort of universal design language of every era, which almost feels as though the manufacturers cooperate on. So much that pretty much anyone can tell if a car is brand new, 5 years, 10 years, 20, etc old, regardless of condition. I suspect they might even, and are doing so more and more in recent decades, to fight against their common greatest foe: Their own 5 year old cars. As functionally valuable (anything any consumer actually cares about) year-over-year improvements slow down, consumers feel less incentive to buy new cars when their own 5 year old car, or a low-mileage 5 year old car on a used car lot, seems just as good and way cheaper. So car makers want to have the latest styling - whatever it is, even if it's hideous - in order to make that look new, and by extension older cars look outdated. To motivate people to buy newer cars to look "up with the times," "keeping up with the Joneses," or whatever. This is what it looks like to me anyway, as a driver of a classic Beetle from the '70s, which in turn had made only functional (rather than aesthetic) changes since 1938.

I'm happily old school. I had my first car crushes in the mid 1960s so comparing the cars of that era with the cars of today: Cars of 1960s, 1970s: Car designs had personality and individuality. LIterally from 3 city blocks away you could easily name the make and model of a car. Look at the 1960 Ford Thunderbird, the 1964 Buick Riviera, the 1965 GTO, the early E-type Jaguars (seen in this video) or the early 1960s Triumphs or MGs. Cars of today: Soul crushing and numbing sameness. An amorphous scoop/ blob of cabin on top of an equally uninspired foundation. Usually, especially for sedans you can walk right up to it and until you read the badges you cannot identify them. That's just the form. Function is also moving away from true drivers. When you drive an automatic transmission you're riding in the car. When you drive a manual transmission you're driving the car and it's more of a partnership between you and the car. Some will completely not get this and it's more important to them that their devices interface easily with the car and they can't wait until cars are self driving.

what i noticed is that BMW and other brads new cars are becomeing similar to the lamborghini edgy design and every other manufacturer follows this somehow, even when it doesnt fit to the brand.

Is it only me how actually thinks the BMW XM is nice? It’s not that ugly tbh, it has a futuristic look, like it’s from a sci fi movie, the same consept Hyundai is adopting recently.

I've been holding back on buying a new car simply because they're all ugly. I refuse to spend my money on the current crop and will stick with my old Nissan until things improve. However, with everything going electric I do wonder if all new cars will forever look like spaceships, have we entered a new wave of design that's going to become more angular and extreme as time goes by?

Thanks to stating something I have been saying for years now: the body lines of cars are getting uglier and too many pointless features.

I'll never stop loving the 96' f1 and the 70' hemi cuda

The latest BMWs make even the Pontiac Aztec look handsome and well-designed. To think that Chris Bangle got death threats for the E65 7er...

Someone ran a stop sign and totaled my 2019 Yaris last week.. I thought that car was beautiful. It was also the only small car in the market with a manual transmission with logical gear ratios. It was well built, fun to drive and super cost effective. I loved it. Looking at the market now, just a few years later, makes me sick. Here in the US, the only palatable small cars left are the Hyundai Accent and Kia Rio. (Especially the Rio hatchback!) But alas, they have lost their manual transmission options and are not a sports car in disguise the way my Mazda made Yaris was. I'll have to find a used one. 😪