Hip to be Square: Modern Bricks
Rewinding the clock 40 years to the 1980’s, vehicles seemingly designed with a t-square were the norm. Sure, an entire line of General Motors pickup trucks and full-size SUVs have affectionately (if unofficially)been dubbed the ‘squarebodies’ by legions of fans. Some Volvo models are known as ‘bricks’, your author refers to the pre-aero Crown Victoria sedans as ‘box bodies’ - the list goes on.
It can be rightly argued that the new-for-1986 Ford Taurus ushered an era of the jellybean into mainstream American cars, instantly putting cars like the Chevrolet Celebrity and its ilk squarely (pun intended) on the proverbial trailer. SUVs and trucks took a bit longer to follow, though we can look to Ford for leadership in those areas too: the ‘95 Explorer and ‘97 F-150 are good candidates. Chrysler and its ‘96 minivans rounded out (ha! More puns) a bubble onslaught of major segments.
[Images: Ford, Jeep, Toyota, Nissan]
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And here we are in 2025, with car companies learning that not all things square are all things bad. Numerous models continue - or have returned to - their boxy ways despite being some four decades removed from that first Taurus, particularly in the crossover and SUV segments. A square-jawed renaissance is on our doorstep, to be needlessly dramatic. Continuing to pick on the Blue Oval for a minute, bright sparks at the Glass House have realized that styling the Escape to resemble a Salofalk suppository proved to have less appeal than the boxy Bronco Sport, despite both machines sharing many bones. In fact, the Escape is slated to shuffle off this mortal coil at the end of 2025, yielding to its more handsome brother.
The venerable Toyota 4Runner remained a box-on-wheels even after its comprehensive revamp a couple of model years ago - and is better off for it. The machine it replaced hung around until it was almost old enough to get a license and drive itself; yet, sales remained strong and there were no shortage of people lined up to sign on the dotted line for a 4x4 with the aerodynamics of a West Virginia barn. Its current iteration does employ some aero tricks but its boxy mojo remains, much to the delight of its customer base and Toyota sales staff.
Elsewhere we find the Jeep Wrangler marching into the future with a straight-edge for its primary styling tool, retaining a lot of the style charm which simultaneously and curses the model.
Anyone trading out of a mainstream rig like a RAV4 needs to know that wind noise will be prevalent in their new four-wheel drive machine, especially if they opt to frequently remove/install the doors and roof (as they should be doing, by the way). Same goes for Ford and its handsome Bronco.
Wither the future bring? Nissan announced just today that it is bringing back the Xterra, suggesting it’ll be the type of squared-off machine it was back in the day - at least in terms of appearance. Reports indicate it'll have a hybrid V6 powertrain under the hood.
