Aesthetic decline in modern vehicle design compared to mid-century cars

Newer Is Not Always Better

There are many things about the good old days that were actually not very good. Technology has come a long way and there have been great advances in the fields of education, medicine, and countless others. However, there is one area where it seems that newer is not better and the good old days should have remained. This area has to do with vehicles. It is true that many vehicles today have many different safety features and can do much more than they could in the past. However, aesthetically most vehicles today do not look as beautiful or interesting as vehicles did many years ago. Pictures from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s show beautiful vehicles with a lot of chrome and large tail fins with every inch of the car shining in the sun. These cars were beautiful to look at and they were very solid and durable. They did not fold up into nothing when they got into an accident and they were made of solid materials that did not fall apart after several years of use.

Mostly, however, they were just much more pleasing to look at. When someone walked down the street in the period between 1930 and 1960 or so they could look down a line of cars and tell what each individual car was by the distinctive looks that it carried. On most cars today one has to walk up and read the name on the back to be sure what type of car it is. This is not true for all vehicles. Some of the larger SUVs such as the Hummer are very distinctive and sports cars such as Corvettes are also easy to distinguish.