Comment by throwaway0a5e
3 years ago
> And why is it the current trend in automotive (specifically, truck) fashion?
Because European pedestrian safety requirements all but demand big bulbous front ends, it's uneconomical to design that much of a car or SUV twice and a fugly grill is the solution OEMs have deemed most effective at prettying that up. The trucks are all but forced to copy the same rough shapes because "brand identity" and "design language".
Aggressive styling and goes over the decades. You can make these cars look however you want with a little bit of black plastic and fake chrome with no impact on safety. The actual underlying shapes and dimensions that you are muddying the waters by conflating with aggression are driven by technical requirements.
This doesn’t follow at all: the American pickup truck industry isn’t dominated (or even particularly influenced) by European demand. They’re a tiny and shrinking part of the EU market[1] with plenty of domestic competition (with markedly less aggressive designs).
American pickup truck design is overwhelmingly influenced by American market trends, since that’s where they’re being sold. And the domestic market likes aggressive designs, and does not particularly care about pedestrian safety[2].
[1]: https://www.autonews.com/sales/pickups-europeans-say-thanks-...
[2]: https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/the-hidden-danger...
> the American pickup truck industry isn’t dominated (or even particularly influenced) by European demand
It is, however, influenced by European regulations to the extent that American pickup makers desire a) to sell in the European market at all and b) desire to minimise re-engineering costs.
"To the extent" being operative. It'd be good to have numbers substantiating this, because all signals indicate that US truck manufacturers have very little presence in European markets.
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