Changes since 1980s

I notice one omission from the article: since the 1980s car design, at least in Europe, has been driven more by engineering than by marketing / brandng considerations. The first signs of this were the Ford Sierra and Audi 100, both designed to minimise drag. Soon after this computer aided design started enabling designers to apply finite element stress analysis and thus reduce both weight and manufacturing cost without sacrificing strength in critical areas. As a result most cars below the luxury band now look much more similar than they did before the early 1980s. However these changes have also caused some criticisms: susceptibility to cross-winds (mainly overcome); difficulty for drivers in judging the length of their cars becuase of the steeply sloping bonnets and high boot lines.
It would also be worth mentioning changes in the names and numbers of manufacturers: Toyota, Nissan (then Datsun) and Honda became noticeable in the 1970s; Daewoo, Kia and Proton (possibly others) in the 1990s; Skoda became a real presence in Europe after VW took it over; Ford took over Volvo's car operation & Jaguar; etc. -- Philcha (talk) 14:44, 6 October 2008 (UTC)