[heydj]

Polo, Range Rover and Audi A6 are the best.

These days curvy cars with lot of bling & chrome I don't understand at all. Swift used to be so good looking but current one looks so cheap.

More than looks what happened to build quality of cars.

Give me classic Mustang and will never buy another car ever!

[rajshenoy]

Here are my pick

Hatch:
VW Polo, Maruti Zen and First gen Swift

Sedan:
First gen Fiesta, Octavia

UV:
Bolero and Safari

[drbones]

Interesting thread, I think Gypsy is a modern classic, and has timeless design. I never get bored with the looks of a gypsy. Best part of gypsy what i like the most is its gearbox, its the best what i had experienced on a 4x4 vehicle in india. This is my friends gypsy which he sold 4yrs back, and i still miss his gypsy. A gypsy looks best topless, but hard top has its own advantages and practicality, which cannot be denied.













My gypsy completed 8th year, and entered its 9th with 47521K on the odo, and still going very strong. Its my daily drive again from past 3 months after i sold my Honda amaze AT.

[bluevolt]

Quite surprising no one mentioned 3rd Gen City yet.

The 3rd Gen City was launched in 2008 and even after 11 years of its release, the arrow shot design is still looking fresh.

PS - We can have a voting option also attached to this thread.

[clevermax]

After going through 4 pages of this thread, I came to believe that the perception of timelessness of a design is just as also very subjective (just like we say Looks are subjective.). There are pictures ranging from Honda Jazz and ANHC (one extreme according to my way of seeing it) all the way upto singer designed Porsche 911 (the other extreme)!

In my opinion, very very few cars in the thread really deserve to be in here, portraying true timeless design.

[Vibhanshu]

Not just forgotten design, but forgotten car as well. Jaguar XJ220.
341 Kmph, 542HP, RWD, Twin Turbo 3.5L, - in 1992!!

27 Years later, still looks from Mars.

[anshumandun]

Originally Posted by GTO

The A6. Any generation of the A6. Actually, most Audis wear timeless clothes! Surely the classiest to come out of Germany:
Attachment 1883651

While I totally agree that Audi makes the most timeless designs, several bhpians have cited this very reason for Audi losing the market share in India. Related thread. (Whatever happened to Audi India? Why is the brand struggling since 2016?)

While some may perceive timeless designs as beautiful cohesive designs that will stand the test of time, others think of it as company's lazyness/no-future-vision for not keeping up with the new generation design language. So sticking with timless designs is a risky business. Kudos to Audi and VW for sticking with it.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Turbokick

Tata Sierra. Another masterclass Tata which used to turn more heads than Harrier does today. The reason is simple : it was the first luxury suv of India and looked the part too. It has to be noted that boxy shapes do age well compared to curves. But again just being boxy doesn't help! (Ask Renault about Logan) The combination of various elements do the trick. The glass area of Sierra had a special place in every SUV lover's heart. We do find some of the DNA elements of Sierra in Tata Xenon and that pickup looks great too!

Oh man, oh man! How could I forget the Tata Sierra? No 10-lakh SUV even today can touch it in terms of style .


Here's an ad I bet you haven't seen before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNzrnEdcB_A

Originally Posted by drbones

Interesting thread, I think Gypsy is a modern classic, and has timeless design.

A true legend & classic.

Originally Posted by bluevolt

Quite surprising no one mentioned 3rd Gen City yet.

Agreed, but not as much as the 1st-gen City. Still, I prefer the 2008 3rd-gen City's looks to the current 4th-gen.

Originally Posted by clevermax

After going through 4 pages of this thread, I came to believe that the perception of timelessness of a design is just as also very subjective (just like we say Looks are subjective.).

True. Looks are subjective, hence timelessness will be so too. Why don't you share your list?

[puneeth2]

Car design would be one of my favourite topics of conversation. I have a few min my mind.

• Most VW Group cars (especially Polo(not the global current gen), Octavia, A3 sportback)
• Fiat Punto
• Second gen Suzuki Swift (First gen Maruti Swift)
• Current gen Swift (barring all the Maruti 'accessories' and chrome bits)
• Ford Fiesta
• Most Porsche 911 models
• Fiat 500

I think simple designs tend to age better. Those cuts and creases might look great when the car is launched and new, but it won't age well.

I also have a contender for something that might be considered timeless. Checkout the 2019 Mazda 3. Although we don't get it in India, I've been smitten by the way it looks.
Look at it! It's gorgeous.




The C-pillar is a bit weird, but I can ignore that considering how great the rest of the car looks.

[.HEM]

I always felt the previous gen Corolla Altis had a character to itself!

I felt the new Altis did not make any justification to the beauty of its predecessor

[Aditya_Bhp]

Timeless, as per google, means 'does not age with time'.

Most of the iconic cars posted above have one thing in common, they have stuck to their basic design and hence there have been multiple generations with the same design.

The VW Polo is a good example of how a timeless design is. 10 years post its launch in India, I would still go and buy a Polo, ofcourse there are other good factors too. But then I will not buy a Nissan Micra now, it is also 10 years old and the design looks old.

The 1st gen Octavia and Lancer, these cars still look acceptable now, compared to a flashy previous generation Elantra or the Verna Fluidic.

Overall as per my observation, a timeless design should not be too flashy and stand out in the crowd. There are cars like Hyundai Eon and Renault Kwid, which sold well because of their striking design initially, but then people got bored of it, and stopped buying them.

Generally, Hyundai and some of the Japanese produce non timeless designs. Japanese cars such as last gen Honda Civic and CRV look good even now because they were futuristic back then.

Germans on the other hand, don't bend the designs much, they use a ruler for car designs. Straight lines, square lights, even the interiors of a Polo, there are straight lines everywhere.
The Jetta side profile, has minimum cuts and creases and the lines there are all straight.

Also most of these timeless cars have one thing in common, the chrome element. The less chrome there is on the car, the less flashy the cars will be, and hence more timeless. Germans hardly use chrome, if at all, it will be for the window line and badging. The current set of Honda cars such as the 4th gen previous gen City, have started looking slightly boring now because of its huge chrome grill.

[noopster]

Nice thread. A lot of the cars I grew up admiring are listed in this thread already. My 2006 Swift and 2011 Vento both qualify!

I think the Volvo estate is one of the most timeless designs on a car. Starting with the boxy '80s edition:


This one I think is from 2002. Breathtakingly beautiful:


The current V60 estate. If you ask me, it may not age as well as its ancestors!

[pramodkumar]

Mercedes W123



Mercedes 300 SEL(1968)



BMW e90



Volvo P1800


Lamborghini Miura



Detomaso Pantera



Shelby Cobra



There are a lot more in the supercar/Hypercar territory

Pramod

[alisajid]

I was driving with my own thoughts in a dry super hot desert on the way from Dammam to Riyadh and then something like this passed by. Thoughts vanished there was a flutter in my heart and a smile returned. The super chilled Ac the power of v8 and the velvety ride, this surely is timeless.Chevrolet Caprice Classic



I was looking to cross way walking with my own worries and something like this passed in freemont. I felt a real car passed by, one thing to note was it was just not me all passerbys were locked on it, Buick reviera - the boat sailing on land.





I though of buying a car, went to a dealer to check different options and then I saw this, an Egyptian salesman trying to sell it to me, what does he know that it was love on four wheels. By the way the interior felt like a cock pit. It was way out of my budget then.

Honorable mention of some lovely beauties.

1.Honda Civic (current canada model)
2.Range rover line up
3.w123, and ofcourse w124

Maybe iam from another era but I do feel raising the height of cars has made them not so elegant except the range rover and to an extent land rover products.

I think hyundai, maruti, mahindra(except Thar) simply get inspired by some other original designs, mahindra xuv 300 looks from rover stable. Swift current or older ones from mini stable. Perhaps that is why only original designs remain timeless and inspired designs start looking dated quickly.

[arjab]

Our very own egg-shaped Bug! Clean, minimalist styling with classic wheel-at-each-corner stance. Absence of fuel filler flap and hatch hinges only add to the cohesiveness of the overall look.
A future classic.