Way way back, a discussion(not here) about new cars brought up this 'logic': even without innovations, cars are and would changed in appearance so that buyers would want them. Case in point: my own car, an 01 PT. They came, no matter what style chosen, with one interior color for fabric, one for leather and gray molded bumpers. In 02, the body style was exactly the same, but you could get painted bumpers on the upgraded models and, in 03, interior choices increased and all models had painted bumpers; everything else style-wise was the same.
The original VW Bugs had such subtle changes, if any, through the years that you really had to know your Bugs to know what year you were looking at.
The cars of the last 10 years, I have to agree, are almost carbon copies of their plastic selves; I can't tell an Accord from a Ford and those import minivans? Fuhgeddaboudit....at least everyone knows what my car is when they see it!
