Strange car design quirk

[redsturgeon]

Today driving up and down the M3 I noticed something about modern car design I hadn't noticed before. It seems that in the last 20 years or so it has become almost universal without me noticing. It is the design of wheel arches on modern cars. Cars seem to have body panels that have become ever more curved and creased and crinkled in all manner of ways but if you look at the wheel arches of just about every car these days, the last two inches or so around the actual wheel arch seems completely flat and on a parallel plane to the wheel. Once you notice it, you see it on just about every car.

Why when so much about modern cars is individual to manufacturers has this feature become almost ubiquitous?

John

[pje16]

How odd
I knew my car (BMW) was like that, but i just looked down my road and now it's all I can see on EVERY car

[Imbiber]

A structural consideration to add rigidity to the panel ?

[pje16]

ahhh... now that's a good thought
makes a lot of sense