What I’d do Differently: Peter Horbury

BY MIKE DUFF, ILLUSTRATION BY BRETT AFFRUNTI
June 2011

C/D: Did you always know you wanted to be a car designer?

PH: Yes, always. When I was about 10â€" and why I did this I don’t know, but it stood me in very good steadâ€"I would pick a car of the time and then design the “next” one. I did it by picking certain characteristics, certain design cues, and then moving them on in a more modern way.

C/D: After passing through Chrysler and Ford, you started at Volvo as a lowly contractor in ’79, working on interiors.

PH: Yes, paid by the hour! In those days the design department was like an offshoot; engineering ruled everything, and the cars were designed from the inside out. That meant the engineers basically decided the shape. And the design departmentâ€"for want of a better wordâ€"made their ideas look a bit less ugly.

C/D:Things changed when you became Volvo’s design boss. But were people ready for the new direction you pursued?

PH: Some were, and some weren’t . . . When the S80 came out, I used to get hate mail, usually from elderly Swedish people living in remote parts of the country.

1998 Volvo S80

C/D: Then you became design director for Ford’s ill-fated Premier Automotive Group [PAG]. Was that the right decision?

PH: Yes, at the time, because what followed gave me more experience. To be honestâ€"and I don’t think I’ve told anybody outside the companyâ€"I’d been offered a very nice position by GM, and I’d announced my departure. Some people were obviously a bit concerned about this, and the following morning, I was asked to get on a plane to go to Dearborn to see Bill [Ford Jr.], where we talked about me not going, let’s say.

C/D:  He must have been very convincing.

PH: Well, GM was offering the world, and I knew I’d be comfortable there forever, but I was fairly easily persuaded. I was being asked by the guy at the very top to stay, and we sort of made up the PAG job between us. It sounded grand, every schoolboy’s dream: “You’re responsible for the design of Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo.”

C/D: So why did you switch to become Ford’s American design boss a few years down the line?

PH: As I say, it sounded grandâ€"the reality was slightly different. So when I was asked to go to Ford in America and do what I’d done at Volvo, I jumped at the chance.

C/D: Why was Ford in America having so much trouble with design at the time?

PH: I don’t think things were that bad. I’d gotten a lot of experience hiding front-wheel drive from a design point of view, which I think they needed. If you look at the Volvo S60 or V70, you’ll see that the front corners are knocked off to produce the perception of a short overhang, but American design was still about making cars look as big as possibleâ€"the idea that you were getting more car for your money.

C/D: Perhaps that explains the Ford Five ­Hundred?

PH: Well, to be honestâ€"and I think J [Mays] would admit thisâ€"trying to make a car on what was Volvo’s old S80 platform, but with different proportions, was always going to be a challenge. The car was very horizontal, and the A-pillars and the C-pillars were the same thicknessâ€"the car had very little sense of direction. I remember when we did the face lift, and it became the Taurus; it didn’t set the world on fire, either. And I said, “Well, if you remodeled either end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I’m sure you’d still know what it was.” But I do have to say I think the team there did a huge amount of great work with the recent cars.

2010 Ford Taurus

C/D: Which brings us back to Volvo. Why did you agree to return?

PH: Because I was asked nicely! All my life it’s been the sense of adventure, the unknown that’s been attractive . . . I knew that Volvo was going to be sold, likely to a Chinese company, and it’s always best to be on the ship before it sails.

C/D: So, looking back on your career, what would you have done differently?

PH: No, I can’t do thatâ€"it would be an admission of failure! I love it. It’s been the best job I can imagine, and 37 years on, I’m still amazed that a paycheck turns up every month.

C/D: You wouldn’t change anything about any of  the cars you’ve designed?

PH: Oh, of courseâ€"there are loads of those. I mean, as a designer, that’s all you see. Every time a first-generation S80 drives by me, I can’t look at it because the back end needed tucking in a little bit more. To me, it looks as if it’s about 16 feet wideâ€"it’s maybe half an inch wider than it should beâ€"but when I say that to other people, they say “No, I can’t see it.” Then there’s the first C70. I thought it was a fabulous car, but we had to carry over the hood from the old S70. Why didn’t we just say no?