Bad car design in the name of safety has become an epidemic

Something that has bothered me for a number of years and that I haven’t shared, has been the placement of wing mirrors on cars. Ok stay with me, honestly I haven’t gone completely mad (well yet) as I am sure there must be other people out there who have noticed the same issue.

It has all started, as most bad decisions do, out of Europe where the French car manufactures jumped on the visibility bandwagon and decided that actually the placement of car wing mirrors on the a-pillar (the bit next to the windscreen) was mauvais and actually it looked much better placed half way up the door. I could of course, being a petrol head, deal with this as there isn’t any French car I care about or desire, and if they wanted to make their ugly cars even uglier they were welcome to it.

The problem is though that now more car manufacturers are starting to include this design in their new models and frankly they look awful. Even my beloved VW group has started putting wing mirrors on the doors of cars where for years they fitted just fine on the a-pillar. And now they control Porsche they have just ruined their 911 by adopting the same stupid idea. As you can tell I take this quite serious, so much so that I would never consider buying a car that I think has been ruined by such a design flaw.

But wait I hear you cry, I used to own an Audi TT and that car has always proudly had its mirrors on the doors. Well yes you are correct but my argument with this is that the car was designed like this from the very beginning and as such is part of its own unique design language. In the same way that BMWs have the kick on their rear windows and Peugeots look ugly. So the TT is purely about design rather than visibility and on the visibility front I don’t think there is ever a problem because my replacement car, a Range Rover Evoque, has the largest wing mirrors known to man and they sit proudly on the a-pillar and not on the door.

So what is to be done? Well I suggest a boycott of all cars that have this ridiculous design change, in the name of safety, that actually just makes it look crap. Honestly if you haven’t noticed it before take a look next time you are out and about, it is honestly an epidemic. Hopefully the british car designers won’t catch on.