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The History of American Car Design: How Automotive Styling Has Evolved Over Time
Once upon a time, cars were just a thing that got you where you needed to go. They were a bunch of working parts and coverings to make sure those parts weren’t damaged. You could get a Model T in black. It was a very sensible product that revolutionized the world. Drivers back then would be stunned to see what’s become of cars over time, with each decade lending its own styles and baggage to car design. In a world of stunning sports cars, sensible sedans and also an inexplicably pointy truck, we’re looking at all the trends that have brought us here.
Planned Obsolescence & the Roaring Twenties
Did you know that the reason you have to buy a new phone every couple of years has its roots in the early American automobile industry? You can thank Alfred P. Sloane Jr., an executive at General Motors. In 1924, everyone who could afford to have a car already had one. Sloane, borrowing concepts from the bike industry, suggested that it wasn’t so much a matter of needs but wants. You only need your well made car that gets you from place to place. But if you want to be shepherded around in the latest technology and styling, you’ll shell out money for a new model. While this idea would have a major effect on consumers for the next century, it also led to constantly evolving styles in the auto industry.
The ‘20s were a time of abundance and drivers could indulge in the more stylish options now available to them. It was during the ‘10s and ‘20s, that car design began to drift away from the runabout body style that had carried over from carriages and horse buggies. The world of racing had realized quite early that a longer and more streamlined body had aerodynamic qualities that would help them in a race. The auto industry noticed and followed suit. The boxy cars that had been standard since the Model T gave way to a slightly more aerodynamic body. The traditionally open-air cars also found themselves threatened by the novelty of closed-body styling. But more drastic changes were on the horizon, this time catalyzed by a world changing event: The Great Depression.
The Great Depression & Streamline Moderne
Oddly enough, the Great Depression that crippled the world led to massive leaps forward in car design. The auto industry was also hit hard and had to economize. They leaned hard on our old friend, aerodynamics. Luckily an aerodynamic car body synced perfectly with the Streamline Moderne, late stage Art-Deco style that was popular during the period. These more streamlined cars took inspiration from other vehicles like airplanes and ships. The long boxy shapes of the previous decade evolved into truly fascinating forms. Teardrops and bullet shapes became popular, with the Arrowhead Teardrop taking it to extremes. Cars gained swooping, graceful lines and beautiful curves. The fastback style, where the back of the car has a single slope connecting roof to tail, also came into vogue in the ‘30s. This massive leap forward in styling sometimes backfired with cars like the revolutionary Chrysler Airflow being a commercial failure even as it notched its place in car design history.
WWII & Ponton (Pontoon) Styling
The war to end all wars upended every sector of public life all over the world, including car production. The big auto companies switched their factories from making cars to helping the war effort. When the fighting was done, however, technology developed for war came to the automobile industry. The creation of more powerful engines and automatic transmission led to bigger bodied cars. This was also the era where ponton styling emerged as a powerhouse, becoming the norm for the next two decades and inspiring the future of car building. Ponton styling refers to the style of car where the bodywork enclosed the full width and uninterrupted length of a car body. This eliminated the running boards and articulated fenders that had been a distinct part of the styling of previous generations. Economical with a distinct style, the ponton trend was a hit both in the U.S. and a recovering postwar Europe. The road would diverge, however, once the world entered the 1950s.
Hot Rods & Futurism: The Rise of Car Culture
For the most part, Europe stayed fairly loyal to the lovely, curvy styling that had worked so well for decades. Iconic cars like the Mini Cooper, the Porsche Spyder 550, and the Citroën DS all came out of the region during this period. The U.S.A. on the other hand, went absolutely wild. Much like in the 1930’s when it was inspired by other vehicles like planes and boats, the 1950’s auto industry in the U.S. also took their design and styling from non-car vehicles. Unlike the ‘30s, they were sandwiched in between WWII and the Space Race, so car makers looked to wartime planes and rockets for their designs. Bodies got longer and decked out in chrome. These heavily styled vehicles had tailfins that seemed to get elaborate with each model. The tailfins on the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado are practically wings. The U.S. was in full bloom and the cars got bigger and brighter. The style turned from the sloping curves of the last few decades for a return to a boxy form and straight lines. The Ford Thunderbird, along with many other American cars of the period, became instant classics. Paint technology also improved with colors that included electric blues and candy apple reds giving a new shine to the hot rods blazing down the roads.
This automotive golden age was solidified in the 1960s, but a more modernist style favored simplicity in their design. In the U.S., the elaborate styling gave way to a simpler (but still boxy) look. And so, we bid a fond farewell to the constant giant tailfins. It was the rise of pony cars and muscle cars in the mid-’60s that disrupted the popular rectangle with the return of the fastback style that gave the car’s back a curve. The counterparts to these cars overseas were sleek European sports cars that mostly held on to its curves. American pony cars, heralded by the arrival of the Ford Mustang in 1964, tended to feature a long hood, a short deck, and a powerful engine. Muscle cars like the Pontiac GTO, the Dodge Charger, and the Chevy Camaro showed incredible speed and power for an affordable price. But an aura of foreshadowing appeared with the healthy sales of Japanese and European cars that were small and fuel efficient. The VW Beetle, with its bulbous 1930s body became an icon of the era and a harbinger of what was to come.
The Malaise Era: The Return of the Rectangle
While the automotive industry had been pumping out a series of cool cars in the ‘50s & ’60s, they were also forced to reckon with how dangerous their product was. And when I say that, we really mean “they were dragged screaming to safety measures and emission fixes”. Ralph Nader’s groundbreaking book, Unsafe at Any Speed, highlighted car manufacturers’ refusal to implement safety features in their vehicles. Nader concluded that the overstylization of cars in the ‘50s was actually dangerous. When something as important as a bumper just becomes a stylish ornament, it reduces its effectiveness in keeping the passenger safe. The uproar caused by this book led to Congress passing the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act 1966. The Clean Air Act in 1963 set the first vehicle emission standards. The incorporation of safer and more environmentally friendly features brought us back to our old friend: the extremely boxy rectangle. While the gradual return to curviness had been cut short, these rectangles were still major gas guzzlers. This was unfortunate when the 1973 gas crisis rolled around.
American car-markers scrambled to get compact and sub-compact cars on the market. They read the room and many opted for no-frills sensible vehicles. While smaller, the boxiness, hard lines, and sharp edges remained. Austere vehicles for an austere time. It wasn’t all no-nonsense. Less compact vehicles tried to lure in customers with shag carpets, velour, vinyl roofs, & opera windows. While big swings like the DeLorean defied the norm, the trend of boxy American cars with a sensible vibe remained through the 1980s. The American automotive industry spent much of the decade playing catch up with Japanese car companies. So, what innovative design did they come up with to marry the safety, environmental, and fuel efficiency issues with America’s need for speed? Aerodynamics.
The Jellybean Era & the Rise of Electric Vehicles
It was as though car designers looked at all the rectangles and ran away as far as they could. What they found was the oval shape. Harkening back to the ‘30s and ‘60s, everything from ‘90s sports cars to sensible mid-sizers took on fluid curves and smooth lines. Detractors sniffed and told people that it looked as though they were driving jellybeans. But people seemed relieved to have their aerodynamic jellybeans instead of a giant box with shag carpet. By the time the new century arrived, designers conceded that it was perhaps too oval and started putting some edges on those jellybeans.
The next 20 years was an incredible shift in car technology with hybrids and later electric vehicles with futuristic aesthetics becoming wildly popular. How did this new technology affect styling? There’s a lot of things that you don’t need if you’re running an EV power train and that gives designers room to play with. It took the car companies a minute to realize that they don’t have to fit their electric powertrains into a design not meant for them. If a central transmission tunnel is not needed, you can have a more spacious cabin. If you don’t have anything under the hood, there’s more storage in your front trunk. If there’s a battery instead of an internal combustion engine, you don’t need a grille that lets in a ton of air. This leads to a much smoother face, which is good because you need to depend on aerodynamics with EVs.
And yet, the lessons of the Chrysler Airflow remain. While details on these vehicles become more stylized, with aerodynamic hidden door handles and meticulously crafted headlights, many companies go for a familiar aesthetic. A drastic change might scare away the customers. Some companies even keep the transmission tunnel intact when they don’t need it because that’s what their consumers are used to in their car shape. Are you really willing to give up your cup holders in the name of progress?
Once we get closer to the future, it begins to become a little bit more difficult to see style trends easily. From a distance, these eras of car styling look like sharp turns in evolution but perhaps people living through it felt a more gradual shift. What will be the distinctive style of this time? We seem to be content with mixing hard and smooth lines, while taking inspiration from cars of the past. As of this writing, Volkswagen is selling an EV version of their legendary ‘60s Type 2 microbus. It’s perhaps just a little curvier and more stylized. Perhaps we’re putting our own stamp on the classics, letting it evolve into something new. But then again, concept cars designed from companies like Honda and Jaguar look like cars from sci-fi movies and games. Perhaps a new age of design is upon us. You think all of this and then you see a Cybertruck in the wild. So really who knows what’s happening?
