Now please don’t get me wrong here, I quite like the look of the new Clio, just as I do the latest BMW 3 Series (but less so the X5 and Audi), but I fear this trio of manufacturers have played it much too safe and cautious with the design of their crucial new models.
I understand the importance of a Brand’s DNA being instantly recognisable from one model to the next, and that being too radical with a new model’s styling can be a real risk and cost sales in the short term. As if proof of this was needed to help illustrate the point, when Ford replaced its conservative Cortina/Taunus with the ultra-modern Sierra in 1982; this ‘radical’ new model took a while to gain widespread market acceptance with traditional mid-market saloon car buyers; many opting for the less ‘extreme’ Vauxhall Cavalier. Today, however, for an early 1980s car the globular Sierra still looks surprisingly contemporary and less dated than GM’s straight-edged J-Car Cavalier.
Perhaps launching bold, future-focused and far-sighted cars such as the Ford Sierra, as well as the game-changing Citroen DS, Renault Avantime, NSU Ro80 and original Mercedes-Benz A-Class, might be too great a financial gamble to take these days, but I for one sincerely hope that the evolution of passenger car design gets a move on, so that we don’t get stuck in a long, slow jam of successive ‘déjà vu’ models that make it difficult to distinguish the new from the old.