Here's What You Think The Worst Eras Of Car Design Were

Automotive design eras aren't always defined by the most beautiful or advanced vehicles of that decade. Car companies have to keep changing and updating cars to fit tastes and sometimes they just don't hit the mark. Recently, the search for good taste has brought us things like the Bangle butt on the E65 BMW 7 Series and Cadillac's Art & Science. Sometimes it works. Other times, not so much.

Personally, I think the worst era in design is the retro-modern stuff some of the Big 3 gave us in the early '00s. Things like the Chrysler PT Cruiser, the fifth-generation Ford Mustang (which only looked good in GT trim), Chevy HHR and SSR, and the Ford Thunderbird. Modern takes on classic designs don't always work.

We asked readers what they thought was the worst era in automotive design. These were their answers.

Suggested by: Kahlessj

The 1988-1995. Period.

The same era that gave us the iconic F40, the too cool 300zx, and the downright pornographic curves of the FD RX7 also gave us the absolute trash of the history of the automobile.

We had legacy engines dating back to the 1970s, some still with carburetors, others with problematic early generation fuel injection. We had gimmicks lick oscillating dash vents.

And we had terrible, awful badge engineering from virtually every manufacturer. Thankfully by this era the Cimmaron was dead and buried – but we still had hot garbage from Cadillac like the Allanté. And let's not talk about the other cars in GM's lineup. J, W, N bodies. Blegh.

Everything Chrysler of the era was either 1970s platforms with modest freshening, or K-car derived with all of the refinement of an unbalanced washing machine.

Over at Ford there wasn't a hint of differentiation between Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury of the time.

From Europe we got slab sided conservatism and ho-hum performance.

And Japan gave us surface excitement! Vents, stickers, body kits!

Suggested by: Scott Pro (Facebook)

I'm sure I'll take some heat for this already blazing hot take, but I am consistently turned off by a lot of "50s" design. The early 50s were quite bland, and American cars from '58 to around '61 or '62 were largely an orgy of hideous excess. I would argue what people think is great 50s design mostly settled into the '54-'57 model years and even then I think the love focuses on a relatively small number of models.

On a more objective basis the 40s weren't great. Much of the decade was lost to the war, and the years immediately before and after were still basically 30s designs. Virtually nobody ever holds up a vehicle from the 40s as a paragon of high-level auto design.

I'm not terribly keen on a lot of today's design, either. Trucks are needlessly gargantuan, crossovers are indistinguishable, and what in the world happened to BMW, who gave us the 2002, the "shark-nose" beauties, the E38 7-series, and the E39 5-series?

Suggested by: OrigamiSensei

Almost all of the current SUVs that look exactly the same are so forgettable and would not age well that every one of them could be featured in the meh car Monday. If you don't agree with me, can you think of how a Buick Envision looks like? How about an Encore GX? See what I'm saying? All of this makes the Aztek look much better today lol!

Suggested by: Saranathan Varadarajan and a lot of others

First and foremost – The mid-70's to early eighties. It was more the era of non-design.

Suggested by: MarcBee

I know people love to complain about the 70s and current designs, but please look at the popular cars from 1930-1939. If you want to be depressed about design language and choices, here you go.

I mean I understand that it's technology limited and the bodywork is coach built for the most part, but I have NEVER been able to find redeeming qualities in this era of cars. They all look the same and would be immensely depressing to own as anything other than utilitarian transport. There wasn't a lot of room to be unique and provide character, and it shows.

Suggested by: Umoja

I don't know about the worst, but the early '00s definitely had some low cards in the deck – especially in the just emerging crossover segment...

...notable examples aside, though, the decade was mostly too bland to be the worst.

If you ask me, bland forgettability is worse than being truly bad. People will remember the Aztec but not a ton else.

Suggested by: Skipp

The immediate pre- and post-WWII era.

This is an extreme simplification of the topic, so bear with me and forgive any errors or omissions.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7th 1941 – A day which will live in infamy) the government ordered all US manufacturers to cease production of cars for civilian use to convert their factories into making war materiel.

Automakers were permitted to continue production for two months after the order, but chromium had been declared a 'strategic metal' since it was used in the manufacture of stainless steel, so cars had to be produced without chrome trim; the normally chrome trim was, in most cases, painted either white or body color. These were known as 'black out cars.'

Gasoline was rationed during the war, and IIRC an A-sticker allowed the driver 3-4 gallons per week.

Immediately after the war, auto production slowly ramped back up, however manufacturers were essentially picking up where they left off in early 1942, producing cars that had been designed before the war, with some designs dating back to the mid-1930s.

Add to this continuing shortages of materials and labor issues, production didn't return to full capacity until 1947.

Due to the average age of the cars on the road at the time, and the fact that many people were flush with cash for maybe the first time in decades, the automakers were able to sell almost anything that rolled off the assembly line.

It wasn't until 1948-49 that the first new designs hit the market.

Suggested by: Earthbound Misfit I

You missed something about the Malaise era.

5 mpg bumpers.

Somehow the Big 3 got caught with their pants around their ankles with that too. Between emissions, a gas crunch and labor relation issues, they just didn't have well designed or built cars. But then in 1974 when all the cars needed 5 mph bumpers, what style they had was ruined by the kludged giant bumpers.

An example of what I am talking about is the Camaro. Look at a 72 vs a 75 when the bumpers come into place. The general lines of a 2nd gen Camaro are still there and pretty, but the bumpers hurt the appearance.

Suggested by: hoser68 and a few others