I got to thinking about this ther other day...every GM brand, but Chevrolet cars seems to have a distinct exterior styling direction that harks back to it's heritage....seems Chevrolet just uses it's tradmark truck styling cures on it's cars and hopes no one notices...

Just for reference...here is GM's other bands cues...

Pontiac- cat eye headlights, split grill, wide stance, and smoked tailiights.

Buick- big chorme oval grill with bic electric shaver slats, Portals, swoopy rear, full with tailight with tag in the middle.

Cadillac- Vertical stack tail lights and headlights, egg crate grille

Saturn- Jewel Headlights, plactic body panels, grill less look

Here is where it gets iffy. Lately Chevy has been using the CBOD (Chrome Bar Of Death) on everything. To me that is a truck styling cue, not a car one. I am also against the fender bulges we are seeing run down from the SSR to the HHR and the Malibu (to an extent) because they are truck cues.

So what is Chevy Car Styling?

Here is what I think...
1. Round Tailights
2. Red bow-tie means performance, blue or yellow means regular
3. Oval Grill and Headlights Ala Chevelle, SS concept.
4. Shapped fenders like the SS concept and C3, not the crappy bulges on the Trailblazer, SSR, and HHR.

Some more modern touches I would add...
1. Name or Logo between the the round tailights, ala Impala, 4th Gen Camaro, and Impala.
2. I would like to see performance models get maybe a gill less look...like they used to do with the Lumina Z34
3. Tires big enough to fill the wheelwells...Chevy always either makes thier wheelwells to big, or tires to small.

 

YES!

However, some GM cars have wheelwells that are too small to fit very large (looking) wheels. Example: The CTS's wheels look way to small to me, but they are what, 17s? On that car it looks like you couldn't fit much larger wheels either.

Very high beltline + small wheelwells and wheels =

 

1) They pretty much are doing this across the line...

Vehicles with round or roundish themed taillights:
Corvette, Impala, Monte Carlo, Malibu Cavalier, Silverado, Trailblazer, possibly more.

Maybe the whole shape isn't roundish, but the inserts are... many takes on the circle.

I like this, but the downside of it is..... it seems just about EVERYONE is doing this now.


2) A year or two ago, Chevy announced ALL future bowties will be GOLD with a SILVER outline... as you can see with the restyle of Cavalier, and other releases. The red, blue, etc bowties left are just carryovers from non-visually changed cars, such as Monte Carlo...

They are supposedly doing this to tie all of Chevrolet together, and decided the truck color scheme to be best. I disagree, as I like the red bowtie outline for performance models...

 

How about this: NO standard identifying features!

Standard identifying features submerge each cars personality & heritage. Perfect for BMW, Mercedes, Cadillac, or even Pontiac since all have traditionally promoted the brand. But if Chevrolet is going to recall it's heritage by reaching back to historic names, what's the point of wasting it's equity by giving it look alike styling, which was never Chevrolet's way of doing business.

*Monte Carlo always had fender creases that accented it's wheelwells. The Lumina based Monte didn't. It looked good, but it had no individual personality.
*Malibu always had a look that blended into traffic, but was still good looking.
*Impala & Caprice both had eggcrate grilles, but each had a different texure. Throw in Belair, and it's distinctive styling was 4 taillights instead of 6.
*Corvette is identified by a wedge shape, fender bulges, and quad circular tailights.
* Camaro is identified as a long hood fastback, and has had wrap around tailights for 30 of 37 years.

Is it right to see Corvette's taillights or fender bulges or Camaro's open mouth grille, let alone the chrome bar on ALL Chevrolet's? Only if you want to water down each car's identity. Say what you want about J. Mays, but he has it right in recognizing each Ford model as a separate car, and designs it that way.

This may sound a little like a rant, but similar styling themes across the board at Chevrolet is alot like putting the SS badge on all models from micro sized Aveos to 2 1/2 ton AWD extended cab trucks.

All OTHER GM divisions have traditionally had similar styling themes. What traditionally has made Chevrolet fresh & exciting is that there was a showroom of different designs & none really looked like the other. Ford is taking advantage of this idea. Since Chevy invented it, it should too.

 

 

I don't think there should be many, maybe not even any cues at all, that identify all Chevrolet cars. There should be different/distinctive styling for each car, and as we all know, the bar needs to go.

 

I just read your post after I made mine Guion. I also obviously agree with you completely.

 

Chevy used to make some of the best looking cars on the road. None of them looked like each other, but GM didn't have any problems with selling them because they looked GOOD. Because they looked good, people noticed them.

Bunch of good looking cars that look different > Bunch of dull cars that look alike.

I can't stand it when automakers make all their cars look alike but in small, medium, and large sizes. Don't like the look? Shop Elsewhere is your only option.

 

to guionm's post
i'm with ya all the way on that one

 

How about a chrome bar across the front with the bowtie in the middle. On trucks they should use the bar to split the headlights, on cars use it under the headlights!

Interestingly from my time at GM Design, the brand studio's all had character studies placed on the walls. Everything you can think of is branded, steering wheel style and shape, dash arragement, seat style, wheels, trim and even the material used to make the front grille was different between the brands.

Any designer who worked there was very limited into what a vehicle could look like from a brand standpoint. Unless it was a new direction vehicle, like the Aurora, or the CTS. Then the brand characteristics from that vehicle would be put into the rest of the line.

 

I like the chrome bar.

Gold Bowties are cool too.

Round taillights... gotta think about that...

 

I agree with guionM too.
Lets just slap a bowtie on it and call it a chevy! Make every car original!

 

The chrome bar doesn't bother me that much, but the gold bowtie LOOKS TERRIBLE!!! It makes the car look cheap and tacky. Go back to the classic blue for regular cars, red for performance, and gold can stay with the trucks.

 

The wheels on the CTS look tiny because the car is really quite tall. Of course, every modern car is getting higher - more like SUVs. Still, most modern cars are getting bigger rims all the time.

The point still remains that GM likes to put undersized tires on most of its cars. GM's full-sized trucks still mostly use 16" rims when 18 and 20 inch wheels are the norm at Dodge. Even the new Malibu uses a skimpy tire size compared to most family sedans. If you don't believe me, check out an Altima V6.

 

I agree that the 16" wheels are too small on the CTS. At least 17"ers come with the Luxury Sport model, and 18"ers will be with CTS-V.

I think on a car the magnitude of the CTS, 17" wheels should be the smallest. On a car like Malibu, however, I feel that 15" or 16" is perfectly fine. The cost of replacing 17" tires is more than 16" tires, and it just adds cost to a car where price is very important... not like this is a top-of-the-line car-lover's car...