What Are the Worst Current Automotive Design Trends?

As we head into the mid-2020’s, I thought all cars would look something like the from 2012’s Total Recall — and be, you know, cooler. Instead, today’s designers are trying to tackle the latest trends while implementing rapidly advancing technology and safety standards, and let’s be honest, they don’t always stick the landing. These designs sometimes try way too hard to do something different — and some just make no sense. And then there are the designs that straight up deceive, like exhaust outlets.

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Years ago, exhaust outlets were nothing more than a way to discharge exhaust gases — something different and more pleasing to the eye than just your everyday tailpipe. You’d see this a lot with performance models. Other vehicles tried to do away with exhaust outlets to sort of help clean up a vehicle’s design, like the E65 BMW 7 Series. But for the most part, in the last 15 to 20 years, most vehicles on the market have integrated the exhaust into the vehicle’s design.

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