Shiny Baubles: Should cars be so highly polished?

Ever been forced to leave your car in a less than ideal location? Perhaps you were visiting a friend or relative in a ‘downmarket’ part of town? Maybe you arrived late to work to find the office car park full, or had to squeeze into an undersized parking bay at the supermarket? Or maybe, like so many people, your place of residence doesn’t offer the luxury of off-road parking?

If so, then you’ve probably felt many a pang of anxiety upon leaving one of your most valuable possessions entirely at the mercy of its surroundings, or else the frustration and disappointment of arriving back to find said possession in a worse state than you left it.

First-world problem maybe, but given that all but the most pampered of vehicles must brave public streets and car parks, bad weather, vandals and other people’s poor driving, it seems bizarre that the default (and virtually ubiquitous) automotive surface coating is glossy, highly polished and vulnerable paintwork, which not only amplifies every scratch, scuff and dent, but is so expensive and time consuming to repair.

How illogical that each of the inevitable knocks and scrapes a car accumulates should require an expensive trip to the body shop, wrangle with an insurer or (for leased vehicles) a hefty bill upon the conclusion of its contract.

Clearly it’s easy to complain about such things, but is there a better solution? Let’s take a look…

Unpainted Bumpers

This is perhaps an obvious suggestion, since they were commonplace until relatively recently. Nonetheless, locating a new car with unpainted bumpers today is a bit like going shopping for flared trousers, in that even if you succeed in finding any, they’re unlikely to benefit your image. A far cry from the 1970s when even the Porsche 911 sported beefy rubber bumpers, complete with impact absorbing ‘bellows’. Notwithstanding, the tough and chunky look has proved popular with other products, such as G-Shock watches, so why not cars too?

While Citroën has attempted to reintroduce bumpers with its C-Cactus and C3, it feels like there’s more potential here. Do bumpers always have to be black? How about using rubber or plastic body protection to create interesting graphics and contrast areas, in the way that sports footwear often does with chunky rubber soles? This could create a wealth of visual possibilities whilst making a virtue from toughness and practicality.

Textured Surfaces

Although unpainted bumpers can guard against car park dings and suchlike, they offer scant protection versus other potential damage, i.e. vandalism. Could textured bumper-like surfaces cover a whole car exterior? Toyota’s fascinating ME.WE concept of 2013 explored this idea, featuring polyurethane foam exterior panels in a wide variety of finishes, from ‘ripple’ effects, to three-dimensional geometric patterns and even one resembling a cheese grater.

Such rough, matt surfaces would surely absorb and/or disguise damage more effectively than smooth painted steel, whilst adding a further layer of personalisation to the vehicle.

The infamous velvet-wrapped Ferrari 599

On the subject of textured surfaces and personalisation, it’s also worth noting the trend for textured ‘wraps’ amongst aftermarket customisers. These, though often rather tasteless in their execution, do demonstrate an appetite for alternative surface coatings amongst some buyers. It would certainly be interesting to see a mainstream designer’s take on the trend.

Interchangeable Panels

Returning to the wonderfully quirky ME.WE, not only were its body panels made from impact-absorbing polyurethane, they were also easily removable and interchangeable, meaning that even more serious bodywork damage could be remedied relatively quickly and cheaply; should a panel damaged beyond repair, simply unclip it off and replace it with a new one.

Of course, Toyota didn’t dream up the idea of removable panels; the Smart Fortwo got there first, although it used plastic rather than foam. An ingenious solution for a vehicle intended for primarily urban environments, it’s unfortunate that Smart’s innovation hasn’t been more widely adopted. Hopefully its time will come again.

Sticking with plastic panels, Fiat’s Ecobasic concept, unveiled in 2000, featured bodywork made from dyed (rather than painted) plastic, meaning scratches and scuffs would no longer require expensive and time-consuming trips to a paint shop to put right, nor would there be any risk of corrosion to the panel underneath. Sadly, the idea never saw production, although it too certainly merits revisiting.

Patina

While there are many ways to absorb, disguise and repair body damage, might it be better to take the opposite approach by choosing instead to embrace the ageing and weathering process which all cars (and people for that matter) will inevitably face? It’s interesting to observe the ‘rat-rod’ style vehicles, popular in the custom car scene, where often mechanically-sound underpinnings are juxtapositioned against dilapidated bodywork.

While the look originated amongst hot-rodders, it’s no longer unusual to see other custom vehicles (such as air-cooled Volkswagens) wearing their patina with pride, with dents, tarnished paintwork and even corrosion signifying ‘authenticity’ and ‘telling a story’.

Conversely, this mindset is anathema to the mainstream car industry (being cynical, it’s not hard to see why) and perhaps mainstream car buyers too. However, since the ‘distressed look’ has gained traction in other areas, i.e. fashion (distressed denim) and household furnishings (shabby chic), is it unthinkable that it might work for cars too?

One concept car which did touch on this theme was Citroën’s 2006 C-Buggy, with its untreated metal body intended to oxidise over time, adding character as the process occurs. Building on this, how about other surface coatings deliberately designed to discolour and tarnish over time? Or maybe a material which when scratched revealed differently coloured layers underneath, dependent on how deep the cut?

Fantastic Peugeot Onyx concept’s raw copper will tarnish over time

Before concluding the article, it’s important to acknowledge that the above approaches won’t be for everyone – there will always be those for whom only glassy smooth, lustrous paintwork will ever do. Nor will many wish to return to the days when otherwise pretty sports cars, such as the MGB, were saddled with ugly, incongruous rubber bumpers as an afterthought.

Nevertheless, it’s also important that ‘everyday’ cars are designed for the realities of everyday life and everyday environments, as opposed to a marketing-led fantasy world of empty roads and secure double garages (however appealing this might be).

A seemingly ideal solution would be bodywork made from the self-healing materials currently under development (some manufacturers already claim their paint can self-heal small scratches), but until such substances become commonplace and effective, perhaps it’s time to rethink the shiny bauble mentality.

Our cars could do with toughening up a little…