The main reason behind the success of any car is its functionality, practicality, performance, and designs. Design is the main thing in the car because if it doesn’t attract the buyer, the buyer will not buy it as we use a term globally “what is seen is sold. “Globally, car enthusiasts say that if you don’t turn and look at your car after parking it in a parking lot, you bought the wrong car because the designs and the looks of a car are just like a sales pitch without saying anything. 90% of the buying decision depends on its looks.
6 Cars with Ambiguous Designs
1. BMW 4-series
The BMW 4 Series is a range of compact executive cars manufactured by BMW since 2013. The 4 Series was created when BMW spun off the 2-door models (coupé and convertible) of the 3 Series into a separate series. The 4 Series is currently in its second generation. If we talk about its design, BMW is known for its front bumper grills as it is the signature design of BMW, but in this case, BMW made everyone shocked with the vast bumper grill. It seems like the grills were not made for this car, and even the designer didn’t think about the number plates of the car because, in the whole history of BMW, there was no car in which plates are in between, but in this model, plates were to be placed in between of the grill, and that looks weird and ugly. This change in a grill created considerable controversy. Everyone was upset with BMW’s new design, and all blamed BMW’s designer. After facing all this controversy, their designer, Frank Stephenson, finally replied to BMW’s audience and said, “the 4 Series has “nice proportions,” but finds many other things to nitpick. “But unfortunately, with this little mistake, faced tremendous indignity from their customers.
2. Chevrolet CorvairBMW
The Chevrolet Corvair is a compact car manufactured by Chevrolet for model years 1960–1969 in two generations. It remains the only American-designed, mass-produced passenger car with a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine. The previous model, Corvair, was also a failure. This time company decided to remove radiator grills from the car because their primary customers for this car were the informal generation. But things didn’t go well because people didn’t like that at all, and because of its design, the car was unstable during emergency handling, which was very dangerous for everyone. The demand for this car was deficient, and after a while, this car was refused by the buyer side.
3. Ford Edsel
Edsel is a discontinued division and brand of automobiles that Ford Motor marketed. The company from 1958 to 1960 model years. Deriving its name from Edsel Ford, son of company founder Henry Ford, Edsels was developed to give Ford a fourth brand to gain additional market share from Chrysler and General Motors. According to XM offroad wheels, Edsel was a huge project company that invested around $400million in the project, but the public didn’t like it. Even though what filled the car with technology, the looks of the car were not good at all. Its radiator grill was the main turn-off for the public because the designer decided to put a vertical grill in front as it could take more air inside. So it would keep the engine cool and bring out the best power it could but keep the Edsel running. Its vertical grille had to be enormous, which made the entire car look bad in the eyes of critics and consumers. After the grill issue, the second issue with the car was its price. Because what developed the car for an average car segment. But they introduced it at the wrong time at the wrong price. The car was introduced at the time of recession and at the price of $2500, which was way more expensive than ford’s other models.
4. Volkswagen TYP 4
The Volkswagen Type 4 is a compact/midsize family car, manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen of Germany. As a D-segment car from 1968 to 1974 in two-door and four-door sedan and two-door station wagon body styles. Type 4 evolved through two generations, the 411 (1968–72) and 412 (1972–74). TYP 4 failed because of its rear engine arrangement and the weak motor. Still, mainly the reason for its failure was the trunk. It had the rear engine, so the company had to make a trunk at the front of the car, so for making the car more spacious, it went wrong, and the car turned out ugly in buyer’s eyes. In 8 years, the company made more than 350000 units, but they closed this project because of unprofitability.
5. Renault Avantime
The Renault Avantime is a grand tourer marketed by the French manufacturer Renault. Designed and manufactured by Matra between 2001 and 2003. As a one-box design without B-pillars, the Avantime combined the design elements of an MPV, estate, or shooting brake with the style of a 2+2 coupe and elements of a convertible. In Avantime design designer played too much with it. The designer tried to make it look futuristic, but things didn’t go well, and this car looked ugly to the buyer. This car faced a colossal failure and even produced around 8000 units between 2001 2003. At that time this car was considered the worst selling car of all time. The second problem with this car was its 207hp engine. Which was not meant to be combined with the soft suspension, which is the essential thing in a touring category vehicle. Because of these two significant issues company stopped its production in 2003.
6. Lancia Thesis
The Lancia Thesis (Type 841) is an executive car produced by Italian automaker Lancia between 2001 and 2009. It was available with naturally aspirated and turbocharged engines. Its appearance was based on the 1998 dialogs concept car. The designer of this car wanted to do something unique, and their main competitor was Audi A6 which also falls in an executive class segment. The design of this car was not perfect as its front look doesn’t match the rear one. The front of the car was straightforward and ordinary. It used to look like a standard budget segment car, But the rear of the car looks like an executive class segment and expensive. Customers didn’t like the design at all. Its production started in 2001 and ended in 2009. Only 16000 units were made, and in 2011 what replaced it with a new flagship sedan?
Final Result
These days a lot of emphases has been put on the car’s safety, performance and fuel economy. As mentioned by 30 Inch Wheels Company, The one thing that many take for granted is the way it looks. Having an aesthetically well-designed car performs well in the market regarding sales. To many non-car enthusiasts, a beautiful car strikes at the emotional aspect that will spur the impulse to buy or aspire to buy. When you are “wowed!” by the car when you see it, the chances of buying it are much more significant. It is the same for any product. Form over functionality leads the way.
Some car companies getting this eye-pleasing design point right have enjoyed good sales worldwide. The engineering points have somehow taken the back seat. When a car buyer walks into the car showroom. How the car looks, the color, styling, and presentation will impact how well it will sell. On the other hand, ugly cars have always been more challenging to sell, depending more on their engineering achievements.
