There was a time, not so long ago, when the demands on auto designers were simple. Make the car look good. Or even better, beautiful.

The relative lack of restraint delivered iconic glamourous cars such as the 1960s E-Type Jaguar and, well before, the likes of the Art Deco-era Delahayes. Brutally handsome cars like the square rigged 1950s-era Lincoln Continentals were made possible by the same free hand.

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Now modern car designers are beset with conflicting requirements. Crash structures, pedestrian safety requirements, the myriad rules and regulations regarding head and taillight heights and offsets, and their ilk.

And perhaps as hard as any challenge, the need to accommodate ever larger drivers and passengers and their belongings in ever shrinking mechanical footprints.

So has the ability to design and build the truly beautiful car come and gone?

If you’re arguing for the affirmative, I’d challenge that your definition of beauty might be a little too rigid.

Beauty comes in many forms. While there may be no current equivalent to the sensuous curves of a 250 GTB Ferrari or the impossibly generous glass-to-pillar proportions of the 1970s-era BMW saloons, there are still stunningly well-resolved and accomplished cars hitting the road.

To prove the point here are five cars that are all beautiful in their own way.

Simplicity: Mazda MX-5

Mazda’s diminutive sportscar has been reborn in 2015 with a re-commitment to the simple values that made it the world’s most popular roadster. Mazda’s Kodo design language is maturing and the MX-5 includes great form and beautiful technical details but retains a feeling of fun and lightness that escapes many modern sportscars.

Priced from $31,990

Form: Jaguar F-TYPE Coupe

Not the lithe slim beauty of its spiritual predecessor, the E-type, Jaguar’s F-TYPE is an altogether more planted and powerful design that is every millimetre the modern muscle coupe. There are nods to the ancestors in the shape of the rear window and the Jaguar badge and grille treatment, but the key to the F-TYPE’s success is the purity of its form. Simple, beautifully rendered lines that tell a story of poise and performance.

Priced from $119,080

Brawn: Rolls-Royce Ghost

Not classically beautiful, except maybe for the level of precision in its production, fit and finish, Rolls-Royce’s ‘entry-level’ sedan is a steel and alloy lesson in controlled aggression. This most masculine of four doors’ street presence starts with a stance that defines its place in the auto world. Then overlayed is a muscular yet sharply detailed body that looks as though it is always in motion, or eager to be so. Arguably the real strength of this design is the lack of unnecessary add-ons.

Priced from $595,000

Brains: Tesla Model S

In many ways the tradition following lines of Tesla’s first mass produced car are at odds with the next-generation, step-change EV drivetrain. But that is part of the attraction of this luxury car that in its own way is taking the auto world by storm. Detractors will say the styling is derivative with a touch of Aston-Martin here, Maserati there, but there is no doubt it works. Bigger than it looks, this is a car that turns heads – even though people can’t hear it coming.

Priced from $121,638

Function: Land Rover Defender

This will challenge plenty but the pure functional beauty of this most British of off-roaders has kept it in production for more than 40 years – and will inform the design of next generation which is due in 2020. Flat panels for ease of production and repair; add-ons as rule or role changes required them; there’s a pure honesty in the Defender that few other vehicle or vehicles makers could understand, nor get away with.

Priced from $42,800