August 4, 2025 • 40 mins
Join us as we embark on an exhilarating journey through the evolution of automobile design, exploring key moments and iconic designs that have defined each era. We kick off with a look at how the automobile transitioned from a luxurious, aristocratic toy into a practical vehicle for the masses. Industry giants like Mercedes-Benz, who catered to the elite, and Ford, who made cars accessible to the average person, played pivotal roles in this transformation.
Everett J.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
After years of rating seriously, since 2008,
AutoLooks has noticed that there's not a real
lot of difference between vehicles that
came out in 2008 and 2025.
But in all reality, there are some
differences.
When you embed yourself so much in
automotive culture, everything starts to
blend together and then you don't realize
that there are differences.
(00:21):
And throughout the decades of the history
of the automobile, there have been a
multitude of different styles of design.
Each decade seems to have its own key
points for design, something that they all
look at.
But what are they?
What are the big ones?
Well, it's not exactly every decade, from
beginning to end, that creates these
defined designs.
(00:42):
No, sometimes they flow from one decade
into the mid-series of the next decade, or
only for a couple years.
But design elements have been going strong
since the advent of the automobile, and
today AutoLooks is going to take a look at
decades of automotive design.
Welcome back to the AutoLooks podcast.
I'm your host, as always, the doctor to the
(01:06):
AutoLooks Podcast.
I am your host, as always, the doctor to
the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay,
coming to you from our host website at
AutoLooks.net.
If you haven't been there, stop by, check
it out.
Read some of the reviews, check out some of
the ratings.
Go to the Corporate Links website page.
Big or small, we have them all car
companies from around the globe all
available on one spot, the Corporate Links
(01:26):
website tab at the top of the page of
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The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by
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If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email@autolooks.net.
So we, like we said in the intro, there are
different design elements across the entire
history of the automobile and for the past
30 years it seems like we've become really
stagnant in our design.
(01:47):
But there actually has been some defining
moments of automotive design within those
periods and specific cars really bring out
that cool design language.
Now for us, if we really want to go back
and take a look at automotive design and
see how things changed and evolved, you
have to take a look at two main car
companies, two of the longest running car
(02:08):
companies in history.
We're talking about the automobile company
that essentially put the world on wheels,
Mercedes-Benz, and the company that
literally put the rest of the world on
wheels, the Ford Motor Company.
Both of them have been around since the
turn of the last century yes, Mercedes
dating itself.
All the way back to 1886 with the patent
(02:30):
Volkswagen.
They gave us a motor on a buggy,
essentially what everybody called it back
then, the horseless buggy.
And that's what it was.
It had all the fixings between a standard
horse buggy and a bicycle Not all that much
of a lot of difference.
You had your motor controls and you had
your gas pedal.
Basically they didn't go fast enough for
you to even want to have a brake pedal on.
(02:50):
The brakes literally weren't invented for
the first few years.
The automobile industry that came out later,
because it wasn't until we started going
faster that we realized we needed to slow
down, because before then all these things
didn't even go as fast as horse and buggies.
But that's what they were.
They were just buggies on wheels.
Now, by the 1890s, the automobile into 10
(03:10):
years, the automobile started taking shape
as more of a dedicated horseless buggy.
It expanded upon the standard buggy design
that we'd been utilizing for centuries.
Before that it started adding some key
features to making an automobile Well,
lights, kerosene or even wax lights were
used.
At the beginning of the automobile industry
(03:31):
we also had a change from very thin bicycle
wheels to bigger bicycle wheels.
We needed a little bit more comfort
Suspension was slowly starting to make its
way in.
But it had already made its way into the
buggy industry.
If you go back and take a look at one of
the pioneers of the Canadian automotive
industry, McLaughlin, which eventually
became McLaughlin Buick, when they joined a
partnership with William C Durant or
(03:51):
Chevrolet and General Motors, they
originally got started by making cutters
and carriages.
Well, all these things had comfort levels.
You have to remember.
Royals have been cruising around in
carriages for years with that the
automobile, because it was essentially a
pastime for Aristocats and affluent buyers
and even royals.
The average person couldn't get their hands
(04:12):
on it, so a lot of creature comforts
weren't put into play.
In the early days it essentially was just a
toy for people to play with.
It had lost its standard wood and iron base.
That made it a buggy and turned it into
more of a horseless buggy, because it
looked like the buggies that we all had
around, just without a horse.
But things were about to change, as one man
in the united states is about to make a
(04:33):
major change to the automobile industry.
If you actually go back and look at the
original 1902 ford model a, you'll actually
find the steering wheel on the wrong side.
Well, depends on what country you are in
the world, but in North America it
technically was on the wrong side from what
we would be accustomed to in the next
decade.
Now the original Model A from 1902, we're
(04:54):
now heading into the second decade of the
automobile.
We're starting to lose that luster of a
horseless carriage and starting to see the
automobile as a working mobility unit for
all of us.
Henry Ford wanted to make cars for everyone.
See, Mercedes-Benz at that point in time
was still looking at the high-end,
high-class.
They built vehicles for the Aristocats of
(05:16):
Europe.
Henry Ford saw the working man and wanted
to find a way to make it so that anyone can
have an automobile.
Well, the original 1902 Ford Model A kind
of did that.
He looked at making the automobile its own
presence.
This wasn't going to be a horseless buggy,
this is going to be the automobile.
This is what we're going to see it as we're
not going to see it as a horseless buggy,
we're going to see it as its own mode of
(05:38):
transportation on our streets.
So, with very simple designs, they started
to create something in automotive design.
See, before it was essentially just a wagon
a seat, somewhere to put your feet, a few
controls and a motor underneath your butt.
Really, that's what it was.
The Model A started changing that.
They covered the motor completely, gave its
own area on the back.
(05:59):
Essentially it was a mid-engine rear-wheel
drive Kind of neat, huh, but it had wheel
flares all made out of just standard steel.
You got to remember this thing has to be
cheap and easy for anyone to make and sell.
Your horn was essentially just a little
rubberized horn on the side of your vehicle,
just like you buy for your own bicycle
today.
It literally was simple.
But now we're just not adding our standard
(06:21):
headlights or lighting fixture to a post.
We gave way to actual headlights Now.
Back in those days a lot of them were oil,
kerosene or even wax inside a brass
enclosure with a glass face.
They had one on either side.
Sometimes they even had them in the center
to light up more of the road for you.
So they're starting to make the automobile
(06:42):
look like something other than the horse
and buggies that we've become so accustomed
to over the past few centuries Hell, over a
millennia that we got used to these things.
The automobile was making a statement, but
from there companies like Mercedes started
realizing we need to make the automobile
feel more like an automobile.
(07:02):
And after finding out what Henry Ford was
doing, Mercedes decided to go steps further
by creating the first actual automobile.
See, henry Ford was just working on a small,
tiny little buggy.
Mercedes was working on an actual
automobile two seats up front and a bench
in the back.
They even added a door for extra safety for
the rear occupants of the vehicle.
(07:24):
Now drivers and front passengers could hop
in, hop out.
These things were starting to get a little
bit more faster.
And think about it, some of these were
coming with in between 50 and 60 horsepower.
Now this is 1902.
That's a lot of horses, which means you can
go a lot faster than your standard buggies.
And our headlights started changing, our
horns started changing, we started adding
(07:44):
something to the rear of our vehicle.
A fully encased front engine eventually
gave way, or gave us the original outline
of the automobile Open top, no windshield,
no, nothing else.
Literally a compartment for you to sit in
in the center, a compartment up front that
houses the engine and all the workings to
make the vehicle move.
We had springs underneath, like leaf
springs, essentially that we now see on
trucks apartment up front that houses the
engine and all the workings to make the
(08:04):
vehicle move.
We add springs underneath like leaf springs,
essentially that we now see on trucks.
But early automobiles, that's what they had
because that's what they had in horseless
buggies or even horse to buggies at that
point in time Carriages, leaf springs.
We started to get more creature comforts.
We started adding toolboxes and that to the
side.
We started covering our wheel well so we
wouldn't get hit with rocks.
(08:25):
And with that we started giving the
automobile its own design.
It was not just a replacement for the
carriage, it was going to become its own
thing.
Eventually, by mid-decade, we started
adding a convertible top, started realizing
people didn't want to drive automobiles in
the rain or the snow no, it's not always
(08:46):
sunny everywhere in the world so they
started adding these drop-down convertible
tops.
You just literally drop them behind
yourself.
And with that our first roof came into play.
Now, it wasn't a fixed roof, but it was
there to create some more creature comforts
and yet again, only back doors.
A fully enclosed carriage from landus or
limos in European and American marketplaces
(09:08):
started coming out near the end of the
early 1900s.
By the end of the decade we're starting to
roll into about 1910 in the teen years.
Think about it, this is like 110 years ago
right now, and we're just starting to add a
windshield to the front of our vehicles.
We're adding a fixed roof to our vehicles.
We're starting to add a windshield to the
front of our vehicles.
We're adding a fixed roof to our vehicles.
We're starting to add glass panes.
(09:28):
We realize that royals around the world
still want to be traveled around in their
horsed carriages.
Why?
Because carriages provide all the creature
comforts they can sit inside where it's dry
and it's warmer than it is outside.
Over the end of the early decade of the
1900s, we realized that we needed to start
doing that to the automobile.
And because the automobile was becoming so
(09:49):
prevalent in the world, we had to ensure
that people being driven around in this
thing had the same creature comforts as the
original carriages.
So we started doing that and with that we
were able to mold in our wheel wells to the
side of the vehicle.
Sure, they were still a hunk of steel on
the side of it to make you get into or out
of, or with running boards or to protect
(10:10):
you from rocks shooting up.
Well, things are starting to change and we
were starting to enclose the bodywork, or
coaches.
We started getting these coach companies,
so original companies that started building
coach bodies for original carriage
manufacturers started entering the
automobile industry and by the teen years
they were doing this.
They were fully enclosing both the engine
(10:30):
and the passenger compartments, but only
the seating area of the passenger
compartments.
We only really had side windows if it was a
high value vehicle, because we're talking
about like the landulets, the cabriolets
and and the limos.
We're talking about products like Mercedes,
Duesenberg, Cadillacs.
These had enclosed limo backs to them.
The reason why they had that is because
(10:52):
royalty needed to be shielded, the standard
person buying an automobile.
All they needed was a roof that they could
put on top of them when they needed it.
Because you have to remember, even riding
horse and buggy back in those days, unless
you were inside the carriage, the driver
always got soaking wet.
There weren't a lot of ways the old school
wild west with those horse and buggies, big
(11:13):
canvas tops on them.
Well, back then be more like wool or thread,
but those gave you some sort of protection
from the elements.
The early automobiles were not.
We were starting to get more intricate in
our roof design and our body moldings were
starting to become more in line with the
designs.
By the mid-teen years our automobile
started to take shape.
We didn't have side windows.
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We didn't have, essentially, mirrors on
every single vehicle.
We didn't have electric lights.
We had running boards, a central carriage
space for all of us and an engine housing.
But with that came the introduction of
being able to bolt your trunk onto the back
of your vehicle.
It's where you could store all your goods
that you're bringing from town back home.
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If you're traveling, it's where you put all
of your luggage.
So the automobile was becoming more of a
part of the global climate.
People were traveling and moving.
Our vehicles originally started with wire
wheels.
Now we were starting to get into wooden
spokes as the days of the automobile.
The wheels started to get thicker.
It started to decrease in size from being
fully bicycle or carriage wheels into an
(12:14):
automobile wheel, a specific tire made for
the automobile industry.
We were adding mirrors so we could see
what's behind us.
We were adding more chrome and brass to the
vehicles.
We were giving shape to what would become
our main mode of transportation.
The moving from the teen years, our open
top or fold back back designs essentially a
body on top of a frame started to change
(12:35):
and by the 1920s, blending everything
together that we already had was becoming
big.
Yeah, we're not talking about just a
standard flat steel band for our running
board and wheel wells now.
We were talking about fully integrated
wheel well covers, running bolts.
We were starting to create flat windshields.
Top of the line 1920 Mercedes Pullman limo
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was a fully enclosed automobile for the top
tier people of the world.
This is where the automobile was starting
to go.
It was showcasing to us that we could put a
big engine under the front.
We can have electric lights that we can
turn on.
Well, we can even have wipers to clean the
windshield, because up until this time the
(13:18):
windshield was just to keep bugs out of our
face but it wasn't fully protection.
When the Pullman came around it started
enclosing everything and integrating
everything into the original box.
Coach build design of the automobile.
Coupes, Sedans all started to take that
shape At the bottom end.
When you're looking at you know entry-level
Mercedes and that they're getting bland,
(13:38):
they're getting boring.
It's still just a standard coach.
River mirrors and electric lights are
starting to take shape, but we're starting
to blend more into the body works.
By the end of the decade even the bottom
end of the automobile industry was starting
to come together.
We were starting to get away from these
open-top buggies and fully enclosing our
vehicles to protect us from the elements.
Sure, a lot of vehicles back then were only
two doors for four passengers.
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We started adding bumpers to the front to
protect us.
Same with the rear.
The running boards and wheel well covers
become fully integrated into the bottom
frame of the vehicle where the carriage
works, just dropped right on top.
We had windshields, we had a visor
protector to block out the sun when we
needed it, something that's disappeared
from automobiles Windshield wipers and rear
mirrors.
We were starting to take shape of the
(14:20):
automobile of the future and those wood
spoke wheels from the late teen years and
early twenties were starting to disappear.
Now we were getting into wire wheels and
our wheels were starting to get smaller in
diameter but wider.
By the 1930s we started rounding out the
corners, kind of like the early days when
the automobile first started moving from a
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carriage and then it moved into its own
standard open top carriage and then we
started rounding out the edges.
By the 1930s, when you start looking at
something like a Ford Model Y, all the
edges are curved.
The roof is no longer a canvas piece, it's
a full steel top.
It might have a removable midsection
similar to a sunroof today, but that was
(15:01):
only for safety.
When we needed to get out, we had door
handles, full-size doors going from the
base to the top of the roofline, bumpers on
the front and the back, colored wheels,
smaller diameter wheels.
Like everything was starting to move
together and the 30s became a time when
automobiles were starting to shed their
carriage-like body styles from the past and
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we were starting to move into a
fully-fledged, functional automobile of the
future.
The 30s, by the end of the decade, were
starting to blend together.
We couldn't really see the difference
between the front engine bay and the
passenger compartment.
Everything was starting to merge together.
It still had the basic shape of the
original automobile created in the early
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1900s, but everything was becoming more
enclosed.
Everything was becoming one with each other.
By the mid-1930s you couldn't tell the
difference between the bottom frame and the
carriage.
Everything went together Fully welded steel
frames, side windows.
We were fully enclosed in our automobile.
(16:06):
By the mid-30s, yet again, wheels were
getting smaller in diameter.
When you take a vehicle from 1935 and put
it up next to a vehicle from 1925, you can
see the catastrophic difference between the
two of them.
One of them looks like an old school
carriage and the other one starts to look
like an automobile.
More rounded edges, blending everything
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together, we started realizing we didn't
need to make every single vehicle look
exactly the same and by the end of the
1930s the original shape of the automobile
was being contoured together to give us
something better.
Our vehicles now were fully encased Back
windows, front windows, side windows, you
know.
The wheels were fully covered.
We covered in all the added spaces behind
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the wheel wells, you know, the dead cat
hole at the top Gone.
We were blending this all together.
The front radiator grille was starting to
move into the front engine housing and to
pop open the hood.
It wasn't just got stuck and transferred in
the early part of the 1940s, but as the
1940s eventually gave way and the end of
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war came, people came back and realized
they didn't want to drive the same vehicles
they had when they went to war.
They want something that looks different,
and that's what vehicles like the Chrysler
Airflow were starting to come out, starting
to take into consideration aerodynamics
into vehicles.
We were starting to blend everything
together.
Lights didn't have to become a separate
fixture from the front of the vehicle.
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They could be blended in to the wheel
covers, the grill can make a statement and
tell you what type of vehicle it is.
Not just by trying to figure out which logo
is imprinted on top of the radiator you can
now find from far away.
People like BMW were starting to utilize
their own grille designs.
We're starting to blend together.
Vehicles look nothing like they did 20
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years previous.
In the 1920s we were a carriage.
By the late 40s our vehicles were
completely enclosed together.
By the end of the 40s vehicles started
blending.
Into the 50s we still had that original
carriage work with the design elements, but
by the end of the 40s we started merging
everything together and with that new
(18:26):
designs started coming out.
We realized we didn't need to have exterior
wheel wells.
We could actually mount them inside of the
vehicle.
We can give more space to the engine bay
because we can literally push out the edges
of the engine bay to the far edges of the
automobile.
And now, with radial tires starting to come
in, in the late 40s and early 50s
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automobile design made a major change for
the better.
All vehicles now are becoming one design.
Sure, you can still have a frame underneath
of it, but this is the 1950s.
Unibody construction was being played
around with and was available to the public.
Unfortunately, it didn't take off in a big
way, not until essentially, the 1970s and
into the 80s during the gas crisis.
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But by the 1950s chrome was all the rage,
windshields started to get curved, our
rear-view mirrors started to make more of a
presence even in bottom tier vehicles.
We gave more emphasis to design.
We were allowed to play with and do
whatever we want.
Something like a 1955 Ford Thunderbird was
unheard of even in the early 40s.
This was something for the 1950s.
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Fender flares, tail fins, covered lights,
cowl hoods were all starting to move.
But then Mercedes gave us one brand new
introduction in 1955.
The Mercedes-Benz 300SL gullwing door
showed us that the standard operational
doors or suicide doors that we've become so
accustomed to, didn't have to make sense if
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we wanted to make our vehicle lower.
To do that, we created the gullwing doors
so you can get into and out of the mercedes
300 sl a lot easier.
It wanted to get lower to the ground so it
can go faster.
As chrysler did with the airflow in the
1940s, mercedes is starting to realize that
aerodynamics can help it achieve even
faster speeds than before.
(20:12):
Now, by the end of the 50s, our vehicles
were all starting to look very similar to
each other.
North America had its style and Europe had
its style.
Hell, the Japanese even had their own style.
But all of them still had similar features
Big chrome grills, round headlights and
sleek designs.
But as the 50s were starting to change and
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we realized we needed to have products that
looked different than each other, we
started moving into the 1960s.
And in the 60s we started realizing well,
the 40s we started blending that carriage
all together.
The 50s we gave it its presence.
Well, the 1960s we started realizing we
could do more with the automobile.
We started working on two box designs, have
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the biggest space possible and see what we
can do within it.
And the 1960s was all about size.
Vehicles are getting bigger.
We were able to blend everything together.
Bumpers were being integrated into front
design.
We were adding more headlights so we could
see further down.
The road Mirrors were either on the side of
you or right at the front.
Our windshields were getting curved.
(21:16):
But our automobiles were essentially a
two-box design A bottom box and a top box.
We maximized the space.
We created flat edges or bland edges with
no character whatsoever.
Luxury car companies still kind of kept
with their 1950s style but started to
enhance the flat designs.
By the end of the 60s we started seeing
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more new features with vehicles.
The big, burly vehicles of the muscle car
era were starting to hit the roads In the
1960s.
Two-box design was slowly moving into the
1970s.
But in the 70s, with the amount of drugs
and everything else that was out there in
the world, it was becoming a more
experimental place and people started
(21:58):
working with all kinds of different designs.
People wanted entry-level vehicles all the
way up to these monstrosities of road
trains.
So car companies did that.
They played around with blending everything
together and the 1970s became a day of big,
wide, muscular vehicles.
We started rounding out all those edges
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from the two-box designs in the 1960s to
make them that big presence on the road,
but curving them out so that things went
together.
If you take a look at a 1972 Ford Torino,
the headlights are embedded in, the grille
fits perfectly in the center and everything
cuts at the right way.
Vehicles were starting to move together.
The two-box design was starting to become a
(22:39):
two-box blob.
But things were about to change yet again.
We started getting into the gas crisis by
the mid-70s and brand new safety features
like the 5-mile-per-hour bumper started to
come into play, and for that these new
integrations had to be put into automobiles.
So by the end of the 1970s, the big chrome
bumpers that came out in the 1950s for all
(23:02):
our automobiles Like we didn't just need
the standard push bumper we saw in the
1940s and 30s, no, we had the big chrome
ones.
Well, these are starting to move out of the
way, for fully integrated 5 mile per hour
bumpers, square headlights were now
becoming a thing.
We're moving back to kind of to where we
were in the 1960s Flat, bland, two box
design, square, hard edges, but our lights
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were either square or round, vehicles were
still big and burly.
But then, essentially by the end of the 70s,
we were starting to get into that hard-edge
design Flat, boxy and in some cases very
boring.
You look at a 1984 Thunderbird and then
look at a 1973 Ford Thunderbird, and look
at a 55 Thunderbird and then a 60
(23:45):
Thunderbird.
You see how it changes, how it blends the
big, chrome, sleek designs of the 1950s to
the flat, two box design, to the 60s, to
the big, powerful design to the 70s, giving
way to the we just want to make money of a
simple design in the 1980s.
The 80s became about very simplistic
(24:05):
designs.
Well, the world has just gone through the
gas crisis and we were into another
economic turmoil by the mid-80s.
The computer age is upon us and we're
starting to realize we can design cars on
computers.
And with that we started utilizing the most
simplest forms.
And with new safety features having to be
added to vehicles, we started realizing we
just needed to work on all the key features
(24:28):
for the automobile.
We'll think about how we can blend that all
together afterwards.
So vehicles started to go back to a bland,
boring, simplistic two-box design.
By mid-decade, bubble lights started coming
into effect and we started doing like we
did in the 70s.
We started rounding out the edges of all of
these two-box designs.
The bumpers were no longer big, burly
(24:50):
plastic things sticking off the front end.
No, they were being blended into the
designs.
You could tell that they were plastic
because we usually color-coded them
compared to the rest of the vehicle or add
chrome features.
Fog lights were being embedded into these
bumpers.
They were moving with the vehicle.
The days of those square headlights or
round headlights or simple designs, burly
things.
The end of the 80s was becoming the curved
(25:13):
two-box design.
We were still utilizing that two-box design,
but we were starting to curve it out.
We were starting to give way to more of a
smooth-fitting dimension.
We realized that aerodynamics can play a
big part in fuel economy and for us to
reduce our fuel economy and get better
mileage out of our vehicles we had to clean
up the designs.
So in the 1990s we really started doing
(25:35):
that.
Taking a look at a 1991 Ford Probe and then
a 1996 Ford Probe, you could really see how
the early 90s to the later years in the 90s
really changed.
The beginning of the 90s was leftover from
the 1980s.
The two-box design that was being curved
out.
The simple safety features and blended-in
bumpers were there.
Bubble lights were here.
They were taking everything.
(25:58):
Not a single car you would find with square
headlights.
By the early 90s They'd all made way for
the bubble lights.
Bumpers are becoming part of our automotive
design and by mid-decade of the 90s front
and rear bumpers have now transformed into
becoming part of our automotive design.
They weren't an add-on feature that we just
literally threw on as an afterthought.
(26:19):
They weren't the five mile per hour bumpers,
the horrible plastic things you saw thrown
on to any cool design from the 1970s at the
end of the 70s.
No, they weren't these big plastic shards
like we had in the 1980s.
But the mid 90s we were getting into the
teardrop days of clean, teardrop vehicles.
Smooth, flowing edges was our automotive
(26:42):
design.
We still utilized a lot of the old features
two box design, muscular forms they were
all still present but they were all done in
a clean, free, flowing way.
And by the end of the decade these bubble
lights started taking shapes of many, many
different forms.
We didn't just have to have the square
wraparound style bubble lights.
(27:02):
We can make them literally an oval with a
pointed edge.
Our vehicles started integrating every
single aspect into its design.
It became this giant gelatinous blob.
As we now figured out how to put all these
safety features into our vehicles, we can
now work on the design form on the exterior.
By the end of the 90s those cleaned up
boxes from the 1980s were now becoming the
(27:24):
gelatinous blobs that would flow into the
early 2000s.
But the early 2000s kind of gave us some
really cool vehicles because designers were
allowed to do whatever they wanted.
Now we now knew how to put all these safety
features into a vehicle.
We now knew about aerodynamics.
So by the end of the 90s and into the early
2000s was the greatest time to be an
(27:44):
automotive designer because literally you
were able to do anything.
You can design headlights in nearly any
form, same with taillights.
Your grill didn't have to be a radiator
style, it didn't have to stick right out
the front, it didn't have to be these
little slits.
You literally can make it anything.
You can have top ones.
You can put them in the bumper.
You can start adding front spoilers Like
1980s to clean up our designs of our boxes.
(28:07):
We gave them ground effects kits.
By the early 2000s, body kits were coming
in play.
Front and rear fascias were taking over
from where bumpers once existed.
A vehicle was now free-flowing from the
ground at the front end to the ground at
the rear end.
We were able to do anything our minds can
see.
In the early days of the 2000s, the blobs
(28:28):
started smoothing out the average vehicle.
Like even just looking at Mercedes
C-classes, mercedes is going in a direction
of blobby style headlights.
Where in North America we were still
fixated on our blocky style headlights, but
our standard entry-level vehicles were
becoming clean gelatinous blobs, we were
starting to add more hard edges to it and
if anything about the early 2000s, Cadillac
(28:50):
CTS proved to us that the 2000s were going
to become a box age.
Yet again we were flattening and
straightening out edges on these blobs.
We realized that creating this massive blob
on the road was a thing of the past.
People wanted hard edges and that's what we
started giving them.
The early 2000s, like the Ford Focus, zx2s,
(29:11):
really showcased the pinnacle of standard
automotive design, giving us fully
integrated front and rear bumpers,
headlights, designs anyone can imagine, and
tapering off the bottom.
Everything was becoming flat, everything
was becoming simple.
There was no character lines.
When Ford released the 2005 Mustang, sure
it went back to the 1960s Mustang profile,
(29:34):
but it was even simpler than what we had in
the 60s because now the bumper was fully
integrated into the designs.
It was kind of a sad and depressing day,
but the mid-2000s automotive design was
starting to fade.
Everything was starting to look like
everything else on the road.
Mercedes-Benz started creating new niches
with the GLCs and the CLS 500s, coupe
(29:56):
profiles of CUVs and sedans.
You know ford was giving us the most
simplest designs, like the Ford 500 and the
Ford Freestyle, bland, boring, perfectly
flowing vehicles.
They're sad Even by today's standards when
you look at them.
The designs are sad.
But by the end of the decade our design
formula was starting to change, as Ford
called it their kinetic phase.
(30:17):
Designs were starting to add attitude and
the teen years were about to show us that
vehicles needed to become angry.
Where the 2000s flattened out all those
blobs from the 1990s, the teen years were
giving us angry cars.
We were starting to focus on hard-edged
designs, clean, flowing lines and an angry
(30:39):
face.
We wanted our vehicles to be loud and proud,
be right in our face and with that, design
started evolving and changing.
Every three years Ford went from the
standard Beehive grill to the 3-slat grill
and from the 3-slat they started going into
standard black slits.
When you got the Ford Kugas, designs were
starting to get a lot more character
(31:00):
features into them.
We were starting to give our vehicles a
feeling and a presence.
Ground effects kits were all fading away.
The aftermarket industry was starting to
fall back on itself.
Sure, we still loved it, but any vehicle
out there started to look as good as
vehicles from the aftermarket industry.
See, the aftermarket industry blew up in
the 1980s and 1990s only because all of our
(31:21):
vehicles are bland or boring at that point
in time.
So we wanted to make them look better.
By the teen years of the 2000s.
Our vehicle designs had so much character
into them, anything looked good.
The 2011 Ford Edge was a lot better than
its previous model.
The first generation Ford Edge came out in
the mid-2000s and it was what Ford had
Three bar, bland, boring grille, simple
(31:42):
design and no character.
With the teen years, we were starting to
add character.
We were adding wheels, character lines,
hard edge corners and we were starting to
make our headlights bigger.
Yet again, these free-flowing designs that
we were allowed to create became more blobs.
Some of them were free-flowing blobs and by
the early part of the decade, when the 2012
(32:03):
Ford Mustang came out, we started tapering
down our hoods.
We gave it a more angry look because we
wanted our vehicles to have that big
presence.
Character lines became a mainstay in the
teen years.
Every vehicle had tons and tons of
character lines and a bad attitude, both
front and rear.
The Mitsubishi Lancer of the mid-2010 years
(32:25):
was angry both up front and from the rear.
We wanted our vehicles to seem like they
were performance cars, even if they weren't.
Performance was king and aftermarket was
part of it.
Automotive designs were moving into a
sporty sense.
Anyone can have something that looked
sporty and by mid-decade, by 2015, the Ford
(32:47):
Edge moved from this blob with a little bit
of added character into a blob which had a
lot harder lines on it, a lot more
character, a lot more features.
We started utilizing all the empty space
for something.
Character became a main part of the teen
years and when the 2015 Mustang finally
came out, we saw where character was going
Evil presence of that Mustang, the amount
(33:08):
of added features Front and side splitters,
cowl hoods, hard lines.
That's what we're moving into.
But the teen years were starting to
showcase to us new technology and where we
can go.
In 2016, ford gave us the third generation
GT and, with it, a defining moment in
automobile industry.
We realized we didn't need to create a flat
(33:29):
hood.
We can use the air that came up from the
bottom of the vehicle to come through the
front to keep us on the ground, using the
front hood essentially as a secondary
spoiler.
We can create fins on the side to add an
extra spoiler.
We could taper the rear of the vehicle
because the engines don't have to be as big
as they once were.
We started realizing we can make more of a
compact idea and, as the end of the teen
(33:50):
years, we started going back to where we
once were in the 90s the gelatinous, boring
blobs, blob days we're back and even
standard products like only a 2019 ford
focus estate, bland, boring those hard
character lines were now moving into a
smooth, flowing lines.
They were breaking them.
They were literally just creating creases
(34:12):
in the vehicle to add a little bit of extra
character and with this all of our vehicles
became round.
Sure, the bad attitudes kind of stuck
around and we're starting to get the evil
grins and the smiley faces for the grills,
but the vehicles weren't as aggressive
looking and, into the 20s which we're in
now, vehicles and their designs were
getting again back to hard edges.
(34:33):
With the release of the new Bronco and even
Bronco Sport, hard edges were back and
defining moments for automobiles, like with
the of the Ford Mustang Mach-e, our design
started having a bad attitude on a simple
design, but our biggest design elements
today are the fact that our headlights are
getting smaller and smaller.
Headlights are essentially becoming the
bland, boring flat lights on the front of
(34:56):
all vehicles, with our standard daytime
running lights being these little bands on
the front to give it an even more
aggressive appearance.
Our lights are coming little bands on the
front to give it an even more aggressive
appearance.
Our lights are coming down in size, the
roof lines are coming down and our vehicles
are becoming cleaner.
We still have that blob style feature today
and Mercedes is a king of that.
When you look at like the EQE, EQS, they're
(35:17):
all bland, boring blobs.
The electric vehicle age is starting to
bring that back out.
But we have to remember we're in the early
stages of the automobile for the electric
vehicle age.
We're just learning what we can do with it
and we'll get more into design after that.
So designs today are becoming more like
they did in the early 2000s Bland, boring,
lack of character, lack of features.
(35:38):
Eventually those will disappear.
Looking at the 2024 Ford Mustang, you're
starting to see an aggressive looking in,
and even the 2024 Mercedes CLE.
We're adding character back in.
We're making these things aggressive but
we're experimenting yet again.
The 2020s have essentially become what the
late 90s and early 2000s were, or hell.
Even the late 40s and early 50s were An
(36:00):
experimentation of designs.
We're now realizing what we can do with the
automotive world, what we could transform
this into.
We're still utilizing similar designs that
we had over the past 20 years, but we're
seeing where we can go with them even
further.
By looking at a brand new Dodge Charger,
having a front splitter on the hood really
showcases to us where vehicles are going,
(36:21):
where I'm finding space where I once was
and realizing we can do more with it.
We can create more aggressive styles.
See, in 2008, when I started rating
vehicles, there were so many bland and
boring designs and things that you just
wanted off the road.
Today, there's more cars that are
aggressive and stand out than any other
point in history.
The aggression factor is there.
(36:43):
Angry factor, the power.
We've taken the power from the 1970s.
We've taken the two-box design from the 60s.
We've created all the safety features and
the curved aerodynamics between the 80s and
90s.
We're blending all those designs into one
and we're trying to find our place in the
world today.
So the 2020s have become more of an
experimental age for the automobile what
(37:04):
it's going to be set for the future and as
a new technology like flying cars starts
coming into play, things will change even
further.
So, essentially, our automobiles have gone
from a bland, boring wood buggy into an
aggressive, hard-edged figure.
We've enclosed our wheels.
We've enclosed ourselves.
The automobile has transformed
significantly since its start and, as right
(37:26):
now, we're starting to take witness of the
next generation.
When the BMW i8 came out, it started
showcasing to us that we could do even more
with automotive design similar to that of
the Ford GT.
These designs showcased to us that we could
do what we never thought was imaginable.
(37:48):
And in the 2020s, even if our key points of
automotive design are smaller lights and
more character on our blobs that we once
had, then hell, that's what we're going to
be going into, and from there it sounds
like two box designs might be on their way
back.
So, in all reality, the automobile has made
many changes and had many different styles
across its heritage From buggies to flat
panels, to streamlined edges, to two-box
(38:08):
designs, to safety in mind, to aerodynamics
and fuel efficiency, to an aggressive
stance.
We've gone through many, many different
design variations and I look forward to
seeing where the automobile is going to be
in the future.
Vehicles that I designed myself 20 years
ago.
A lot of them were prevalent back then, but
a few can become prevalent today, because
(38:31):
they were so outlandish for the time that
the time wasn't right.
Like I said in our podcast about 30 years
on, take a DeLorean from today and go back
to 1995, and it's not going to turn as many
heads as the DeLorean did between 1985 to
1955.
Our design hasn't gone through as extensive
change.
We've only changed key features today, but
(38:53):
with an experimental phase happening right
now, that automobile is in for a major
change in the coming years.
So if you liked our podcast, please like,
share or comment about it on any of the
major social pages or streaming sites that
you found the Outlooks podcast on.
Share us, like us, comment about us.
You know, send us to our friends, your
family, your well-wishers, your boss.
You know, your fellow co-worker that sits
next to you that you know is stuck in the
(39:14):
1990s or the early 2000s.
They can't get out of that generational gap
and move into a future that actually
borrows from the past.
Send it out to them and tell them about it.
Ask them what their favorite design decade
was, because everybody has a favorite
decade Mine, sorry to say.
I really liked a lot of the change in the
90s, but hey, everybody's got their own
(39:34):
opinion.
For me, vehicles from the 1950s all the way
up to the early 2000s were one of my
favorite parts of history, but I'm not one
of enthusiasts.
I love all the different parts, but after
that, stop by the website, read some of the
reviews, check out some of the ratings, go
to the Corporate Links website page.
Big or small, we have them all Car
companies from around the globe all
available on one location.
The Corporate Websites link at the top of
(39:55):
the page of the AutoLooks website.
The website, the AutoLooks Podcast, is
brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group
and distributed by Podbean.com.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email@autolooks.net.
(40:15):
So, for myself and for Jay, the Ecomm
Entertainment Group and Podbean.com, strap
yourself in for this one fun wild ride that
the world of automotive design across the
decades is going to take us on you.
After years of rating seriously, since 2008,
AutoLooks has noticed that there's not a real
lot of difference between vehicles that
came out in 2008 and 2025.
But in all reality, there are some
differences.
When you embed yourself so much in
automotive culture, everything starts to
blend together and then you don't realize
that there are differences.
(00:21):
And throughout the decades of the history
of the automobile, there have been a
multitude of different styles of design.
Each decade seems to have its own key
points for design, something that they all
look at.
But what are they?
What are the big ones?
Well, it's not exactly every decade, from
beginning to end, that creates these
defined designs.
(00:42):
No, sometimes they flow from one decade
into the mid-series of the next decade, or
only for a couple years.
But design elements have been going strong
since the advent of the automobile, and
today AutoLooks is going to take a look at
decades of automotive design.
Welcome back to the AutoLooks podcast.
I'm your host, as always, the doctor to the
(01:06):
AutoLooks Podcast.
I am your host, as always, the doctor to
the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay,
coming to you from our host website at
AutoLooks.net.
If you haven't been there, stop by, check
it out.
Read some of the reviews, check out some of
the ratings.
Go to the Corporate Links website page.
Big or small, we have them all car
companies from around the globe all
available on one spot, the Corporate Links
(01:26):
website tab at the top of the page of
autolooks.net.
The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by
Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by
Podbean.com.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email@autolooks.net.
So we, like we said in the intro, there are
different design elements across the entire
history of the automobile and for the past
30 years it seems like we've become really
stagnant in our design.
(01:47):
But there actually has been some defining
moments of automotive design within those
periods and specific cars really bring out
that cool design language.
Now for us, if we really want to go back
and take a look at automotive design and
see how things changed and evolved, you
have to take a look at two main car
companies, two of the longest running car
(02:08):
companies in history.
We're talking about the automobile company
that essentially put the world on wheels,
Mercedes-Benz, and the company that
literally put the rest of the world on
wheels, the Ford Motor Company.
Both of them have been around since the
turn of the last century yes, Mercedes
dating itself.
All the way back to 1886 with the patent
(02:30):
Volkswagen.
They gave us a motor on a buggy,
essentially what everybody called it back
then, the horseless buggy.
And that's what it was.
It had all the fixings between a standard
horse buggy and a bicycle Not all that much
of a lot of difference.
You had your motor controls and you had
your gas pedal.
Basically they didn't go fast enough for
you to even want to have a brake pedal on.
(02:50):
The brakes literally weren't invented for
the first few years.
The automobile industry that came out later,
because it wasn't until we started going
faster that we realized we needed to slow
down, because before then all these things
didn't even go as fast as horse and buggies.
But that's what they were.
They were just buggies on wheels.
Now, by the 1890s, the automobile into 10
(03:10):
years, the automobile started taking shape
as more of a dedicated horseless buggy.
It expanded upon the standard buggy design
that we'd been utilizing for centuries.
Before that it started adding some key
features to making an automobile Well,
lights, kerosene or even wax lights were
used.
At the beginning of the automobile industry
(03:31):
we also had a change from very thin bicycle
wheels to bigger bicycle wheels.
We needed a little bit more comfort
Suspension was slowly starting to make its
way in.
But it had already made its way into the
buggy industry.
If you go back and take a look at one of
the pioneers of the Canadian automotive
industry, McLaughlin, which eventually
became McLaughlin Buick, when they joined a
partnership with William C Durant or
(03:51):
Chevrolet and General Motors, they
originally got started by making cutters
and carriages.
Well, all these things had comfort levels.
You have to remember.
Royals have been cruising around in
carriages for years with that the
automobile, because it was essentially a
pastime for Aristocats and affluent buyers
and even royals.
The average person couldn't get their hands
(04:12):
on it, so a lot of creature comforts
weren't put into play.
In the early days it essentially was just a
toy for people to play with.
It had lost its standard wood and iron base.
That made it a buggy and turned it into
more of a horseless buggy, because it
looked like the buggies that we all had
around, just without a horse.
But things were about to change, as one man
in the united states is about to make a
(04:33):
major change to the automobile industry.
If you actually go back and look at the
original 1902 ford model a, you'll actually
find the steering wheel on the wrong side.
Well, depends on what country you are in
the world, but in North America it
technically was on the wrong side from what
we would be accustomed to in the next
decade.
Now the original Model A from 1902, we're
(04:54):
now heading into the second decade of the
automobile.
We're starting to lose that luster of a
horseless carriage and starting to see the
automobile as a working mobility unit for
all of us.
Henry Ford wanted to make cars for everyone.
See, Mercedes-Benz at that point in time
was still looking at the high-end,
high-class.
They built vehicles for the Aristocats of
(05:16):
Europe.
Henry Ford saw the working man and wanted
to find a way to make it so that anyone can
have an automobile.
Well, the original 1902 Ford Model A kind
of did that.
He looked at making the automobile its own
presence.
This wasn't going to be a horseless buggy,
this is going to be the automobile.
This is what we're going to see it as we're
not going to see it as a horseless buggy,
we're going to see it as its own mode of
(05:38):
transportation on our streets.
So, with very simple designs, they started
to create something in automotive design.
See, before it was essentially just a wagon
a seat, somewhere to put your feet, a few
controls and a motor underneath your butt.
Really, that's what it was.
The Model A started changing that.
They covered the motor completely, gave its
own area on the back.
(05:59):
Essentially it was a mid-engine rear-wheel
drive Kind of neat, huh, but it had wheel
flares all made out of just standard steel.
You got to remember this thing has to be
cheap and easy for anyone to make and sell.
Your horn was essentially just a little
rubberized horn on the side of your vehicle,
just like you buy for your own bicycle
today.
It literally was simple.
But now we're just not adding our standard
(06:21):
headlights or lighting fixture to a post.
We gave way to actual headlights Now.
Back in those days a lot of them were oil,
kerosene or even wax inside a brass
enclosure with a glass face.
They had one on either side.
Sometimes they even had them in the center
to light up more of the road for you.
So they're starting to make the automobile
(06:42):
look like something other than the horse
and buggies that we've become so accustomed
to over the past few centuries Hell, over a
millennia that we got used to these things.
The automobile was making a statement, but
from there companies like Mercedes started
realizing we need to make the automobile
feel more like an automobile.
(07:02):
And after finding out what Henry Ford was
doing, Mercedes decided to go steps further
by creating the first actual automobile.
See, henry Ford was just working on a small,
tiny little buggy.
Mercedes was working on an actual
automobile two seats up front and a bench
in the back.
They even added a door for extra safety for
the rear occupants of the vehicle.
(07:24):
Now drivers and front passengers could hop
in, hop out.
These things were starting to get a little
bit more faster.
And think about it, some of these were
coming with in between 50 and 60 horsepower.
Now this is 1902.
That's a lot of horses, which means you can
go a lot faster than your standard buggies.
And our headlights started changing, our
horns started changing, we started adding
(07:44):
something to the rear of our vehicle.
A fully encased front engine eventually
gave way, or gave us the original outline
of the automobile Open top, no windshield,
no, nothing else.
Literally a compartment for you to sit in
in the center, a compartment up front that
houses the engine and all the workings to
make the vehicle move.
We had springs underneath, like leaf
springs, essentially that we now see on
trucks apartment up front that houses the
engine and all the workings to make the
(08:04):
vehicle move.
We add springs underneath like leaf springs,
essentially that we now see on trucks.
But early automobiles, that's what they had
because that's what they had in horseless
buggies or even horse to buggies at that
point in time Carriages, leaf springs.
We started to get more creature comforts.
We started adding toolboxes and that to the
side.
We started covering our wheel well so we
wouldn't get hit with rocks.
(08:25):
And with that we started giving the
automobile its own design.
It was not just a replacement for the
carriage, it was going to become its own
thing.
Eventually, by mid-decade, we started
adding a convertible top, started realizing
people didn't want to drive automobiles in
the rain or the snow no, it's not always
(08:46):
sunny everywhere in the world so they
started adding these drop-down convertible
tops.
You just literally drop them behind
yourself.
And with that our first roof came into play.
Now, it wasn't a fixed roof, but it was
there to create some more creature comforts
and yet again, only back doors.
A fully enclosed carriage from landus or
limos in European and American marketplaces
(09:08):
started coming out near the end of the
early 1900s.
By the end of the decade we're starting to
roll into about 1910 in the teen years.
Think about it, this is like 110 years ago
right now, and we're just starting to add a
windshield to the front of our vehicles.
We're adding a fixed roof to our vehicles.
We're starting to add a windshield to the
front of our vehicles.
We're adding a fixed roof to our vehicles.
We're starting to add glass panes.
(09:28):
We realize that royals around the world
still want to be traveled around in their
horsed carriages.
Why?
Because carriages provide all the creature
comforts they can sit inside where it's dry
and it's warmer than it is outside.
Over the end of the early decade of the
1900s, we realized that we needed to start
doing that to the automobile.
And because the automobile was becoming so
(09:49):
prevalent in the world, we had to ensure
that people being driven around in this
thing had the same creature comforts as the
original carriages.
So we started doing that and with that we
were able to mold in our wheel wells to the
side of the vehicle.
Sure, they were still a hunk of steel on
the side of it to make you get into or out
of, or with running boards or to protect
(10:10):
you from rocks shooting up.
Well, things are starting to change and we
were starting to enclose the bodywork, or
coaches.
We started getting these coach companies,
so original companies that started building
coach bodies for original carriage
manufacturers started entering the
automobile industry and by the teen years
they were doing this.
They were fully enclosing both the engine
(10:30):
and the passenger compartments, but only
the seating area of the passenger
compartments.
We only really had side windows if it was a
high value vehicle, because we're talking
about like the landulets, the cabriolets
and and the limos.
We're talking about products like Mercedes,
Duesenberg, Cadillacs.
These had enclosed limo backs to them.
The reason why they had that is because
(10:52):
royalty needed to be shielded, the standard
person buying an automobile.
All they needed was a roof that they could
put on top of them when they needed it.
Because you have to remember, even riding
horse and buggy back in those days, unless
you were inside the carriage, the driver
always got soaking wet.
There weren't a lot of ways the old school
wild west with those horse and buggies, big
(11:13):
canvas tops on them.
Well, back then be more like wool or thread,
but those gave you some sort of protection
from the elements.
The early automobiles were not.
We were starting to get more intricate in
our roof design and our body moldings were
starting to become more in line with the
designs.
By the mid-teen years our automobile
started to take shape.
We didn't have side windows.
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We didn't have, essentially, mirrors on
every single vehicle.
We didn't have electric lights.
We had running boards, a central carriage
space for all of us and an engine housing.
But with that came the introduction of
being able to bolt your trunk onto the back
of your vehicle.
It's where you could store all your goods
that you're bringing from town back home.
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If you're traveling, it's where you put all
of your luggage.
So the automobile was becoming more of a
part of the global climate.
People were traveling and moving.
Our vehicles originally started with wire
wheels.
Now we were starting to get into wooden
spokes as the days of the automobile.
The wheels started to get thicker.
It started to decrease in size from being
fully bicycle or carriage wheels into an
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automobile wheel, a specific tire made for
the automobile industry.
We were adding mirrors so we could see
what's behind us.
We were adding more chrome and brass to the
vehicles.
We were giving shape to what would become
our main mode of transportation.
The moving from the teen years, our open
top or fold back back designs essentially a
body on top of a frame started to change
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and by the 1920s, blending everything
together that we already had was becoming
big.
Yeah, we're not talking about just a
standard flat steel band for our running
board and wheel wells now.
We were talking about fully integrated
wheel well covers, running bolts.
We were starting to create flat windshields.
Top of the line 1920 Mercedes Pullman limo
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was a fully enclosed automobile for the top
tier people of the world.
This is where the automobile was starting
to go.
It was showcasing to us that we could put a
big engine under the front.
We can have electric lights that we can
turn on.
Well, we can even have wipers to clean the
windshield, because up until this time the
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windshield was just to keep bugs out of our
face but it wasn't fully protection.
When the Pullman came around it started
enclosing everything and integrating
everything into the original box.
Coach build design of the automobile.
Coupes, Sedans all started to take that
shape At the bottom end.
When you're looking at you know entry-level
Mercedes and that they're getting bland,
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they're getting boring.
It's still just a standard coach.
River mirrors and electric lights are
starting to take shape, but we're starting
to blend more into the body works.
By the end of the decade even the bottom
end of the automobile industry was starting
to come together.
We were starting to get away from these
open-top buggies and fully enclosing our
vehicles to protect us from the elements.
Sure, a lot of vehicles back then were only
two doors for four passengers.
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We started adding bumpers to the front to
protect us.
Same with the rear.
The running boards and wheel well covers
become fully integrated into the bottom
frame of the vehicle where the carriage
works, just dropped right on top.
We had windshields, we had a visor
protector to block out the sun when we
needed it, something that's disappeared
from automobiles Windshield wipers and rear
mirrors.
We were starting to take shape of the
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automobile of the future and those wood
spoke wheels from the late teen years and
early twenties were starting to disappear.
Now we were getting into wire wheels and
our wheels were starting to get smaller in
diameter but wider.
By the 1930s we started rounding out the
corners, kind of like the early days when
the automobile first started moving from a
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carriage and then it moved into its own
standard open top carriage and then we
started rounding out the edges.
By the 1930s, when you start looking at
something like a Ford Model Y, all the
edges are curved.
The roof is no longer a canvas piece, it's
a full steel top.
It might have a removable midsection
similar to a sunroof today, but that was
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only for safety.
When we needed to get out, we had door
handles, full-size doors going from the
base to the top of the roofline, bumpers on
the front and the back, colored wheels,
smaller diameter wheels.
Like everything was starting to move
together and the 30s became a time when
automobiles were starting to shed their
carriage-like body styles from the past and
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we were starting to move into a
fully-fledged, functional automobile of the
future.
The 30s, by the end of the decade, were
starting to blend together.
We couldn't really see the difference
between the front engine bay and the
passenger compartment.
Everything was starting to merge together.
It still had the basic shape of the
original automobile created in the early
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1900s, but everything was becoming more
enclosed.
Everything was becoming one with each other.
By the mid-1930s you couldn't tell the
difference between the bottom frame and the
carriage.
Everything went together Fully welded steel
frames, side windows.
We were fully enclosed in our automobile.
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By the mid-30s, yet again, wheels were
getting smaller in diameter.
When you take a vehicle from 1935 and put
it up next to a vehicle from 1925, you can
see the catastrophic difference between the
two of them.
One of them looks like an old school
carriage and the other one starts to look
like an automobile.
More rounded edges, blending everything
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together, we started realizing we didn't
need to make every single vehicle look
exactly the same and by the end of the
1930s the original shape of the automobile
was being contoured together to give us
something better.
Our vehicles now were fully encased Back
windows, front windows, side windows, you
know.
The wheels were fully covered.
We covered in all the added spaces behind
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the wheel wells, you know, the dead cat
hole at the top Gone.
We were blending this all together.
The front radiator grille was starting to
move into the front engine housing and to
pop open the hood.
It wasn't just got stuck and transferred in
the early part of the 1940s, but as the
1940s eventually gave way and the end of
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war came, people came back and realized
they didn't want to drive the same vehicles
they had when they went to war.
They want something that looks different,
and that's what vehicles like the Chrysler
Airflow were starting to come out, starting
to take into consideration aerodynamics
into vehicles.
We were starting to blend everything
together.
Lights didn't have to become a separate
fixture from the front of the vehicle.
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They could be blended in to the wheel
covers, the grill can make a statement and
tell you what type of vehicle it is.
Not just by trying to figure out which logo
is imprinted on top of the radiator you can
now find from far away.
People like BMW were starting to utilize
their own grille designs.
We're starting to blend together.
Vehicles look nothing like they did 20
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years previous.
In the 1920s we were a carriage.
By the late 40s our vehicles were
completely enclosed together.
By the end of the 40s vehicles started
blending.
Into the 50s we still had that original
carriage work with the design elements, but
by the end of the 40s we started merging
everything together and with that new
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designs started coming out.
We realized we didn't need to have exterior
wheel wells.
We could actually mount them inside of the
vehicle.
We can give more space to the engine bay
because we can literally push out the edges
of the engine bay to the far edges of the
automobile.
And now, with radial tires starting to come
in, in the late 40s and early 50s
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automobile design made a major change for
the better.
All vehicles now are becoming one design.
Sure, you can still have a frame underneath
of it, but this is the 1950s.
Unibody construction was being played
around with and was available to the public.
Unfortunately, it didn't take off in a big
way, not until essentially, the 1970s and
into the 80s during the gas crisis.
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But by the 1950s chrome was all the rage,
windshields started to get curved, our
rear-view mirrors started to make more of a
presence even in bottom tier vehicles.
We gave more emphasis to design.
We were allowed to play with and do
whatever we want.
Something like a 1955 Ford Thunderbird was
unheard of even in the early 40s.
This was something for the 1950s.
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Fender flares, tail fins, covered lights,
cowl hoods were all starting to move.
But then Mercedes gave us one brand new
introduction in 1955.
The Mercedes-Benz 300SL gullwing door
showed us that the standard operational
doors or suicide doors that we've become so
accustomed to, didn't have to make sense if
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we wanted to make our vehicle lower.
To do that, we created the gullwing doors
so you can get into and out of the mercedes
300 sl a lot easier.
It wanted to get lower to the ground so it
can go faster.
As chrysler did with the airflow in the
1940s, mercedes is starting to realize that
aerodynamics can help it achieve even
faster speeds than before.
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Now, by the end of the 50s, our vehicles
were all starting to look very similar to
each other.
North America had its style and Europe had
its style.
Hell, the Japanese even had their own style.
But all of them still had similar features
Big chrome grills, round headlights and
sleek designs.
But as the 50s were starting to change and
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we realized we needed to have products that
looked different than each other, we
started moving into the 1960s.
And in the 60s we started realizing well,
the 40s we started blending that carriage
all together.
The 50s we gave it its presence.
Well, the 1960s we started realizing we
could do more with the automobile.
We started working on two box designs, have
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the biggest space possible and see what we
can do within it.
And the 1960s was all about size.
Vehicles are getting bigger.
We were able to blend everything together.
Bumpers were being integrated into front
design.
We were adding more headlights so we could
see further down.
The road Mirrors were either on the side of
you or right at the front.
Our windshields were getting curved.
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But our automobiles were essentially a
two-box design A bottom box and a top box.
We maximized the space.
We created flat edges or bland edges with
no character whatsoever.
Luxury car companies still kind of kept
with their 1950s style but started to
enhance the flat designs.
By the end of the 60s we started seeing
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more new features with vehicles.
The big, burly vehicles of the muscle car
era were starting to hit the roads In the
1960s.
Two-box design was slowly moving into the
1970s.
But in the 70s, with the amount of drugs
and everything else that was out there in
the world, it was becoming a more
experimental place and people started
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working with all kinds of different designs.
People wanted entry-level vehicles all the
way up to these monstrosities of road
trains.
So car companies did that.
They played around with blending everything
together and the 1970s became a day of big,
wide, muscular vehicles.
We started rounding out all those edges
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from the two-box designs in the 1960s to
make them that big presence on the road,
but curving them out so that things went
together.
If you take a look at a 1972 Ford Torino,
the headlights are embedded in, the grille
fits perfectly in the center and everything
cuts at the right way.
Vehicles were starting to move together.
The two-box design was starting to become a
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two-box blob.
But things were about to change yet again.
We started getting into the gas crisis by
the mid-70s and brand new safety features
like the 5-mile-per-hour bumper started to
come into play, and for that these new
integrations had to be put into automobiles.
So by the end of the 1970s, the big chrome
bumpers that came out in the 1950s for all
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our automobiles Like we didn't just need
the standard push bumper we saw in the
1940s and 30s, no, we had the big chrome
ones.
Well, these are starting to move out of the
way, for fully integrated 5 mile per hour
bumpers, square headlights were now
becoming a thing.
We're moving back to kind of to where we
were in the 1960s Flat, bland, two box
design, square, hard edges, but our lights
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were either square or round, vehicles were
still big and burly.
But then, essentially by the end of the 70s,
we were starting to get into that hard-edge
design Flat, boxy and in some cases very
boring.
You look at a 1984 Thunderbird and then
look at a 1973 Ford Thunderbird, and look
at a 55 Thunderbird and then a 60
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Thunderbird.
You see how it changes, how it blends the
big, chrome, sleek designs of the 1950s to
the flat, two box design, to the 60s, to
the big, powerful design to the 70s, giving
way to the we just want to make money of a
simple design in the 1980s.
The 80s became about very simplistic
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designs.
Well, the world has just gone through the
gas crisis and we were into another
economic turmoil by the mid-80s.
The computer age is upon us and we're
starting to realize we can design cars on
computers.
And with that we started utilizing the most
simplest forms.
And with new safety features having to be
added to vehicles, we started realizing we
just needed to work on all the key features
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for the automobile.
We'll think about how we can blend that all
together afterwards.
So vehicles started to go back to a bland,
boring, simplistic two-box design.
By mid-decade, bubble lights started coming
into effect and we started doing like we
did in the 70s.
We started rounding out the edges of all of
these two-box designs.
The bumpers were no longer big, burly
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plastic things sticking off the front end.
No, they were being blended into the
designs.
You could tell that they were plastic
because we usually color-coded them
compared to the rest of the vehicle or add
chrome features.
Fog lights were being embedded into these
bumpers.
They were moving with the vehicle.
The days of those square headlights or
round headlights or simple designs, burly
things.
The end of the 80s was becoming the curved
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two-box design.
We were still utilizing that two-box design,
but we were starting to curve it out.
We were starting to give way to more of a
smooth-fitting dimension.
We realized that aerodynamics can play a
big part in fuel economy and for us to
reduce our fuel economy and get better
mileage out of our vehicles we had to clean
up the designs.
So in the 1990s we really started doing
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that.
Taking a look at a 1991 Ford Probe and then
a 1996 Ford Probe, you could really see how
the early 90s to the later years in the 90s
really changed.
The beginning of the 90s was leftover from
the 1980s.
The two-box design that was being curved
out.
The simple safety features and blended-in
bumpers were there.
Bubble lights were here.
They were taking everything.
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Not a single car you would find with square
headlights.
By the early 90s They'd all made way for
the bubble lights.
Bumpers are becoming part of our automotive
design and by mid-decade of the 90s front
and rear bumpers have now transformed into
becoming part of our automotive design.
They weren't an add-on feature that we just
literally threw on as an afterthought.
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They weren't the five mile per hour bumpers,
the horrible plastic things you saw thrown
on to any cool design from the 1970s at the
end of the 70s.
No, they weren't these big plastic shards
like we had in the 1980s.
But the mid 90s we were getting into the
teardrop days of clean, teardrop vehicles.
Smooth, flowing edges was our automotive
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design.
We still utilized a lot of the old features
two box design, muscular forms they were
all still present but they were all done in
a clean, free, flowing way.
And by the end of the decade these bubble
lights started taking shapes of many, many
different forms.
We didn't just have to have the square
wraparound style bubble lights.
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We can make them literally an oval with a
pointed edge.
Our vehicles started integrating every
single aspect into its design.
It became this giant gelatinous blob.
As we now figured out how to put all these
safety features into our vehicles, we can
now work on the design form on the exterior.
By the end of the 90s those cleaned up
boxes from the 1980s were now becoming the
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gelatinous blobs that would flow into the
early 2000s.
But the early 2000s kind of gave us some
really cool vehicles because designers were
allowed to do whatever they wanted.
Now we now knew how to put all these safety
features into a vehicle.
We now knew about aerodynamics.
So by the end of the 90s and into the early
2000s was the greatest time to be an
(27:44):
automotive designer because literally you
were able to do anything.
You can design headlights in nearly any
form, same with taillights.
Your grill didn't have to be a radiator
style, it didn't have to stick right out
the front, it didn't have to be these
little slits.
You literally can make it anything.
You can have top ones.
You can put them in the bumper.
You can start adding front spoilers Like
1980s to clean up our designs of our boxes.
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We gave them ground effects kits.
By the early 2000s, body kits were coming
in play.
Front and rear fascias were taking over
from where bumpers once existed.
A vehicle was now free-flowing from the
ground at the front end to the ground at
the rear end.
We were able to do anything our minds can
see.
In the early days of the 2000s, the blobs
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started smoothing out the average vehicle.
Like even just looking at Mercedes
C-classes, mercedes is going in a direction
of blobby style headlights.
Where in North America we were still
fixated on our blocky style headlights, but
our standard entry-level vehicles were
becoming clean gelatinous blobs, we were
starting to add more hard edges to it and
if anything about the early 2000s, Cadillac
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CTS proved to us that the 2000s were going
to become a box age.
Yet again we were flattening and
straightening out edges on these blobs.
We realized that creating this massive blob
on the road was a thing of the past.
People wanted hard edges and that's what we
started giving them.
The early 2000s, like the Ford Focus, zx2s,
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really showcased the pinnacle of standard
automotive design, giving us fully
integrated front and rear bumpers,
headlights, designs anyone can imagine, and
tapering off the bottom.
Everything was becoming flat, everything
was becoming simple.
There was no character lines.
When Ford released the 2005 Mustang, sure
it went back to the 1960s Mustang profile,
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but it was even simpler than what we had in
the 60s because now the bumper was fully
integrated into the designs.
It was kind of a sad and depressing day,
but the mid-2000s automotive design was
starting to fade.
Everything was starting to look like
everything else on the road.
Mercedes-Benz started creating new niches
with the GLCs and the CLS 500s, coupe
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profiles of CUVs and sedans.
You know ford was giving us the most
simplest designs, like the Ford 500 and the
Ford Freestyle, bland, boring, perfectly
flowing vehicles.
They're sad Even by today's standards when
you look at them.
The designs are sad.
But by the end of the decade our design
formula was starting to change, as Ford
called it their kinetic phase.
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Designs were starting to add attitude and
the teen years were about to show us that
vehicles needed to become angry.
Where the 2000s flattened out all those
blobs from the 1990s, the teen years were
giving us angry cars.
We were starting to focus on hard-edged
designs, clean, flowing lines and an angry
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face.
We wanted our vehicles to be loud and proud,
be right in our face and with that, design
started evolving and changing.
Every three years Ford went from the
standard Beehive grill to the 3-slat grill
and from the 3-slat they started going into
standard black slits.
When you got the Ford Kugas, designs were
starting to get a lot more character
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features into them.
We were starting to give our vehicles a
feeling and a presence.
Ground effects kits were all fading away.
The aftermarket industry was starting to
fall back on itself.
Sure, we still loved it, but any vehicle
out there started to look as good as
vehicles from the aftermarket industry.
See, the aftermarket industry blew up in
the 1980s and 1990s only because all of our
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vehicles are bland or boring at that point
in time.
So we wanted to make them look better.
By the teen years of the 2000s.
Our vehicle designs had so much character
into them, anything looked good.
The 2011 Ford Edge was a lot better than
its previous model.
The first generation Ford Edge came out in
the mid-2000s and it was what Ford had
Three bar, bland, boring grille, simple
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design and no character.
With the teen years, we were starting to
add character.
We were adding wheels, character lines,
hard edge corners and we were starting to
make our headlights bigger.
Yet again, these free-flowing designs that
we were allowed to create became more blobs.
Some of them were free-flowing blobs and by
the early part of the decade, when the 2012
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Ford Mustang came out, we started tapering
down our hoods.
We gave it a more angry look because we
wanted our vehicles to have that big
presence.
Character lines became a mainstay in the
teen years.
Every vehicle had tons and tons of
character lines and a bad attitude, both
front and rear.
The Mitsubishi Lancer of the mid-2010 years
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was angry both up front and from the rear.
We wanted our vehicles to seem like they
were performance cars, even if they weren't.
Performance was king and aftermarket was
part of it.
Automotive designs were moving into a
sporty sense.
Anyone can have something that looked
sporty and by mid-decade, by 2015, the Ford
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Edge moved from this blob with a little bit
of added character into a blob which had a
lot harder lines on it, a lot more
character, a lot more features.
We started utilizing all the empty space
for something.
Character became a main part of the teen
years and when the 2015 Mustang finally
came out, we saw where character was going
Evil presence of that Mustang, the amount
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of added features Front and side splitters,
cowl hoods, hard lines.
That's what we're moving into.
But the teen years were starting to
showcase to us new technology and where we
can go.
In 2016, ford gave us the third generation
GT and, with it, a defining moment in
automobile industry.
We realized we didn't need to create a flat
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hood.
We can use the air that came up from the
bottom of the vehicle to come through the
front to keep us on the ground, using the
front hood essentially as a secondary
spoiler.
We can create fins on the side to add an
extra spoiler.
We could taper the rear of the vehicle
because the engines don't have to be as big
as they once were.
We started realizing we can make more of a
compact idea and, as the end of the teen
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years, we started going back to where we
once were in the 90s the gelatinous, boring
blobs, blob days we're back and even
standard products like only a 2019 ford
focus estate, bland, boring those hard
character lines were now moving into a
smooth, flowing lines.
They were breaking them.
They were literally just creating creases
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in the vehicle to add a little bit of extra
character and with this all of our vehicles
became round.
Sure, the bad attitudes kind of stuck
around and we're starting to get the evil
grins and the smiley faces for the grills,
but the vehicles weren't as aggressive
looking and, into the 20s which we're in
now, vehicles and their designs were
getting again back to hard edges.
(34:33):
With the release of the new Bronco and even
Bronco Sport, hard edges were back and
defining moments for automobiles, like with
the of the Ford Mustang Mach-e, our design
started having a bad attitude on a simple
design, but our biggest design elements
today are the fact that our headlights are
getting smaller and smaller.
Headlights are essentially becoming the
bland, boring flat lights on the front of
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all vehicles, with our standard daytime
running lights being these little bands on
the front to give it an even more
aggressive appearance.
Our lights are coming little bands on the
front to give it an even more aggressive
appearance.
Our lights are coming down in size, the
roof lines are coming down and our vehicles
are becoming cleaner.
We still have that blob style feature today
and Mercedes is a king of that.
When you look at like the EQE, EQS, they're
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all bland, boring blobs.
The electric vehicle age is starting to
bring that back out.
But we have to remember we're in the early
stages of the automobile for the electric
vehicle age.
We're just learning what we can do with it
and we'll get more into design after that.
So designs today are becoming more like
they did in the early 2000s Bland, boring,
lack of character, lack of features.
(35:38):
Eventually those will disappear.
Looking at the 2024 Ford Mustang, you're
starting to see an aggressive looking in,
and even the 2024 Mercedes CLE.
We're adding character back in.
We're making these things aggressive but
we're experimenting yet again.
The 2020s have essentially become what the
late 90s and early 2000s were, or hell.
Even the late 40s and early 50s were An
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experimentation of designs.
We're now realizing what we can do with the
automotive world, what we could transform
this into.
We're still utilizing similar designs that
we had over the past 20 years, but we're
seeing where we can go with them even
further.
By looking at a brand new Dodge Charger,
having a front splitter on the hood really
showcases to us where vehicles are going,
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where I'm finding space where I once was
and realizing we can do more with it.
We can create more aggressive styles.
See, in 2008, when I started rating
vehicles, there were so many bland and
boring designs and things that you just
wanted off the road.
Today, there's more cars that are
aggressive and stand out than any other
point in history.
The aggression factor is there.
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Angry factor, the power.
We've taken the power from the 1970s.
We've taken the two-box design from the 60s.
We've created all the safety features and
the curved aerodynamics between the 80s and
90s.
We're blending all those designs into one
and we're trying to find our place in the
world today.
So the 2020s have become more of an
experimental age for the automobile what
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it's going to be set for the future and as
a new technology like flying cars starts
coming into play, things will change even
further.
So, essentially, our automobiles have gone
from a bland, boring wood buggy into an
aggressive, hard-edged figure.
We've enclosed our wheels.
We've enclosed ourselves.
The automobile has transformed
significantly since its start and, as right
(37:26):
now, we're starting to take witness of the
next generation.
When the BMW i8 came out, it started
showcasing to us that we could do even more
with automotive design similar to that of
the Ford GT.
These designs showcased to us that we could
do what we never thought was imaginable.
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And in the 2020s, even if our key points of
automotive design are smaller lights and
more character on our blobs that we once
had, then hell, that's what we're going to
be going into, and from there it sounds
like two box designs might be on their way
back.
So, in all reality, the automobile has made
many changes and had many different styles
across its heritage From buggies to flat
panels, to streamlined edges, to two-box
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designs, to safety in mind, to aerodynamics
and fuel efficiency, to an aggressive
stance.
We've gone through many, many different
design variations and I look forward to
seeing where the automobile is going to be
in the future.
Vehicles that I designed myself 20 years
ago.
A lot of them were prevalent back then, but
a few can become prevalent today, because
(38:31):
they were so outlandish for the time that
the time wasn't right.
Like I said in our podcast about 30 years
on, take a DeLorean from today and go back
to 1995, and it's not going to turn as many
heads as the DeLorean did between 1985 to
1955.
Our design hasn't gone through as extensive
change.
We've only changed key features today, but
(38:53):
with an experimental phase happening right
now, that automobile is in for a major
change in the coming years.
So if you liked our podcast, please like,
share or comment about it on any of the
major social pages or streaming sites that
you found the Outlooks podcast on.
Share us, like us, comment about us.
You know, send us to our friends, your
family, your well-wishers, your boss.
You know, your fellow co-worker that sits
next to you that you know is stuck in the
(39:14):
1990s or the early 2000s.
They can't get out of that generational gap
and move into a future that actually
borrows from the past.
Send it out to them and tell them about it.
Ask them what their favorite design decade
was, because everybody has a favorite
decade Mine, sorry to say.
I really liked a lot of the change in the
90s, but hey, everybody's got their own
(39:34):
opinion.
For me, vehicles from the 1950s all the way
up to the early 2000s were one of my
favorite parts of history, but I'm not one
of enthusiasts.
I love all the different parts, but after
that, stop by the website, read some of the
reviews, check out some of the ratings, go
to the Corporate Links website page.
Big or small, we have them all Car
companies from around the globe all
available on one location.
The Corporate Websites link at the top of
(39:55):
the page of the AutoLooks website.
The website, the AutoLooks Podcast, is
brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group
and distributed by Podbean.com.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email@autolooks.net.
(40:15):
So, for myself and for Jay, the Ecomm
Entertainment Group and Podbean.com, strap
yourself in for this one fun wild ride that
the world of automotive design across the
decades is going to take us on you.
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