There are literally a million things you need to pay attention to when designing a car. Increasingly important today are a distinct identity and an individual character. These are essential to generate conversations around the car. One especially effective way to inject character and identity into a design is legacy, a family lineage built up over years, or multiple generations. Do this, and you have an ever-increasing pool of would-be customers who are aware of your brand.
German carmakers have been leveraging this for decades. The Porsche 911, the VW Golf, the Mercedes S-Class/E-Class/G-Class, the success of one generation has built the next. They’ve even successfully done this with companies they’ve taken over; think Mini, the Rolls-Royce Phantom, and even Bentley’s Continental. It’s a strategy that works time after time.
What’s important, however, is that you need to walk the talk; design in elements the general public can relate to. But while retro designs have become something of a trend in the car industry, just going back to the first design or the original isn’t enough. Problem is, while retro can be charming, it rarely feels progressive. What you don’t want is a museum exhibit. You want something of the future, but with a profile that references the past. Take the Volkswagen Golf or the Polo. Each new model builds on the earlier one, carrying forward the essence, but also importantly moving the design forward.
This is exactly what Tata Motors has achieved with the new Sierra. The original Sierra was bold, stylish and ahead of its time. But bringing it back today was always going to be tricky. Go too retro, and you risk producing a caricature. Go too modern, and you lose the connection. Instead, the new Sierra looks like it has lived through three or four generations of development, each one nudging the ‘look’ forward.
This approach matters because car design can’t just be about nostalgia. It’s about evolution, and evolution that tells a story. In fact, often it’s the story – or the stories – that make a car and not the other way around. It’s all about impressions carried, familiarity, identity, and character. Give your products these, and they can propel themselves, start conversations, play the game; and win.
The new Sierra shows Tata Motors understands this. It demonstrates maturity in design thinking, a confidence to reinterpret rather than replicate. Progress, not pastiche. So you can create cars that are both memorable and modern.
Still, would you have liked rectangular LEDs in the shape of the original Sierra headlights up front? Or would that have been a step too far?
Uday Singh
Hormazd Sorabjee
Viraaj Bhatnagar
