As technical excellence becomes the norm across the car industry, the marques now see design as the new competitive area. Catherine Cronin talks to David Browne of Coventry's famous car design school
Driving through the Arizona desert last May, Peter Reed, curator at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), was trying to stay calm. He was going to view a possible addition to the museum's collection of cars spanning 50 years of automotive design, selected for their outstanding beauty, function and cultural significance.
Finally, he came face to face with the object of his desire: a 1959 mint-green Beetle, picked up at a junkyard by a local collector for $450, lovingly restored and then bought by the museum for $11,500. The Beetle, along with five other cars joined Andy Warhol's 32 Campbell's Soup Cans and Matisse's The Dance at a MOMA exhibition the following month.
If recent motor shows are anything to go by, designers are the rising stars with people such as BMW's Chris Bangle, Audi's Walter de Silva, Ford's J Mays and Renault's Patrick Le Quement arguably holding the futures of some of the major car companies in their hands.
This is not that surprising. With build quality constantly improving, companies want to create cars that stand out. And, when buying a car, the look is much more important than any of us would like to admit.
Marketers have also cleverly positioned the car as part of a person's self image. So, while some drivers may never fill the dishwasher, they will devote gallons of water to washing the car and hosing out the wheel arches.
"More and more in Britain you are what you drive and some put car ownership before home ownership," says David Browne, head of transport design at Coventry University's School of Art and Design, one of Europe's best-known car design schools. "Image has also made the SUV the ultimate accessory, though most don't go further off-road than the local Sainsbury's car park, while the immensely practical MPV shrieks family. And I probably do know one or two BMW owners who bought them for the right reason, good front-engine, rear-wheel driven cars."
But car design is very complex and companies designing to a budget want to create products with maximum appeal. So what works?
"Intelligent design reflects the purpose of the car," says Browne. Its aim could simply be basic transport or sport, aggression or elegance or a mixture of these.
For the most part the role of a coupé is to impress, so aesthetically its design is much more elegant. "Compared to saloons, coupés have fewer door-shut lines and fewer frames and windows interrupting the flow of the body line," says Browne. With access to the press fleet, the appeal of a coupé is obvious. Of the recent bunch, the car which was universally admired was the Ferrari-aping red Toyota Celica T-Sport.
To create greater elegance, more flowing lines are being woven into all kinds of cars. "The Alfa 156 and the Alfa 147 are pretend coupés with their hidden rear-door handles," says Browne. "Both, but in particular the 147, appeal across gender and age." The old Mercedes E Class sagged but the new model has smoother lines, while even subtle changes to old boxy Volvos, Cordobas and Corollas have given way to better lookers.
Still, despite the record number of new models in the past few years, Browne argues that many cars are crying out for successors. "The Golf was the benchmark for quality interior and fit and the myth kept it going. The Fiesta was long overdue for re-design and that's why there is such a notable improvement between the previous model and the new model.
"Skodas have enjoyed a very welcome re-birth but they now need to decide their design direction, as Seat has done, to emerge from the worthy and head for the notable."
A great buzzword is stance, the relationship between the car's body and wheels. A good stance is important to the look and, for the most part, is created when the wheels are set wide and fill out the arches. "The old Metro was grossly under-wheeled and the Audi A6 is also somewhat so," says Browne. This happens when models share the same basic shell but the downmarket versions get more modest wheels.
Italy has long been seen as the home of car design with international manufacturers even turning to its design houses such as Pininfarina and Bertone. The results are cars such as the Peugeot 406 coupé and the new Ford StreetKa as well as more exotic pieces from Maserati and Ferrari.
Many put the recent European design revival down to the onslaught of the Japanese who have opened studios in London and Nice employing European designers. Having cracked lean manufacturing and reliability, growing European market share means more emphasis on design.
Toyota/Lexus hallmarks have always been quality and reliability, though it has shown that it can surprise with the Yaris and the Lexus SC430 from its Nice studios. The new Avensis will be an interesting test of Toyota's European styling trends.
A litany of unexciting cars halted Nissan's growth worldwide and sent it on a design offensive. It's most ambitious statement is the new 350Z sports car, from the easel of a 30-year-old Coventry University graduate and aimed broadly at the Audi TT.
Browne sees Japanese hybrid cars as a technological tour de force, with huge attention to design. The Mazda RX8 with its "clap-hand" door arrangement, where the back doors hinge at the back, is also the first of its kind to the market in modern times even with all the current side-impact legislation.
And retro? "It can work but it may not," says Browne. "It creates a lot of excitement when a car is launched but can have a fairly short honeymoon." He believes that the new Beetle and the PT Cruiser already look tired - and he sees the Thunderbird going the same way.
Analysts believe that the way forward is with modern shapes and some manufacturers really break the mould. Renault seems to be abandoning the classic booted saloon and turning out cars like nothing else on the road. "Renault is the new Citroën," says Browne.
BMW's Chris Bangle takes the prize for controversy. He was once quoted as saying that cars should be moving works of art, although many think he is too much the artist with the radical design of the new Z4 and the departure from tradition of the new 7 Series. The 7's "iDrive" system has led to the suggestion that it really means "No, uDrive, while I figure this out" while the boot's look has been mauled by Forbes magazine and even led to a "Stop Chris Bangle" internet campaign.
However design is not all about aesthetics. The best designs are innovative and take account of things such as ergonomics and safety, according to Browne. Female designers working on the new Volvo XC90 brought in features such as split-tailgates for easier access, rear-child seats, more knee-room and improved driving positions for shorter drivers.
"Safety is the new aerodynamic and it's very marketable," says Browne. The Euro NCAP tests have led to an unofficial league table forcing companies to look at structural strength, the number of airbags and pedestrian safety.
"Designers will start to examine sharp edges like the lines where the bonnet meets the flanks," he says. "It may result in more 'clam shell' bonnets with the opening line at the side of the car, like the Range Rover or in some of the Saabs - or we could see deployable bonnets which create a greater clearance between the bonnet surface and the engine to lessen impact."
Designers also have to work around a myriad of legislation from emissions, to bumper height, lights' ability to define the width of the car at night, or the fact that lights must be unaffected by a minor crash.
It's clear that taste is as individual as each driver or each designer. Ask a group of people to list in their five favourite cars and each will be different.