Walk around any city today and try to tell the cars apart. Go ahead, just try. They’re all smooth, rounded, anonymous blobs, shaped by the same wind tunnels and the same cost spreadsheets.
But something is happening in Europe. The legacy automakers Renault and Citroën are rolling out more designs modeled after their most iconic silhouettes. At this month’s Paris Motor Show, Citroën unveiled an electric 2 CV Concept and a little delivery van to go with it, while Renault showed a reborn R8 Gordini and an E-Space concept to join the retro R5, R4, and Twingo it already sells.
People are lusting after these cars, both Gen Xers—who grew up when those cars were in their golden era—and some in the youngest generations, who are fed up with the blandness of modern car design and want new aesthetics. For many, these are cars with history. Cars with a magnetic design personality. They feel loaded with some kind of design love, if you’ll excuse my schmaltz.
Adrian Clarke, a car designer turned critic who writes about design for The Autopian and Hagerty, the classic auto insurer, sees the revivals as a weapon that only old automakers (OEMs, in industry jargon) get to use. “Legacy OEMs now know that heritage and their brands are very powerful in creating emotional appeal for customers—and it’s something that newer brands like Tesla or Rivian and especially the Chinese OEMs don’t have,” he says. “Heritage and brand DNA become a key differentiator.”
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