For the longest time I've admired Audi's handsome styling, truly nice looking cars. Unmistakably German. But I knew that one day the following generation would lose a little bit of that Audi uniqueness until finally they'd be lumped in with all the other "Amorphous Blobs" (as Jeremy Clarkson describes contemporary automotive styling).
I think that day has arrived - I was behind a new Audi A5 in traffic the other day and it looked like any other Japanese or Korean import. The rear end was such a let down. The rest of the car wasn't much better, nothing about it said "Audi". Clarkson is right, there's something missing in today's cars - not just Audi styling - that used to excite so many automotive enthusiasts.
I caught a YouTube video the other day (can't remember who it was...) and I think he made a very good point. All of the founders of cars we lusted after are gone and have been replaced by committee. Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche, Enzo Ferrari, Ferruccio Lamborghini, William Lyons (I'm going to include Soichiro Honda because of his pioneering spirit and first Japanese entry into F1). There are other I'm missing. There's no one founding individual at the helm saying "
This is my company and we're straying from my original intent".
Of course part of the reason too is that the market has changed so much with the demand for a "do everything" single vehicle in the form of an SUV. Other than impressive performance numbers cars today are a disappointment.