we've lost so much in style and individuality in automobile design. Anymore, if one were to park 6 different manufacturer's cars together, of the same class, one would have to look at the badging to tell who made what.

Gone are the days of taking a bit of risk in auto style to lure in the buying public

There was a time when automotive design was heavily infuenced by current events, and nearly an art form.

But would you rather be lost in a sea of late 50s and early 60s monotonous cars or a sea of late 2000s and early 2010s cars?

My two cents:

Monkey see, monkey do school of automotive school of art & design is alive and well celebrating its 105th year. Previous to about 1910, standard auto design, was, there was no standard design. As various layout of controls, configuration of drivetrain, type of engine, auto bodies morphing from hundreds of years beast of burden powered coach design went out the window.

By 1925 most manufactures followed each others designs, and engineering making for standardization of the industry. There were some mass market exceptions such as steam powered vehicles, and Ford's Model T which Henry joined the herd in 1928 with the very conventional looking and driving revolutionary all metal body Model A. It has been a game of leap frog since 1886 when the first Benz hit the road.

So you guys unhappy with this week's design cues wait about six years something new looking will surface.

Cars have looked the same to me since the late 80s. Seriously. I haven't been able to quickly or easily discern makes since then. New cars all look either like insects or blobs of gum.

(I happen to agree with you that most modern cars look like they've been through some large animal's digestive tract. But that's a reasonable price to pay for the vastly improved safety, efficiency, durability, dependability, economy, and vastly reduced pollution, of today's cars versus yesterday's.)

I'd be willing to bet that if an automaker put thier minds to it, they could reproduce a ('41 Plymouth, for example), with exactly the same protections in it as modern cars, and the same powertrains as modern cars.

I strongly believe they don't want to risk it in order to keep the profit margin high for thier investors.

GM had an epic fail with the Camaro. (It was supposed to look like a modernized '69, but I don't see it.)

I drive a 1951 DeSoto. [...] Now everyone thinks its cool.

This means any polarizing or cutting edge credits are thrown to the wind. What was once avante garde is now a nice old car.

Yeah, but they only think that 'cuz it's true.