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I’ve gotta say (again) that I’m not mad about retro car design in all its forms.
Taking an otherwise useful VW Golf and repackaging it so that the vaguely Beetle-esque styling dictates vastly less practicality and spaciousness than the hatchback on which it’s based? Makes me think Bob in marketing might have been practising a bit of astral distancing with the cone-fed COVID mask.
Same goes for a retro car that ignores all the things that made the original so fabulous. That oughta be the antithesis of retro, right?
Sure, there’s a lot to look forward to in terms of alternative fuels and whatnot, but as far as I can see, we’ve already reached peak tappet-head.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate modern turbocharging tech, and I can see the advantages of current-thinking vehicle packaging. Hell, I even own a car with stability control these days, just in case you thought I was one of those internet nutjobs who won’t wear a mask or vaccinate their kids.
If, as I suspect, the good old days are now firmly in our mirrors, the only way to make the next generation of cars palatable (if not actually intoxicating) is to draw on the power of retro. As in, they don’t make nostalgia like they used to.
If designers can use a retro look and feel (and smell, if necessary) to provide a mental and/or emotional link between the safe, efficient modern car and the fun-mobile of a few decades ago, then the product has a much greater chance of success.
Not saying things were particularly safe back then, or that we should live like that again, but they were fun times.
Opinion: Stop the hoon beatups, ACA
That’s what a modern car is going to need to represent. I know that was always the aim of retro, but it’s now more important than ever.
Efficiency, safety, reliability are now all givens in modern car design. So is my ‘Meh…’ reaction to many of them. But fun? Now we’re talking. Fun disappeared from the standard equipment list a long time ago, and, like quarter-vent windows, it’s about time it made a comeback.
Ever walked into a lolly shop and been hit between the nostrils by the sugary smell of your happiest childhood days? Or tuned into a radio station to hear a song that took you straight back to the bedroom of your first rented flat with your first serious partner? That’s what cars of the future are going to have to offer me.
Forget all that shite and remember the time Grandma got into the Blackberry Nip and disappeared backwards off the edge of the verandah with a glass in one hand and a loaded revolver in the other.
And then do your best to relive those good times. And I’ll see you at the next red light. I’ll be the guy revving the manual V8 two-door.
