Infiniti Q50 vs. Mazda 6??

Odd discussion.

I don't see the similarity at all personally--and what I mean by this is that I don't see anything significant about the Mazda6 that looks similar enough to the Q50 to where a comparison makes any sort of sense or relevance.

I think the new Mazda6 looks more like the old Mazdas the same way the Q50 looks like the old Infiniti Gs.

With that said, I think the only similarity that these cars have on any level whatsoever is the rear bumper and trunk lines---which again, isn't something so unique that it makes them mutually exclusive.

You guys talk about inspired design or offsprings or rip-offs---you guys are just making connections and correlations that really aren't anything new at all. Go back to any point of time in the automotive industry and you'll find that the cars in those time periods always shared something. It wasn't about stealing designs or anything--it was about keeping up with the demand and the interests of the consumers and the following trends of the time. What works and doesn't work all stems from design queues from what's been done before and making very small tweaks along the way. It's just how it's always been.

They share some similar visual cues. Its just indicative of the entire industry, everyone is stealing from everyone else. the American Big 3 are even 'stealing' from their own history. Retro everything much??









Mercedes is stealing from themselves..



It's all getting pretty tedious...

NissLover said:

In actuality, no one is stealing from anyone. Its all by chance and trends leading designers. The Q50 and Mazda6 were in development at about the same time so there's no way either manufacturer could know what the other car looked like. And the same could be said about the concept cars.

The whole thing that pisses me off is that Infiniti is always, recently, labeled the copycat. Especially the Sonata comparison of the interior and the rear-end. Its a good looking car, but why in **** would Infiniti copy a Hyundai!!?!?! they stuck to their design langauge that Hyundai impeded on. And although they look 20x better now, but Hyundai/Kia has been known for taking inspiration from here nd there and the interior was DEF ripped from an Infiniti. The rear end I'll chalk up to chance.

Click to expand...

I know what you're trying to say, but you're kinda contradicting your own statement(s).

To me, honestly--again, I don't think it's about stealing or ripping off or anything of that nature. It's not tedious at all. You can't look at it that way. We, as consumers, have emotional and individual responses to the way we look at cars. Those responses are based on what we think a car should look like and that's based on what we've already seen and what we're used to.

Designers know this and are well aware of that fact so they have a strong incentive to not take dramatic and unconventional choices when it comes to designs. It doesn't make sense to tear things down from scratch in any other situation, so when it comes to designing a car, you have to build upon what's been done before in order to create something bigger and better. It's just how things are done universally. Some companies have the luxury to take larger chances than others but they all follow the same basic principles. Since the automotive industry is incredibly deep, competitive, interconnected, and lucrative, this crossover in design language is nothing new.

I think there's also the volume and depth of the automotive market to take into account--after so many decades of engineering and trial and error, I think cars are and will eventually all start to look the same as we achieve a better sense of cost reduction, safety, visual aesthetics, aerodynamics, material stability and weight, and space utilization--That stylistic gap between cars is becoming a little bit smaller over time because the competition is becoming more efficient and sophisticated. Global standardization/centralization in automobiles is probably just a couple decades away (mainly all car companies being owned and manufactured by one company).

Eventually you'll notice that within most segments today, there's only so much you can do to a car and so many possible permutations in patterns and designs before you start seeing similarities in any and every car you see. It makes the whole thought of "ripping off" and "stealing" a misnomer at the very least.