• ramble81@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    Shapes has a bit more logical of a reason. Pedestrian impact standards basically dictated that the nose of a car be “flatter” so you don’t chop a persons legs off at the shins. Sadly it leads to a very common style since there’s only so much you can do with that. Couple it with the SUV craze and everything starts looking similar.

    • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      also leads to the terrible wall-of-death tall flat front that everything has now with horrible visibility, with the bonus that the LED headlights will blind the person you’re about to run over so they can’t even try to evade you

      pedestrian safety standards have become a joke

      • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        Wait what does that have to do with led headlights? That’s always a problem if you have

        1. Too bright headlights
        2. The lights are aligned too high
        3. Aftermarket light bulbs that are not meant for the headlights

        Led headlights themselves are just lot better than the older tech since their lifetime is massively longer and they’re rather cheap

    • MY_ANUS_IS_BLEEDING@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      It’s to do with the drag coefficient too. There’s only so many ways you can bend the bodywork of a car around its contents in an aerodynamic way.

      • untorquer@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I’m not disagreeing but it’s annoying when a 20+yr old box shaped car gets the same economy and looks 100x better.

        I think some of that is still marketing. You can pack a higher power engine in a more aerodynamic package with the same economy, the extra 5-10Hp will make it sell better. Also helps to standardize assembly lines across models.

        There’s always the matter of following a trend and appeasing the business people’s expectations to consider.

        • Alk@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          Especially with electric cars becoming more popular. It’s cheaper than ever to go a certain distance. Now that I can use cheap power, give me less efficient and more interesting designs. (yes range is affected too, but it is negligibly cheap to recharge)