Do all new cars look the same?
 

Yes. Same styling cues like a high beltline that slopes upward as it moves from the front to the rear of the car.

And that's a mighty fine looking Impreza :lol:

In a sense yes, but also no.

Look at the 50's and the 60's...

Yes. The other day I was leaving for work and ended up pulling on the door handle of the boss' F430 spider before I realized it wasn't my xB. :lol:

There is definitely a trickle-down effect for car styling, which starts at the high-end auto makers, and is used as inspiration for more reasonably-priced priced (think Mercedes and Hyundai). Plus there is a lot of regulation that affects what the car looks like, eg headlight height and crumple zones.

Tbh, I'm alright with people confusing my FRS for an Aston martin at first glance haha

i do have to admit that the cost of a car is slowly being masked by styling but to me that is a good thing. it seems to me that the 15-30k cars are emulation cues from more expensive cars and not vice versa.

Some things are the same for engineering reasons not just styling.

High beltline = better passenger protection.

Blunted rear end with transom window = lower drag

:slap: Time for an appointment with the optometrist.

My brother is an optometrist and I haven't had an eye exam since around 1986!
That way, if my wife sees me making a play for another woman at a party I can say I thought it was her :lol:

co efficient of drag..

Exactly what I was about to mention. Modern crash-safety standards have a big effect as well. I remember reading an article a while ago about the second-gen Mini. They went to great lengths to keep the styling consistent, even though they were required to raise the belt-line significantly.

There's actually several ways to do it; boat tailing, kammback, boxfish, etc. Isn't much that can be done with the front end anymore. Most of that is dictated by crash regs and more importantly the layout(FWD, RWD). But there's plenty of ways to improve the rear.