Gadgetory

now there was a time when you could always tell what kind of car you were looking at that's a Mustang that's a Cadillac that's a mess but you probably have noticed cars look an awful lot alike these days the realities of Technology and engineering are very much part of the reason I'm Brian Cooley with the top five reasons cars tend to look pretty much alike number five bunker windows driven a Camaro lately you probably felt like a tank commander and it's not the only car with windows like slits short greenhouses our current fashion but also front ends have become higher for pedestrian safety as a result the rest of the car's body has to follow to look right but you can't just raise the roof as well or you end up with a clown car so it stays low while the cars Beltline comes up and there's not much room left for glass in between take your claustrophobia meds number four fat faces so many cars have huge deep front ends now even sporty big dollar cars that could afford the best plastic surgeon again thank pedestrian impact standards a fatter flatter bumper and face tends to not lop off the pedestrian at the knees and the higher hood that follows that allows a little bit of space under it so there's a cushion between the hood and the engine protecting the pedestrians head it's all good news in the crosswalk not so much in the showroom number three high belt lines drive with your arm out the window today and you'll blow out your rotator cuff the sill or belt line as it's known is typically very high these days also as a consequence of the hood being higher again thank the pedestrian you can't raise the hood without raising what follows to the rear so good buy a rakish arm out driving it also doesn't hurt that belt lines convey a sense of side impact resistance to the shoppers eye whether it's true or not number two thick horsey pillars you may as well just face forward these days there's almost no visibility anywhere else out of some cars like where's the periscope for this Acura ZDX one big reason for the massive pillar trend are aggressive federal rollover crash standards and those pillars often contain airbags now as well so big pillars will let you walk away from a lot of crashes but might keep you from seeing you're about to get into one the number one way that cars all seem to look alike these days is big butts almost every car looks like mrs. Doubtfire with a big old frumpy room that's largely for aerodynamic reasons in pursuit of increasingly critical MPG now a car that gets hired toward the rear like a wedge generally creates less drag and uses less fuel but walk around the back of a Chrysler 300 and you're not sure if you found the rear of the car or the front of the Hoover Dam for more car tech top fives like this and to watch the best show for the modern driver visit CNET on cars.com i'm brian coulis thanks for watching