We Don't Dig the "Family Look"

Imagine that your behind is being pampered on the plush seats of your crore-plus Audi A8. At a signal, a bike comes up and knocks on your window asking "Boss, how much average do you get on the A4?". Whack! You feel like you have been slapped. You grumble, 'How dare the moron mistake this for something less than half it's worth?"

Premium/luxury cars owners want their cars to stand out, and rightfully so. Heck, it is worth more than what most of us would earn over a lifetime. But, the "Family Look" of the recent generation Audis and BMWs robs them of this thrill.

A "Family Look" is not when the Maruti Swift and Swift Dzire are similar till the rear doors. In fact, both are based on the same vehicle and the similar look saves on costs. The "Family Look" is when a common design given to models (across segments) of a brand such that the cars are instantly recognisable as being from that brand's stable.

Like, BMW's "Kidney Grille", Audi's "Bulgarian beard" or even VW's recent "Scirocco" look.

The "Family Look" is purely for visual recognition. No costs are saved since the dimensions of the grilles, bumpers and front lights vary across the models (since they usually belong to different segments).

Now, this is what greets a prospective Audi and BMW sedan buyer in the respective showrooms.

The Audi A4, A6 and A8 sedans

The BMW 3-series, 5-series and 7-series sedans

I would pity the guy if he was looking for the A8 or 7-series. As a matter of fact, he wouldn't even be able to identify the sedans without a salesman's help. The uncanny similarity with their smaller siblings actually acts as a deterrent for the potential A8/7-series buyer. On the other hand, the A4/3-series buyer would be ecstatic the their models look similar to the elder and more premium siblings.

While this design strategy could increase the sales at the lower end of the premium spectrum, it is probably being done at the cost of the high-end models. The potential A8/7-series buyer would most likely prefer the Mercedes S-Class or the even Jaguar XJ (which, by the way, looks like it is from a different planet than the Germans).

Would it surprise you if I said Mercedes-Benz sells more S-Class' here than the corresponding flagships from the other Germans?