Trends come and go in just about every industry, and the automotive industry is no exception. Sometimes, certain things become cool to do, and before you know it, every automaker is doing them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with following a trend, but sometimes, it gets out of control.
For every good trend in the automotive industry, there are also quite a few bad ones. Trends that we're not sure why they're being followed, because they're either strange or just straight up useless. The one good thing is that there seems to be a balance between good trends, and trends that need to stop.
10 Needs To Stop - Ridiculous Trim Level Names
At their core, trim levels are a great idea. They let the consumer choose between a certain level of equipment in the car they're buying, depending on what they need or how much they have/want to spend.
The problem comes when automakers give trim levels names that genuinely make no sense. The two cars we've used here, the Kia Soul and BMW i3, are prime examples. The top trim level of the previous generation Soul was called !. Yes, just an exclamation mark. As for the i3, well, how does a BMW i3 Giga World sound?
9 We Love - Rear Light Bars
This one seems to divide opinion sometimes, but most people agree that light bars look really cool. They give the rear end of the car a ton of presence and enhance the styling quite a bit.
What's more, rear light bars are also extremely distinctive, and it's definitely possible to recognize a car that you're following simply based on its taillight design. The Audi A8 takes a more traditional approach to the light bar, unlike the new Kia K5 with its rather excellent dotted dash line taillights.
8 Needs To Stop - Upside Down Headlights
On the topic of lighting, this is a trend that we're seriously struggling to understand. It involves placing the vehicle's headlights a lot lower than they would normally be, and then any additional driving lights take their place higher up on the front end.
While it's not a bad idea, in theory, it just hasn't worked out in most cases where it's been done. The Hyundai Venue is a pretty big offender in the US market, and foreign markets don't have it any better with the now-discontinued Citroën C4 Cactus.
7 We Love - 360° Cameras
Cars these days are getting quite massive. As an example, the new BMW 3-Series is bigger than the E39 5-Series. One of the ways automakers are solving this problem is by installing incredibly complex camera systems in their cars as a way to aid parking.
One of the best examples of this is BMW, whose innovative 360° camera system doesn't just include a 3D view of the car as if you were standing outside, but you can pan and look around it using gesture controls. It's a great idea and it makes parking a whole lot easier.
6 Needs To Stop - Destroying Famous Model Names
Every car maker has a model that's loved by pretty much everyone out there. In order to capitalize on the hype surrounding the name, they have a tendency to bring them back and apply them to new models. The problem comes when you see what those models are. Chevrolet recently brought back the Blazer name... for yet another compact crossover. Just when you thought the Equinox and Traverse were enough.
Arguably, however, Mitsubishi's example is far, far worse. They used the name of one of their sports cars on a coupe-like midsize crossover, a decision that absolutely no one was fond of. There are tons of other examples of this in the automotive industry, and it doesn't look to stop anytime soon, with Audi considering bringing back the TT as a four-door electric crossover.
5 We Love - Comprehensive Digital Dashboards
An increasing amount of automakers are forgoing analog or even partially analog instrument clusters in favor of full screens. With the amount of technology in newer cars, this is a good idea. Not to mention, these screens are fantastic.
A lot of them not only look really nice, but they allow total control over just about anything, and those controls can be really intuitive. A prime example is recent Mercedes-Benz models, where you can use a touchpad on the steering wheel to navigate around the so-called MBUX system.
4 Needs To Stop - Comically Huge Grilles
A grille can sometimes be one of the most distinctive parts of a car's design. As is the case with brands such as BMW and Ford, the grille is an integral part of the car's design, and it allows for the car to be instantly recognized as being a car from that brand.
However, recent automotive grille sizes and designs are absolutely out of control. The new BMW 4 Series was pretty much universally ridiculed for having giant, vertical kidney grilles that just didn't work with the rest of the design. The Toyota Avalon, meanwhile, looks like it will devour you entirely if you just stand in front of it.
3 We Love - Badass Wheel Designs
Wheels can sometimes make or break the way a car look, and while there have been some missed designs, the automotive industry doesn't fail to impress with some recent efforts.
Two particular examples are the Polestar 1 and the AMG Monoblock wheels. The Polestar's wheels not only look cool, but they're very modern and even futuristic, suiting the car perfectly. AMG's monoblocks, meanwhile, are a tribute to the earliest AMG models from 20 or 30 years ago, and they are just brilliant.
2 Needs To Stop - Far Too Many Crossovers
Let's get the obvious out of the way. Yes, everyone wants crossovers, and yes, they make economic sense in the current industry climate. Where the problem comes is when an automotive manufacturer takes it too far.
The Hyundai Kona, for example, is Hyundai's subcompact crossover. But they recently launched the Venue, which is... also a subcompact crossover. Toyota has the C-HR in the subcompact segment, but they just recently launched the Yaris Cross which is... also a subcompact. Not to mention also, Toyota has the Corolla Cross, which is like a RAV4 only a tiny bit smaller.
1 We Love - Sports Cars Are Slowly Returning
For every thousandth crossover that an automaker launches, there's also a glimmer of hope that sports cars might return. The newly revealed Nissan Z Proto is the latest example. A rear-wheel-drive, manual transmission sports car with retro styling? Sign us up?
The Z is not the only one either. Last year we got the new Supra, which had to be one of the most hyped automotive launches in years. There's also the new BRZ and 86 coming soon with turbocharged engines, and overseas, there's the Alpine A110.
Some of these trends are quite good, and we hope they will remain in the automotive industry for the next couple of years. The others, meanwhile, seriously need to go out of fashion, as more and more people are starting to get sick of them.