The Unfortunate Demise of the Car Design Yearbook

Packing up my books for college, I knew there was one set of books I should have along. I'm not sure how they will help in my studies, if at all, but I believe that they are indispensable for the car enthusiast. The books I write of are the Car Design Yearbooks. These books were published annually for eight years and are notable because every book consisted of a number of full color images and design evaluations for every car released in that book's respective year.

Yeah, you read that right. Every car released in a year. Every unveiling, every mid-cycle refresh, every manufacturer, every car, is given its approximately two pages of immortality in each edition of the Car Design Yearbook. And it's not just the notable cars like exotics that get attention, the utterly forgettable get equal billing in each book as well. Remember the Ford Freestar? The warmed over Windstar minivan? No, of course you don't, not until I reminded you (ok, maybe you did remember, but just barely). That's not to say they get the same accolades, though. Every car is scrutinized, and the good designs get the praise they deserve, and the bad designs get the derision they deserve.

Not entirely forgettable, but aside from funky styling,

the Suzuki Aerio was, otherwise, rather ordinary.

It doesn't end with production cars either. Concepts get the same treatment as well. The same luscious full color photos, the same top tier design critiques. They're all there. In these books, you get a cross section of the automotive landscape for each edition's respective year. And, in addition to individual vehicle critiques, each book has a general explanation of contemporary design trends and a prediction of what will be important in the future. Each edition even contains spotlights of leading car designers, featuring images of their current and past work.

The Chevrolet Bel Air concept,

from the days when retro design was king.

I suppose it actually shouldn't be that amazing that these books do what they say they do; giving an in depth summary of the condition of the automotive design world. What's really amazing is the fact these books came out. To my recollection, there has never been a series of books that has more comprehensively compiled every new car release. And it's wonderful that they were able to release eight editions. What's unfortunate though, is that after the eighth, published in 2009, no more were released. It's actually a little tragic. Although it doesn't seem so bad on the surface, I am willing to wager that there is an inordinate amount of automobiles that people have completely forgotten about. Perhaps some were genuinely charming or interesting cars that have been forgotten to the pages of history. Or not the pages, but more accurately, the junkyards, with no record of their existence. I don't know the exact reasons why the annual releases of the Car Design Yearbook ceased, I imagine that it might have something to do with what was probably an enormous project to immortalize each car released in a year, but it is nevertheless unfortunate. Hopefully, in the future, someone might be able to resume production, or start a similar project. In the meantime though, I highly recommend, neigh, urge car enthusiasts to pick up at least one edition, if not the complete set of books, you will not regret it.