Worst design trend of the last 25 years

...is the elimination of the single hard jack point under the center front of the car.

CHANGE MY MIND

Grillz

Giant rims with rubber band tires

Design?  I vote for Predator grills on everything: 

And vertical elements at the front corners of everything: 

+1 for grilles

Also, CUV/SUVs.

Duke said:

...is the elimination of the single hard jack point under the center front of the car.

CHANGE MY MIND

 

And back.  But is that a recent design trend?

Rodan said:

+1 for grilles

 

Also, CUV/SUVs.

I hate this image when people use it to suggest all CUVs look the same (not sure if that is implied here or not).  If you show all cars in white, from a side profile, cover the wheels, and scale them to be the same size there are some similarities?  No way!

Monster pickup trucks that are too big to park. 

Usually bought by people who cringe at the thought of putting anything dirty or greasy into the bed.

Pah. None of you are wrong, but it's just aesthetics.

Second worst design trend is eliminating the dip stick.  Seriously, I have to drive 20 miles and park on level ground for a minimum of 5 minutes in order to have the car check its own oil?  What if it was low that whole time?

Can you tell I just changed the oil on a modern car?

ProDarwin said:

Duke said:

...is the elimination of the single hard jack point under the center front of the car.

CHANGE MY MIND

 

And back.  But is that a recent design trend?

I almost added back as well, but I figured I'd keep it simple.  Front is far more important.

My 2000 Grand Caravan had one. My 2003 E46 pretty much did not. So I went with 25 years.

Elimination of dipstick pisses me right off.

I didn't know the center front Jack point was there for about the first 20 years. Blew my mind the first time I saw someone jack their car by what must have been the lower radiator tank.

What about the maniacal push to replace actual physical buttons with a touchscreen menu?

wae said:

What about the maniacal push to replace actual physical buttons with a touchscreen menu?

this is the one - if not for the loss of buttons then for the total burial of every control inside the electronics. 

...and nearly impossible to upgrade the stereo. 

I may be a bitter old man in my 40s, but I just "liked" every comment in this thread. 

the grills thing is funny.  For years, grills were designed to be just large enough to cool the car, but not destroy the aerodynamics completely.  When Japanese cars came to the US and started to become popular, they all but went away as the Japanese People saw big grills as being too aggressive looking for their tastes.  This was the age of "bottom feeding" coolent as both this design trend and the need for ever greater aerodynamics was running headlong into our still not completely understood abilities to lower CD.

Now, China is dictating a lot of design trends. They are the largest untapped market for cars and they love big grills, they feel it makes the cars look expensive and powerful. Our understanding of aerodynamics makes this possible to make the entire front of the car look like a grill and still have a low coefficient of drag.

Of course the auto manufacturers love big grills. They are cheap to make, do not require paint, can look "tacked on" and are easy to replace in the event of a small bump with another car. What would you rather replace, a big section of the car that comes in a box and requires no prep and paint before installation, or something that requires a lot of bolts/screws, special paint to avoid cracking, and is quite easily damaged in the first place.

For aesthetics, I'll say the design trend to make cars look increasingly like bugs. 

For actual functional design, the center jacking point is a good one, I hadn't realized that went away. On my old cars I am just so used to tossing a jack under the front cross member and jacking away. And on new cars, finding something that appears to be made out of metal, tapping it with my finger to see if it sounds metallic, crossing my fingers, and gingerly testing it with the jack. 

But I'll go with pickups raised higher than required by the drivetrain. And wheels bigger than 16".  

The monster grills are bad, but after a decade we're either getting used to them, or they are getting better at incorporating them, or more likely a bit of both.  I will vote for the elimination of real buttons and moving everything to touchscreens.  

Slightly off topic, but have people noticed OEM spares are getting really really stupid on pricing.  I needed a new mirror glass for my wife's 2017 Mini recently.  OEM part is $80-160 depending where you get it.  I bought a Porsche air spring the other day, it was over $1,600 with discount.

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

The monster grills are bad, but after a decade we're either getting used to them, or they are getting better at incorporating them, or more likely a bit of both.  I will vote for the elimination of real buttons and moving everything to touchscreens.  

Slightly off topic, but have people noticed OEM spares are getting really really stupid on pricing.  I needed a new mirror glass for my wife's 2017 Mini recently.  OEM part is $80-160 depending where you get it.  I bought a Porsche air spring the other day, it was over $1,600 with discount.

Alright, I'll bite, what's an air spring?

Laser beam headlights that blind the berk out of anyone in front of you.  Im looking at you toyota!

Floating roof/broken C pillar seems like pointless design that often looks bad too:

Turret tops. High beltline suck. Makes it hard to see out of, so cars become unsafer. So they pack as many airbags as possible to bring back safety. But that makes the pillars even thicker, reducing visibility, making them less safe. So we add sensors,  and radar, and backup cameras. Now my sports car is a 2 ton sled. Argh.

In reply to STM317 :

OH LORD I hate that black stripe. It's awful. It also - for some reason - calls to mind hearses, which I think are cool, but most people wouldn't want to drive every day.

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

Slightly off topic, but have people noticed OEM spares are getting really really stupid on pricing.  I needed a new mirror glass for my wife's 2017 Mini recently.  OEM part is $80-160 depending where you get it.  I bought a Porsche air spring the other day, it was over $1,600 with discount.

That's not remotely new, or even that expensive. OEM replacement glass for the sideview mirror on my 1995 LS400 was $560. I went junkyard part.

Upsizing everything. Death of the "economy car/truck"
 

Im a "small truck" guy. Ive always loved nissan trucks, particularly the hardbodies from 94-97.  I DON'T WANT a mid size, full size, super honkin canyonero. I want my little vehicles. 

also nissan "streamlined". Their bread and butter on the trucks for ever was 4 cyl, 5 speed. Now they do not even offer a manual transmission or a 4cyl in trucks. Not like i'd buy a new vehicle anyways, but it still a suck trend. 
 

I know it's for safety, I get it.

High beltlines and fat pillars. Just no. I like nice low door frames and toothpick thin pillars.

Duke said:

ProDarwin said:

Duke said:

...is the elimination of the single hard jack point under the center front of the car.

CHANGE MY MIND

 

And back.  But is that a recent design trend?

I almost added back as well, but I figured I'd keep it simple.  Front is far more important.

My 2000 Grand Caravan had one. My 2003 E46 pretty much did not. So I went with 25 years.

 

e46 has both front and back. So does the e9x. f31, I will check today when I get back home ...

e46 is this black rubber puck on the front. Rear is the diff

e92