thoughts on automotive design

Car design is often such a detail obsessed profession. The difference between the right or wrong design can be explained in mm often. Is that surface perfect, or better than perfect? The details also matter, but when the complex details of meeting worldwide homologation come into effect, designers have a tough task to keep their designs as they intended them. I was reminded of this recently, with a tiny fact previously unknown to me. Side repeaters have (or had) different angle/visibility requirements across even nearby regional markets. I live in Finland, and a Finnish road certificate tester pointed out the requirements being different here, to Germany. The same is true of other EU nations, in the past. So we quickly searched for an ideal example of this detail. The Mercedes-Benz W-124 otherwise more popularly known as the 200E.

This is how the designers intended the design to appear.

We can see them still for sale, and on the road (because old Mercedes last forever right?) here on a german sales site.

Here’s one from a UK second-hand sales website (AutoTrader).

So I highlighted the difference with that huge arrow. Growing up in the UK, I always wondered about the incongruity, and slightly out-of-place looking side marker design. My instinct was right. It’s added after production, for certain markets that require it. Finland included.