The next Mustang, The Next Barracuda

[chaught76]

They need to quit screwing with the front end of these designs. They are rounding off the front of the cars too much and making the car look like every other blah-blah copycat throw away car on the road today. What made the newer mustangs and other such models so appealing is it gave us the nostalgia and characteristics of the original design with a modern look.

Hey, I got an idea car manufacturers. Why don't you spend some time coming up with some new, unique car designs instead of ruining an already good thing with the modernized mustangs, camaros, etc.? (Kudos to the designers who tried to re-establish a link to when American muscle-cars were the real deal.)

Sorry, I will get off my soapbox now.

[mjah]

I'd prefer that American designers actually come up with a new American look, rather than looking backward in time.

Looking at auto designs from the middle of the last century, I see a lot of space-age rocket influence and then a lot of very sexy chrome and sheet metal, with median horsepower steadily increasing over time. But I don't see a lot of mid-century designers creating visual throwbacks to the Model T, Prohibition-era rum runners, or Al Capone's mob-mobiles. Designers in the 1950s and 1960s had new, fresh ideas that put the oldies into the revered but obsolete historical files where they belonged.

Yet today how many major-mark American sports cars can be had without a deliberate retro feel baked in? Certainly the Vette. Any others? Under the hood all sports cars are completely different from decades ago, but from the outside the idea is to borrow major design cues from almost half a century ago. What we could use are truly new and progressive designs, and a population that isn't too skittish to buy them. Personally, I'm not too fond of the idea of owning a Charger (at all but especially not one) that looks like the temperamental bomb my old crazy neighbor had from his high school days.

Today a lot of guys really do seem to want their father's Oldsmobiles (RIP Olds). I'd rather have a performance car whose skin fully reflects the incredible progress we have made in visual design and manufacturing capabilities over the past 30+ years.

[Larry]

Well, I assume they're targeting retired Baby Boomers.

They want people to buy the car they drove in High School.

(And as someone who's kind of on the fringes of that, I admit I can feel it.)

[skinsgirl26]

Um.

Like y'all have said the front half of the 'Stang looks European...doesn't look bad, just not Mustang.

From the side picture, the back half looks silly to me

[Corcaigh]

If you told me that was the new Kia or Hyundai, I would have believed you.

[zoony]

I really hope that's not the final Mustang design. That is terrible.

But then again, I wouldn't buy one, so who cares what I think.

[Kosher Ham]

The thing that throws me off about the Mustangs doors...It's a freakin' four-door ? What in the hell is that ?
I agree with the others that from the front, it's bot so bad...but the side view sucks. Hate it.

You guys should look up some of the older 'Cuda concept designs. Not even close to what this one looks like.

EDIT: And I just thought about it...the Cuda kinda looks like an Eclipse...That's not a good idea.

[HBnotBlades]

That mustang is just a concept, I think it's clearly evidenced by the fact that there is no B-pillar. I don't think that wouldn't fly in a mass produced car.

It definitely looks like an Aston Martin, which is pretty cool, but it's the wrong image for the Mustang. I think a few subtle tweaks could make it look appropriate though, simply squaring off the front end a bit would make it look much more mustangy.

[Enter Apotheosis]

All new cars look alike... even ones that are supposed to target wildly different demographics.

[mjah]

Well, I assume they're targeting retired Baby Boomers.

They want people to buy the car they drove in High School.

(And as someone who's kind of on the fringes of that, I admit I can feel it.)

Yeah, I know. It's just depressing to face the fact that their median target demographic is the same demographic they aimed for 30-50 years ago... plus 30-50 years.

More than anything I'm wondering how this will play out in another couple of decades, when people younger than me are solidly into their nostalgia phases, but all they have to look back on sports-car-wise is today's crop of wistful throwbacks to (by then) ancient visual design choices. Better hope they're literally timeless.

Of course that's assuming we get another 20 years out of the Detroit automakers. We may all be riding in Elon Musk's visions (and those of his as-of-yet-unnamed domestic competitors) by then.