With the release of the latest Ford Mondeo another page of the “average cars stealing from the super-car styling” book was created.

All passenger cars have their proportions dictated by government policy. For instance, the front of all cars have to be shaped in such a way that conforms with pedestrian safety laws.

“pedestrians shall be maimed, but not killed, in a head on collision”

“any drunken fool who stumbles onto the road shall be caught and lovingly caressed by the bonnet of an automobile”

To differentiate cars from each over designer’s have to rely on surface detailing. The Mondeo is a good example of this. It has taken a grill from its estranged older brother: Aston Martin.

I suspect that there will be a great many Rapide owners who are unhappy that their four door super-car now looks like a police runaround. The plagiarism continues, on the white model shown , the rear tail lights, actually the rear quarter bears a distinct likeness to the new Lamborghini Aventador.

It’s shameful to see the Ford Mondeo stoop to such lows, because the British half of Ford were very good at design.

Perhaps a brand more expected of plagiarism is Hyundai. Their Veloster, a 3 door , asymmetrical coupe, designed to take on the VW Sirocco has the most aspirational design steal. The front wings look like the front of the Aston Martin One-77. A limited production Aston that is soooooo amazing and exclusive, they’ve had trouble selling all 77 of them.

Though the design of that car (rubbish) is a subject for another post.

Ultimately , I’m not sure if this super-car xeroxing is such a bad thing. Not for sales anyway.

But personally, I just can’t help but feel cheapened by it. All cars should be designed brilliantly. Or at the very least aim to have an identity and personality all to themselves.

The amount of design work that goes into a super-car is just as time-consuming and as important as a family sedan. In the cases mentioned above (Mondeo,Veloster) they are probably more important.

Super-cars can stand on their own, in their own stratosphere. Normal cars have a much harder time standing out.

I think of the cars that I’ve owned, and the cars that I admire and not once would I think that they needed to look like a different car (the front wings of my 2001 forester excepted, they looked awesomely like the wings of the Audi ur-Quattro rally car).

This trend will not end , but I do urge the reader to be aware of these fads and know: Regardless of how much you like the car, nobody cares that it’s one headlight looks like the one-off somebody else’s supercar.

George