Ford Retiree J Mays Says German Cars Don't Look German, Reserves Particular Criticism For One Automaker
“I think the British do a pretty good job — they seem to produce cars that look British,” Ford Motor Company’s retired design chief J Mays says.
Given that Minis essentially look the same as they’ve always looked, Mays makes a good case.
But Mays tells Automotive News he’s “a big stickler for cultural relevance.” And while the man whose influence can still be seen across much of the Ford lineup — he retired three years ago — credits the Brits for bringing culture to car design, he gives no such credit to the Germans.
“If you’re going to go to work in Italy, France, or Germany, you really want to make sure the brand represents the mindset of the culture it comes from,” Mays says. In Germany, Mays makes clear, Porsche is the lone exception, the one German automaker that builds German cars that look German.
Audi and BMW? Needs improvement.
Mercedes-Benz?
“I could not tell you what Mercedes is doing,” Mays says, “but it’s not German.”
It’s not a compliment. J Mays, who says he left Audi in 1994 because he felt as though the next few generations of Audi products already had their design largely cemented, now says Mercedes-Benz needs “a quieter design language” and more continuity between generations and throughout its lineup.
Valid or not, Mays’ criticism of Mercedes-Benz design is not matched by degradation in Mercedes-Benz’s global appeal. Mercedes-Benz reported record sales of nearly 2.1 million units in 2016, besting BMW by some 81,000 units over the course of the calendar year. Mercedes-Benz outsold BMW last year for the first time since 2005 and topped premium brand leaderboards in key markets such as Germany and the United States.
Consumers and designers, of course, are often at odds. What Mays sees as distinctly un-German may, in the eyes of American luxury car buyers, be perceived as very much in keeping with their expectations for a Mercedes-Benz. The staid conservatism is long gone, naturally, and even the hood-topping ornament is fast losing its influence. But it’s difficult to see any lack of cohesion between the C-Class, E-Class, and S-Class, Mercedes-Benz’s three core sedans that essentially appear to be Benz sedan design copies in S, M, and L. ( And XL.)
Mays isn’t exclusively critical. Due to Peter Schreyer’s influence, Mays says Hyundai and Kia are “designing some of the best cars in the world.” Nor is Mays the only outside critic of Mercedes-Benz. Last month, BMW executive Henrik von Kuenheim ripped the Mercedes-Benz X-Class to shreds.
[Images: BMW, Audi, Daimler AG, Porsche]
Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars and Instagram.
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- Dale Had one. The only car I ever bought because of a review in a guitar magazine.Sure was roomy inside for such a small car. Super practical. Not much fun to drive even with a manual.Sent it to college with my stepson where it got sideswiped. Later he traded it in on an F-150.
- Bd2 Hyundai's designs are indeed among the most innovative and their battery technologies should allow class leading fuel consumption. Smartstream hybrids are extremely reliable.
- 28-Cars-Later So now H/K motors will last longer in between scheduled replacements. Wow, actual progress.
- AZFelix I have always wondered if the poor ability of Tesla cars in detecting children was due to their using camera only systems. Optical geometry explains that a child half the height of an adult seems to have the same height as that same adult standing twice as far away from the viewer.
- 28-Cars-Later Actually pretty appealing (apparently I'm doing this now). On a similar note, a friend of mine had a difficult situation with a tenant which led to eviction and apparently the tenant has abandoned a 2007 Jag S-Type with unknown miles in the garage so he called me for an opinion. Before checking I said $2-3 max, low and behold I'm just that good with the 3.0L clocking in at $2,3 on average (oddly the 4.2 V8 version only pulls $2,9ish) and S-Types after MY05 are supposedly decent.
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"Given that Minis essentially look the same as they’ve always looked, Mays makes a good case." The 2001 New Mini was designed for BMW's Mini division by American Frank Stephenson, who has also worked at FIAT, Alfa Romeo, Ford, Ferrari and McLaren. The new Mini is like a current Porsche 911 in that if you park one next to a decades-old original, it's clear that everything about them has changed. Yet somehow the impression you're left with is that they're very similar. It takes a particular genius to make that work, and Stephenson is certainly a genius in his field.
I agree with those who say Audi (VW) has a very Teutonic look: simplicity of line, understated and elegant. The thing is, how far can you take that?