By Leftlane Staff
Monday, Mar 27th, 2006 @ 9:17 am

Columnist Don Gammill has an interesting look at retro styling, and where design could be headed. Gammill says retro styling is often a safer bet for automakers. “Were I an automotive design engineer, I would welcome the constraints of a retro design; knowing that the comparative freedom of a totally clean-sheet design could well result in something akin to the styling disaster we all know as the Pontiac Aztek.” But while retro styling may work now, it “can’t last forever,” says Gammill. “The classic car market is notorious for the bottom falling out with little or no warning when a particular hot genre is at its peak and prices are at their highest,” explains Gammill. “By the same token, it’s certainly possible that the popularity of retro styling among new car buyers could quickly reach its zenith and decline rapidly and without much warning.  Given the domestic auto industry’s relatively slow pace with regard to the introduction of new (or even updated) vehicle lines, this scenario would likely spell very bad news for the Big Three.”

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