Time was when I could identify pretty well any make or model of car from any angle and reasonable distance.
Over the last twenty years or so, that ability has dropped by about 80% to the point where, one day, as a witness, I can hear myself coming out with the pathetic 'it was a red car' or something similar.
Anyone else having trouble keeping up?
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Yes -being 40 something my specialist subject was 60s Fords (all varients) Consul Cortina, Ford Cortina De-Luxe (with cutting edge air vents). Capri (the original non hockey stick design) Classic (Star Car as was known in the family) - Corsair et al. This was before I saw my very first BMW 2002 and fell in love - it was parked up at the roadside with 4 way flashers - never seen them before ! - Happy days.
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My Dad had a Classic, a four door (the two door was the original Capri), two tone, light blue and white, must have been about a 1963 model, I remember stopping and patting it on the bonnet as it went from 99999 to 0 miles.
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Couldn't agree more.
I think it's a combination of age, decrease in interest, increase in types and wind tunnels dictating shape!
Usually when someone comes along with a radical shape everyone hates it until it becomes common place and replaces all we ever knew.
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"Anyone else having trouble keeping up?"
Yes, and what's more in my teens (late 1960s!) I used to be able to identify most people who came to our house by the sound of the car. Now I have problems distinguishing petrol from diesels!
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That'l be the Talbot Horizon then :)
I find that a lot of the prestige manufacturers find a body style, then the others try to emulate it, so trying to tell a bmw 5 series from a Nissan Primera is not always easy in the blink of an eye.
Who can remember that renault engine that was fitted in the 5 and latterly the 11 and the volvo 340? That tinny sound that seemed so posh and economic for its day.
H
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i can tell today's cars at a glance and i always have been. Sad i know.
So imagine my bemusement when i saw a Morris Marina the other day only to double take and realise that it was a Chrysler Avenger!!
Looking back, it's plain to see that lots of cars were similar looking: in the same way that a Mondeo looks like a Mazda 6, look at an Avenger, Marina and Mk3 Cortina in profile.
Likewise Fiat Strada, Renault 14, VW Golf (Mk1) and Chrysler Horizon. All very similarly proportioned.
Now where's my anorak....
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I find that a car from say the 1970s, which I thought was a really neat design, now looks all out of proportion, with a drooping tail and overhangs that are too long. Why couldn't I see this 25 years ago?
--
Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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I find that a car from say the 1970s, which I thought was a really neat design, now looks all out of proportion, with a drooping tail and overhangs that are too long. Why couldn't I see this 25 years ago?
Agreed, saw a 2.5Pi the other day, " drooping tail and overhangs that are too long" sums it up perfectly.
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"renault engine that was fitted in the 5"
For one minute I thought.......noooooooooooooooooooooo!
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I loved the Austins of the '50s that looked very similar, but were different in size. The A30, A40 (pre-Farina), A55, and one larger, I think. There are clusters of cars of every decade that look copied from each other. Certainly some British cars were scaled down versions of US models. I'm thinking '60s Vauxhalls, like the PA here. It's interesting to put a picture of a Mazda RX-3 coupe next to one of a Dodge Charger. Very similar lines, but one is half the size of the other.
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"clusters of cars of every decade that look copied from each "
other"
lots of badge engineering in the '60s also of course - Morris Oxford, Austin Cambridge, Riley 4/68, Wolseley 15/50 (?) were all virtually identical from the outside except for grills for instance. All had versions of the mini and 1100 (plus a Vanden Plas?)also
Was the "larger" Austin the A60?
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"The A30, A40 (pre-Farina), A55, and one larger, I think."
Pete M - For a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane - with no NSL - try a quick "google" on Austin A60/A90/A95/A105/A99/A110.
Jack
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I remember my mother saying, as she heard a friend of mine pull up outside on his FS1E, "Is that your brother home from work?"
No mum, he rides a 900 Ducati.
My dog, on the other hand, can recognise visitors as they pull into our road about 400yds away!
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I have two cockatiels and they recognise my car and the wife's car and go potty when we pull into the road.
When visitors pull on the drive we just get a single "chirrup" as if to warn us!
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Maybe this thread has something to do with the recognised deterioration of hearing and eyesight that afflicts the over 40's.
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Nah, the reason's simple: all the same inputs -- legislation, fuel economy, safety when stuffed into the computer, means they all end up looking the same and the manufacturers have run out of new shapes. The only thing different is the badges.
No more the days of the '59 Caddy convertible or the gorgeous '47 De Soto Firedome..........
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Thought I was good at recognising most cars until recently. Was looking at the bag of a new 'crossfire' thinking that didnt look that great till I realised was a new Bentley GT.
Have had a good few weeks for spotting though- new Hummer H3 last week (no danger of confusing that- apart from for a small house maybe) and Lambo Gallardo this morning.
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The Rover 2000 series had a distinctive shape you could recognise at a glance. I saw one recently and was impressed by how it still looked a fresh design, not really dated at all.
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I'm starting to struggle with small and medium sized hatches at a quick glance nowadays, as they are all morphing into mini MPV clones. Side profile views can be quite tricky, but the grilles, lights and bumpers usually just about give it away. All seem to have the high roof, long windscreen, bulgy headlights and near vertical tailgate. Yawn.... Ford have just changed the only one in the class that looked remotely different into something you'd lose in a moderately busy car park.
What I struggle with more is telling various models from one manufacturer apart, particularly from a frontal aspect? I often confuse the new Astra and Vectra particularly from the front (the new Astra is enormous!), the 206 and 306 Pugs, and I suspect if the photos are anything to go by, the new Focus and the current Mondeo will be similarly easy to mix up.
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It's the corporate front that does it. Viewed head on it can be impossible to tell one model from another in any manufacturers range. It's like being put down in any town in Britain and the shopfronts of the multiples look like the ones at home, you could never tell where you were.
We need a bit more Multipla-like individuality.
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that will be Multipla mark one . I was amazed to see the facelifted version on fifth gear yesterday, a design climbdown..
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Remember those 2 guys, on TV prog 'You Bet', a few years back - they were able to identify cars which had been scrapped, crushed & baled?
Wonder if it'll be harder to do, when all these clones, reach end of their life?
VB
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