I have a problem with car manufacturers. There just aren’t enough hood decorations these days, and the companies known for flashy decor just give it up all, not exactly thrilled with those kinds of symbols. And why not?
Mercedes has again stripped a Benz – this time the E-Class hood ornament. This, my friends, is a sad day.
Now I am mostly here for improvements in car design and technology. I’m not the kind of person who craves the good old days (although I can appreciate those days for what they were; there is a difference). Normally, when an old-fashioned element disappears from a car, I say ‘good rumor’. But with hood decorations I draw a line.
Hood trims are like your car’s mascot. They don’t serve a modern purpose apart from enhancing the images, but decoration has always been important to us humans. Egyptians and Romans decorated their chariots with ornaments and talismans, which generally served both mystical and aesthetic purposes. Icons of gods or animal symbols conveying strength and good fortune were pasted somewhere on these wheeled vehicles, in part to accomplish whatever the icon represented, but also to remind their rider to embody that representation.
So it made sense to add similar pictograms to the hood or radiator cap of cars when combustion engines hit the street. Exposed radiator caps were visible on the hoods of those first cars, and it was a way of controlling the temperature of water vapor. But when just about anyone could start a car business and there were tons of different names, the hood ornament was a fun, easy way to identify the make of the car.
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They eventually became a symbol of luxury, especially because of the iconic Mercedes-Benz hood trims.
They have been phased out gradually as they pose a danger to pedestrians. I got hit by a car and I have to say it was painful enough without being impaled by a giant pointed thing on the hood.
But they were a nice touch. They were that little bit extra to be proud of, and we could all use that little bit of extra personalization in our lives these days.