Just the other day, I found myself in a weird situation. I was driving my mom’s car, and it was one of the most boring drives of my life. 

In my old, beat-up Chevy Aveo, I feel everything. I feel every bump, every pump of the gas or brake pedal. Over time this has become fun to me, I feel like I’m in total control of the car. 

On the opposite end, my mom drives a new Tiguan. The car is nice, don’t get me wrong, but it’s so unimaginably dissociating. Rather than driving, it feels like I’m 10 again, playing Forza on the couch, and I truly think this is heartbreaking.

The American passion for cars, once driven by a desire to build the best-looking, most useful and unique car, has become who can make the best mom SUV. 

Every new car nowadays is an SUV. All the same, all the soul sucked out of the designs.

Old cars had character; people were experimental. Look at the Plymouth Fury for example, with distinct tail fins that made it look like the Batmobile. The Pontiac Firebird is another example of this, a sporty car with a unique convertible T-top design. Even an old station wagon, plated with wood panels that gave it that family-friendly, outdoorsy, uniquely 70s vibe.

BYD Dolphin Surf electric cars are parked in front of the venue where BYD carmaker holds a vehicle presentation event in Berlin, Germany May 21, 2025
(REUTERS/via SNO Sites/Annegret Hilse)Regardless, every car you saw was interesting and different. People cared about what they drove and knew how to work on them. 

Mechanics were still a thing, but you saw a lot more people working on their cars, even adding mods — think low-riders or custom paint jobs.

What we see today with the homogeneous pool of cars is a mix of a few issues. 

One is that people don’t care like they used to. They have no pride in what they drive — so why should manufacturers make something worth caring about?

Another issue is all the restrictions on cars nowadays. 

Ever heard someone say, “They don’t make them like they used to?” That’s because all the new tech and emissions restrictions on cars is making them so overcomplicated that they break quickly, and once they do, they are nearly impossible to fix.

Another result of these emission restrictions is things like the all-new Electric Vehicle (EV) Dodge Charger. Fully loaded with speakers in the back to make a mock-rev sound. Who wants that? Where is the character?

EV restrictions are beneficial, but shouldn’t take away the ability to build cars that are gas-powered. Manufacturers shouldn’t be scared into building undesirable cars in the name of the climate when car emissions are only a fraction of total emissions.

This shift in vehicles is a reflection of the world in a way. Every building used to be a sort of work of art. 

They were carefully designed, you could walk by and tell the building apart from the rest, you could see the passion put in by the designers. But now, you look around and, much like the vehicle pool, houses and buildings all look the same.

Passion and care need to be brought back to the design process for vehicles. People shouldn’t settle for a car they don’t truly love — and they should let the manufacturers know.

Cars are a reflection of the individual in many ways, and if all cars are the same, doesn’t that make us all the same as well?