That’s obviously an exaggeration, but why don’t manufacturers of basic cars just put a fancy-looking exterior onto them? Aren’t you mainly paying for the engine and electrics and upholstery and sound system with fancy cars? Why is it (seemingly) only Lamborghini and Ferrari that look like Lamborghini and Ferrari? Is chassis manufacturing more difficult than it seems to a numbnut like me? I assume it’s just pressing sheets of metal into a mould, so I’m probably way off the mark.
It’s like when you see a computer mouse that’s named something like GamerStealth eXtreme Zero Pro, and it’s the worst piece of shit you’ve ever used but looks like it came from Area 51. Same for PC cases, actually. Alienware rigs look a million percent better than they actually are. Why is this not also the case for cars?
Full disclosure: I know nothing about cars. I just know that when I see a fancy car, and check the make, it’s BMW or something high end, and when I see a pygmy hippo lookin’ motherfucker, it’s made by one of those “buy one, get one free” type manufacturers that appeal to meth head soccer moms. And by “fancy” I don’t even mean “luxury”, just obviously high quality. Most BMWs and Rolls-Royce don’t look like spaceships, but they nevertheless look really impressive. Again, I need to stress that I know nothing about cars.
Cheers!
You’re describing either a kit-car or custom fab.
I don’t know much about cars either, but that does happen. For example, Cadillac Escalade was/is based on a less-fancy-looking GMC SUV (Suburban?). Chevy Volt is also Cadillac ELR (different body and interior, same drivetrain), Opel Ampera (in Europe), and Buick Velite (in China, because Buick has a better brand recognition there)
Some cheaper car models come with variety of “sport editions” and out-of-factory tint and spoilers, which would be the equivalent to the RGB computer peripherals that you mentioned, and appeal to specific customers.
TBH I don’t know why some expensive car designs are perceived as “fancy” or “impressive”. I think they are mostly boring. And quality-wise, anything above bottom tier would have materials that last decades now.
why don’t manufacturers of basic cars just put a fancy-looking exterior onto them?
They do. This is exactly what Hyundai does for the Genesis brand.
I didn’t know I wanted to slap a Lamborghini-style chassis onto a lawnmower, but now I do.
If you make a Toyota fancy, you end up with a Lexus. If you make a Honda fancy, you end up with an Acura. If you make a Volkswagen fancy, you end up with an Audi. If you make a Nissan fancy, you end up with an infinity.
If you make a Volkswagen fancy, you end up with an Audi
Or a Porsche. Or a Bentley. Or a laborghini. Or a Bugatti.
Firstly: Designing an appealing sports/luxury car is expensive and many companies hire skilled professionals from known design firms to help accomplish this. The design often comes first and much of the car is constructed to fit the aesthetic and theme. Cheaper vehicles are more utilitarian with a more “that’ll do” attitude instead of being designed with artistic intention.
Secondly: Almost ever car maker has their own luxury brand or subsidiary. Selling cheap luxury/sports cars would undermine their own brand’s prestige and market segregation. There is a reason why dedicated luxury brands will not make budget-friendly vehicles unless legally forced to.
Look at the 1950 American cars. They’re wild.
One reason for the perception that cars look fancy or not is that you become accustomed to a design when you see it all the time.
Supercars are wildly impractical, and slapping that body on a Corolla chassis would make a Corolla that only seats 2 and has no space for bags, but somehow takes up a lot more space than a Corolla. Also, downforce is bad for fuel efficiency.
Your note at the bottom is interesting. The perceived luxury of a car is not related to the quality of the vehicle. As a car guy with a penchant for German cars, I do have to admit that while they’re wonderful in many ways, a beige Corolla or Civic will stand far more abuse.
Plus it would surprise me little if an economy motor had a hard time pushing a supercar frame and body.
It depends on the frame and the ideals of the manufacturer. You can make a sports car with essentially an economy motor from the same brand (Miata, MR2) or maybe a reliable engine from another (Lotus with Toyota engines), but largely it comes down to if the brand wants to spend money to do it.
Supercars are quite small. They have very low roofs and are often quite wide, so your sense of scale is thrown off.
2025 corolla: 182"L x 70"W x 56"H 2000 corolla: 174" x 67" x 55" 2004 murcielago: 180" x 80" x 44"
2006 gallardo: 169 x 75 x 46
2018 huracan: 176 x 76 x 46 2024 296 gtb: 180 x 77 x 47
Xxxx chiron: 179 x 80 x 47
Xxxx F40: 172 x 78 x 44
Even the veyron, a sweaty potato on wheels: 176 x 79 x 47Totally agree on the perception point. BMW looks nice because it looks like a BMW which is nice. They’ve carried a fairly consistent design language from year to year. Design overhaul in these brands are somewhat rare, but they’ll carry it across the lineup. Look at Jaguar when they phased from 80s drug lord to whatever the XF look is called.
The only thing I could say specifically to OP’s observation is it sounds like they’re always picking out the brands with squared bodies and condescending headlights. Mercedes might be pushing it with their jewel eyes, but there’s still a consistent air of importance around the bodies (please don’t mention the CLA). No nonsense, no happy eyes, defined body lines, chrome blended flat into the panels, stout wheels, and sportier rooflines (please don’t mention the 5 series GT).
Thanks for including the 2000 Corolla. I forget how big they’ve gotten.
Bad example on BMW; their recent design language with the beaver tooth grills is terrible
Like the Aztek, I bet it’ll normalize and seem less obnoxious in a few years as the cars become more commonplace and other manufacturers follow the trend.
Yeah, it felt disingenuous as I built out my sample list when I realized my knowledge of supercars drops off around 2010. New corolla, old corolla, let the reader be the judge. Gonna go back and add some camrys.
I suppose I could have also included weights.
25 corolla is around 3000lbs, 2000 around 2400.
05 Murcie is 3600 while a 2018 Huracan is 3100.
Chiron is 4400, veyron is 4200
F40 is 2400, F50 is 2700
Ferr 360 is 3000, while 296 gtb 3200
In fairness, the 10th gen Civics (in Europe at least) looked absolutely badass compared to pretty much any other family hatchback when they released. They were a lot pointier and aggressive looking than their boring counterparts.
Some Chinese EVs copy the style of fancy cars. For example the Xiaomi EV practically ripped off a Porsche.
Original, high quality designs require high development costs. Also a good design should consider the functionality as well, such as aerodynamics specific to the power and handling of the vehicle. Weight distribution etc.
Edit: not an expert at all, just my guess and observations
Fancy body on a cheap car.
Add big displacement and you’ve got a Dodge or some of the Fords
They have “kit cars,” which are all the parts you need to build a fancy vehicle on the chassis and drive train of a normal car. When I was young, Ford Pintos were common chassis for kit cars.
That’s how you end up with something like this that isn’t fooling anybody:
but why don’t manufacturers of basic cars just put a fancy-looking exterior onto them?
“Kit cars” are a thing…
Not sure what’s popular these days, but for a while people were putting Shelby Cobra bodies on Miatas.
It’s way more than a Miata, but way less than an authentic Shelby.
So people who just care about the looks have been doing this for decades now.
But when it happens as a production, people don’t buy it because other people recognize it for what it is, look at the PT Cruiser.
So if a couple people do it, it passes as expensive. If a lot do it, it comes off as tacky and becomes a joke.
Because it’s not that easy and a fancy car looks fancy because it’s a work of art and every detail counts
New kink unlocked
🙄
What?
Ridiculously pretentious comment, and at least half of it isn’t even meaningfully true.
Elaborate?
I linked hoffmeister kink because it’s a perfect example how just one single line can make the car look entirely different
Check out my nearly 20 year old e92. You don’t need an art degree to see that the body lines of this car are literally genius and that’s why it still looks like a new car
Taste is subjective. I’m not a fan of how they rounded these out in this generation. I like them more when dressed up with sporty bits to add hard angles into this bloated design. But at least it’s not a Bengal 7? Still has his touch. Peak design was E39 for me. So much so, I own it’s American copycat that’s twice as reliable as an M5. But I’ll stick with the other person’s opinion: needlessly pretentious. You can describe all the lines that make it beautiful to you without being bringing such condescending tone about art degrees or classic BMW snobbery about a single car design being literally genius. You think it’s beautiful because you own it. It’s not the BMW I’d pick. But sure, yours looks better to me than whatever melted wax model they delivered in the latest design era.
Of course taste is subjective. I’m not saying my cheap E92 is the best looking car ever either. E92 is literally what got me into cars when I first saw a 335i back in 2007. In space grey with red seats I literally thought it looked like a spaceship.
E39 M5 is easily one of the best looking cars of all time. I wanted an E39 540i for ages but they are a nightmare to maintain at this age with all the brittle plastic.
What is the m5 clone you own? I can’t really think of any V8 4 door sedans from that era. When I think american m5 clone, pontiac g8 and chevy SS come to mind
It’s not pretentious at all to say that cars are a work of art lol. That’s why so many look bad
Lincoln LS. Jaguar S-type chassis under a Lincoln-badged homework-copied E39 body. Not an M5 clone, more like a 540 knockoff. It wasn’t far off when it was introduced in 2000, but it didn’t improve nearly as much as it needed to over its 7 year run to stay competitive. At all. Common sedans were getting comparable in acceleration and luxury was an American translation of a base 3 series, but at least it has a sweet double wishbone suspension front and back. There’s a dozen stylistic differences over the model years and trims you won’t see because it’s not your car and you don’t look at it every day
I also don’t care about the hofmeister kink. It’s here or there. I like the little kick up you can see on the LS or 2010-2014 Mustang. It existed before Hofmeister did it to a BMW and is more of a BMW bro thing to mention than an absolute success in design. Audi doesn’t usually do it, looks just as mean.
Oy, dude, no. You couldn’t prove my point any more clearly
At this point you’re the one being pretentious.
Elaborate? One last try before I block you for just making noise in my inbox lol
Isn’t that what Scion does?
Some companies spend a lot of money on market research and trying to get ahead of trends (Mercedes Benz, Honda, Toyota) some companies disregard common sense and do what they want (Alfa, The French in general) and cheaper brands dont waste the money on price point cars. Its not an Iron clad rule but people buy a german to project wealth, you buy other euros to project style, you buy Honda and Toyota for reliability. You buy a Nissan Altima because they will finance you, you buy a Chinese car because you arent keeping it past warranty expiry anyway.
As to what sets them apart. Little things like painted brake calipers, the quality of the badging, the texture on the plastic interior, little trim pieces that stop you seeing any of the interior workings, the windscreen wipers looking “chunky”. Wheels and stance also play a large part of the image. Wide wheels simply look more expensive, as do lower profile tyres.
Then things get a little more tactile, the dull thump when you shut the door over the higher pitched clank, the thickness of the interior plastics and number of fasteners making the interior feel sturdier even though you cant see the difference, the sensation of the indicators being put on, the UI on the touchscreen…
Prestige brands also dont do trim level names/badges very often. They like letters and numbers like 330i M-Sport or c65 AMG. Lexus followed suit with the LS400. They WANT you to say “Yeah, I got the Touring package” or “I bought the AMG sports pack” and they know their owners want to do it too.
I think our 2021 Honda Civic Sport looks pretty fancy. No one is going to mistake it for a Ferrari, but I think it’s pretty hot for the price.
I also wouldn’t fit in any real sports car anyway.
That counts as an expensive car in my opinion
