Are you driving an anonymous car?

Is your car an anonymous blip on the road? Does your vehicle look eerily like your neighbour’s? Are designers copying each other? If it passed you in the street could you ‘name that car?’.

According to research by online buying guide New Car Net (newcarnet.co.uk), the answer is no. Just 1 in 4 of us are able to recognise popular models on British roads today.

Stripped of all identifiable marks, New car Net tested the anonymity of a small selection of 10 vehicles to see how much of a visual impression they had left on the average motorist.

Honda’s futuristic Civic was the most recognisable, while Vauxhall’s Zafira MPV is the most anonymous.

A close second behind the Civic was the Ford Focus, reflecting its position as the biggest selling car in the UK. The BMW 1-Series also scored highly to come third in the NEW CAR NET online test.

The Toyota Avensis, Volvo XC90 4x4 and Suzuki Swift were next on the list, recognised by only some of the visitors, while the most anonymous vehicles were the Peugeot 407, Mazda 3, Volkswagen Polo and the Vauxhall Zafira.

Classic iconic shapes like the VW Beetle, MINI and Porsche, might be more readily identifiable, but were omitted for their historic overtones.

New Car Net’s Massimo Pini said: “Car manufacturers are turning to retro-inspired designs like the Fiat 500 and the MINI because they seem to be struggling to achieve recognition with more contemporary styling.

“The majority of drivers can identify these iconic vehicles immediately, but the new Honda Civic’s performance in our survey proves that bolder and more courageous designs can be just as recognisable. The problem is that with so much at stake on the success or failure of new models , it’s all too easy to adopt a ‘me-too’ approach to car design these days, with new vehicles simply blending into the background of other similarly bland machines.”

Participants in the survey were also invited to rate the design of each of the cars featured, and while the Civic again scored top, with 19% of users giving it 10 out of 10 for aesthetics, but the VW Polo was bottom of the bunch, with a paltry 3% giving it top marks.