Some automakers’ design choices are never mimicked, while others become so trendy every other brand rushes to follow suit.
Be it massive touchscreens, capacitive ‘switchgear’ or designs that came straight out of I, Robot, there’s always something ‘new’ that feels like we’ve seen it before.
Here are some of the automotive trends the CarExpert team would like to leave in 2025.
Alborz Fallah: Stop putting the Tesla-like car display in the instrument cluster
I want to see car companies stop putting the Tesla-esque assistance display in the instrument cluster.
I don’t need to have a computer tell me what cars are around me, I have eyes. Please use that central location to show the damn speed, because in Australia, exceeding the speed limit by 5km/h is a crime against humanity.
Paul Maric: Piano black trim
I think I say this each year – but piano black.
It needs to die inside cars, but it also needs to die outside cars (I can’t believe I’m saying that).
The material inside a cabin that scratches easily and gets covered in marks without even touching it is now being fitted to the outside of cars – it genuinely beggars belief.
James Wong: Touchscreen-based car controls
Last year I said aversion to change is something I was sick of – but this year I need one of the recent industry trends to be nipped right in the you-know-what.
Banishing controls that were once physical buttons on the steering wheel or dashboard needs to stop, yesterday.
A vivid memory from this year was being in a rush after picking up a Jaecoo J7 and taking an entire 20-minute trip back to the office to realise you need to dive through several menus to find the mirror adjustment controls – WHY?!
Quick access controls like heated/cooled seat features and air recirculation shouldn’t ever be hidden out of sight either, or the distance setting for the adaptive cruise control (cough, BMW).
It’s just needlessly distracting and annoying – and those are just a handful of examples. Please stop.
William Stopford: Switchgear minimalism
I’m not calling for car interiors to once again look like, say, Opels from the 2010s with seas of buttons.
But moving everything to a touchscreen is a recipe for distraction and potentially disaster, and it just doesn’t feel natural using a voice assistant for something that usually required a simple twist of a knob – particularly when voice assistants can often be dopey.
The Chinese brands are the worst offenders. They appear to have collectively looked at Tesla as the model to follow, and have enthusiastically made their screens larger and the number of buttons in their interiors smaller.
Brands that pursue this level of minimalism often end up reducing their interiors to a level of austere anonymity. You don’t see Rolls-Royce getting rid of all its lovely knurled metal switchgear, do you?
I’ve seen some acceptable substitutes for traditional climate control knobs. Kia’s rocker switches are neat and intuitive, for example. MG lets you program a button on the steering wheel to control the HVAC. And an anchored bar at the base of the touchscreen, à la Ford, is better than some brands’ approaches.
Oh, and as for brands that move the control of air vents to the touchscreen: just what the hell were you thinking?
Max Davies: Copy-paste interiors
The number of new cars we’ve seen this year with no buttons, an iPad glued to the dashboard, and an awkward rectangular instrument screen… for goodness sake, stop.
Naturally, there are the typical complaints that there aren’t enough real buttons in new cars, and rest assured that I wholeheartedly share that sentiment. But for the sake of variety, my complaint is more about design.
Arguably a trend started by Tesla, practically every single new Chinese car – electric or otherwise – looks exactly the same inside. What happened to originality? What happened to putting in any effort to make your car feel unique?
It just screams laziness, and I can’t fathom why so many brands are content to copy one another blindly. Seriously, look at any Deepal, Geely, Leapmotor, BYD, Tesla, Zeekr, GAC, and so on – how can anyone hope to establish an identity like this?
What’s arguably worse is that many Western brands seem to be following suit. The new Mazda CX-5 is a prime example, and that isn’t even a Chinese reskin like the 6e.
Bring back unique, recognisable interiors and manufacturers: stop copying each other to fulfill a ‘trend’!
Damion Smy: The ridiculous explosion of spinoff/sister brands
Stop it.
You’re only confusing customers, costing yourself more money, and – please – at least get one brand humming before you launch another. Eat dinner before you tuck into dessert.
Marton Pettendy: Where’s my list…
At the risk of sounding like Eeyore, I have a long list of these.
At the top of it is the incessant bing-bonging of various ‘advanced driver assistance systems’ including lane-departure warnings, speed-limit alerts and driver distraction monitors, which actually distract you from the key task of driving.
Then there’s the proliferation of new luxury brands from a range of mostly Chinese automakers, and the misguided enthusiasm for applying swathes of gloss piano black surfaces across interior surfaces, which look decidedly secondhand the minute they leave the showroom.
But even worse than the counter-intuitive trend towards employing touchscreens for all vehicle functions, as pioneered by Tesla primarily for cost-cutting reasons, are the increasingly small fonts displayed on said touchscreens and digital instrument clusters.
My eyes aren’t what they used to be, but it seems that despite in-car screens getting bigger all the time, the words on them are getting smaller. Or is it just me?
Ben Zachariah: Undercooked automaker websites
I’m sure enough people will flag a lack of buttons inside new cars, so I’m going to instead complain about automakers’ websites.
I’m not sure who started the trend, but it shouldn’t be this hard to find even the most basic details like pricing, specifications, and features on any particular model.
Nobody cares about your web development skills – just make your website easy to use, please.
Josh Nevett: Generic model names
I feel for Australian new car buyers.
Not only is our market one of the most diverse, but it’s also one of the most confusing to navigate. And that’s in no small part down to confusing nomenclature.
Once upon a time vehicles were clearly differentiated by their unique nameplates. You simply couldn’t mistake a Falcon for a Commodore, or even a Magna for that matter. Such naming conventions also gave cars their own distinctive character.
Flash forward to 2025 and names are seemingly plucked from a bowl of alphabet soup. Honestly, who can blame you for not knowing the difference between a B10, C5, EX5, E5, G6, and 7X?
Yes, the aforementioned models all hail from China, but even the Germans aren’t immune to such silliness.
For example, the numbers chosen by BMW and Mercedes-Benz to denote model variants used to signify engine size – makes sense, right? Nowadays, you certainly won’t find a 4.3-litre lump under the bonnet of a C43, nor a 3.0-litre straight-six in a 330i.
Some brands still get it – shout out to Ford and its self-explanatory lineup of vehicles. However, there’s plenty of work to do elsewhere.
At CarExpert we strive to make buying the right new car quicker and easier, so it’s only fair that we ask automakers to do the same.
Sean Lander: Infotainment screen controls for physical adjustments, especially HVAC systems
Having to operate a touchscreen to adjust the temperature, or fan speed, or direction airflow is not only annoying, but also far more distracting than it should be.
This also applies to safety systems. If you can’t have a shortcut or hot key for quick adjustments to intrusive “safety aids”, don’t have them at all.
Got any annoying car trends you’d like left in the past? Sound off in the comments!