Genesis G80

White is the best-selling car color in the world. Has been for over a decade. Buyers choose it because it's safe, resells well, hides dust reasonably, and looks clean on a configurator screen. None of those are design reasons. And design is exactly what white tests, mercilessly, every time a car wears it...

The most beautiful production cars ever built would kill you at a rate modern safety regulators would find unconscionable. The 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB had no crumple zones, no airbags, a steering column that would impale the driver in a frontal impact, and drum brakes that required planning your stops several seconds in advance. It is also one of the most visually perfect objects ever produced by human hands. The connection between these two facts is not coincidental...

Japanese automakers have been quietly building the strongest design portfolio in the world, and the automotive press is only now catching up to what has been happening. This did not happen overnight. It is the result of a philosophy shift that started in Hiroshima with one mid-size brand and spread outward in ways that are still playing out...

Every few months a new obituary gets written for the sedan. Sales are down. Automakers are canceling models. The crossover has won. The four-door is finished. And every time someone writes that obituary, the Toyota Camry sells another 300,000 units, the Honda Accord moves another 200,000, and the Tesla Model 3 quietly becomes one of the best-selling vehicles on the planet. The sedan is not dead. A specific group of automakers decided it was not worth their effort, walked away, and then pointed at falling sales as proof the customer did not want it anymore...