the torque - a view from inside the motor industry

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:38:42 +0200

Who decides whether the design of a car is good? What should be a fairly complex question is actually really quite simple. You….and me….and him….and her. We all do. It is much the same as deciding whether Marmite is irresistible or the Devil’s food.

In other words, we are all individuals and we are all blessed with the intellect and freedom to make judgements and choices. And, fortunately, we are all different so we don’t all chose the same partner, the same clothes, the same house or the same mode of transport.

A recent Daily Telegraph Saturday motoring supplement featured the ‘100 UGLIEST CARS OF ALL TIME as chosen by Daily Telegraph readers’. You might think that I am offended that no BMW product ended up on this list - but I am not. In fact I welcome it. If everyone liked our cars it would suggest to me that they were becoming bland.

The thing I dislike, though, is car commentators proffering their view on a car’s appearance. The dismissal of a car as ‘ugly’, ‘poorly resolved’ or even gorgeous has become commonplace in the assessment of any car. But why should their opinion on design be relevant? After all, many commentators aren’t the most sartorially elegant so how can they comment on style? I have eyes, magazines print plenty of pictures – I can make my own mind up whether I like it or not. As a reader, I look to a journalist for an assessment of the car’s performance, handling, ride, economy, comfort, value for money and so on; in other words all the things I cannot glean from pictures.

I find design very interesting, but I cannot claim to understand its intricacies…and neither, in my view, do any of the journalists I know. I love the look of Bang and Olafson Hi-Fi…but I’ve no idea whether it is any good aurally. I’m not a great fan of No 5 by Jackson Pollock but someone paid over $100 million for it. Who am I to criticize such a purchase and judge it not to be artistically significant enough to justify this price?

Back to the safer ground of motoring, there are cars I like and those I loathe, just like anyone else I suppose. Looking at it from a non-BMW perspective, high up on the Telegraph’s list of ‘ugly’ cars was the Citroen 2CV. Personally I like the look of it, so did the millions of Frenchmen who bought it in their droves.

By contrast the article highlights the Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and Jaguar XJS – none of which would grace my drive, irrespective of who I worked for. But one’s man’s meat etc……clearly quite a few people would disagree with me because they have bought one. Personally, I think the Jaguar S-Type is one of the most poorly-resolved pieces of design in recent history and yet some patriotic commentators suggested it had all the classic Jaguar design grace and panache. Hail the new king of the Executive car market they said. If ever there was an example of how the press failed to get it right, the S-Type is it. But, again, that’s only my opinion.

So, next time you read an article in which the journalist makes a judgement on car design, do yourself a favour: ignore it. Unless, that is, that you personally know the writer in question and have seen his or her choice of clothing, curtain material and lampshades. The truth is that their weighty counsel is nothing but a display of whether they like it or not, not whether you will.

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