Design

Interview: Paul West and the Search for a Cadillac Flagship

By Edward Niedermeyer
September 4, 2009

Paul West of Mahoning Automotive Design is a tenacious guy. While most merely rolled their eyes at Cadillac's front-drive "XTS" flagship plans, West wasn't going to take Cadillac's flailing sitting down. With Mahoning, D&D Classics and some promising industrial design students, he mocked-up an SRX-based study for a potential Cadillac flagship. "We did our best with the prototype," he says "but only Cadillac can do the idea full justice." It takes balls for a few upstarts from Ohio to show a major luxury brand how it should be preparing a flagship, and West knows it. But Cadillac's inability to develop a true flagship, gives West's study a significance that is more than just skin-deep. It's a provocative, gutsy way to shake up the thinking at Cadillac. And if nothing else it's provided plenty of food for thought. [West's complete powerpoint proposal can be found in the gallery below]

Interview: Paul West and the Search for a Cadillac Flagship editorial continued »

Posted in Design | Editorials | 18 comments

Editorial: Hybrid Theory

By Edward Niedermeyer
May 19, 2009

Three years ago yesterday, on a Jalopnik-TTAC joint podcast, a certain Robert Farago foresaw the rise of a “hybrid aesthetic” in automotive design. In order to break into the consumer psyche, went his logic, a hybrid car must look unmistakably like... a hybrid. Fast forward to 2009 and the new Honda Insight seems to confirm that looking like a hybrid means looking like a Toyota Prius. Chevy's Volt might someday become the third member of the Prian party, while the forthcoming Lexus HS250h looks to be a Prius rebadge of GM-level laziness. If hybrids are the cars of the future, are we doomed to inherit a world of identical, beetle-shaped rides?

Editorial: Hybrid Theory editorial continued »

Posted in Design | Editorials | Green | 45 comments

Editorial: BMW’s Bangle Blows Town

By Robert Farago
February 3, 2009

When it comes time to chart designer Chris Bangles contribution to the BMW brand's aesthetic, few pundits will praise his pulchritudinous perversion of pistonhead passion, or thank him for the aesthetic affectations for which BMW is now known. In other words, the "Bangle Butt" will be Chris' lasting legacy. Of course, this is also the man who removed the words "flame surfacing" from art school and placed them on the tip of his detractors' tongues. That and Axis of White Power. (Oh! How we laughed!) Equally improbably, the Buckeye State native helped the expression "Dame Edna glasses" cross into automotive lexicography. Yup. It's been a wild ride. Literally.

Editorial: BMW’s Bangle Blows Town editorial continued »

Posted in Design | Editorials | 82 comments

Editorial: This Is Not Your Father’s Buick

By Edward Niedermeyer
January 8, 2009 The entire autoblogosphere is abuzz over the new Buick LaCrosse. And not just in the pre-show preview, "check this out" kind of way. Or even in the sniggering "guess what the name means in Quebec" way. No, full-service pimping of GM's latest mid-sized sedan is clearly the order of the day. And a single thread runs through all the breathless commentary, namely the alleged youthful, modern appeal of the new LaCrosse. The message is loud and clear: this is not your father's Buick. Or, as The DetNews's Scott Burgess puts it (in hopes of avoiding the painful Olds legacy), "this is not your grandfather's Buick." The Freep opens its paean to the LaCrosse by pointing out that it was designed by "twenty- and thirty-somethings." "No More Blue Hair!" screams the headline at Jalopnik, who also parrot the "not your grandfather's Buick" line. But, like the infamous "not your father's Oldsmobile" ads everyone keeps referencing, all this sound and fury merely cements long-standing brand perceptions in the minds of consumers. And hastens the long-overdue death of Buick

Editorial: This Is Not Your Father’s Buick editorial continued »

Posted in Design | Editorials | Media | 161 comments

The Psychology of Cupholders

By Michael Martineck
April 10, 2008

For some people-– maybe not TTAC readers, but some people-– the cup holder is one of the most important parts of the car. Sure, torque between 4,000 and 6,000 rpms and brake fade are important. But when you’re crawling along at 15 mph with two antsy kids, your suspension’s settings simply don’t matter. The cup holder does.

The Psychology of Cupholders editorial continued »

Posted in Design | Editorials | 67 comments

Green Concept Cars – Where’s the Fun in That?

By Alex Kambas
March 13, 2008

Do you remember when you couldn’t leave the table-- or have desert-- without finishing your vegetables? Personally speaking, the parental requirement didn’t make me any more likely to eat or enjoy vegetables. The same holds true when it comes to green cars. I’m as sensitive about saving the planet as the next guy, if not more. But ever since “planet friendly” jumped to the top of the list of PR-friendly attributes-- above performance and styling-- I’ve been turning back into a child that hates his greens.

Green Concept Cars – Where’s the Fun in That? editorial continued »

Posted in Design | Editorials | Green | 32 comments

Welcome to the Future: Tata Motors’ Disposable 1-Lakh Car

By Samir Syed
January 10, 2008

Carburetors, fuel injection, headlights, satellite radios, ECU, ABS, air conditioning, drive-by-wire— today’s automotive technologies are variations on well-established themes. If “Crazy Henry” Ford resurrected, he’d have little problem driving-- or understanding-- a modern car. While automakers continue to tweak automotive systems for greater ergonomics, power, fuel economy and reliability; the improvements are evolutionary, not revolutionary. Even alternative powerplants aren’t game changers. But something else is…

Welcome to the Future: Tata Motors’ Disposable 1-Lakh Car editorial continued »

Posted in Design | Editorials | Sales and Marketing | 67 comments

The Big 2.8: Babes in Toyland

By Michael Martineck
December 4, 2007

The Power Wheels Jeep Hurricane is the car the American market has been screaming for: a sleek, zero-emission, gas-free SUV. AND, with its Ultimate Terrain Traction system, the Hurricane can go places “no other battery powered ride-on can go.” Yes, it’s a toy: a Fisher-Price product for middle class parents with automotively aspirational children-- and whose aren’t? But here’s the kicker: it’s based on a concept car unveiled at The North American International Auto Show back in 2005. 

The Big 2.8: Babes in Toyland editorial continued »

Posted in Design | Editorials | 38 comments

A Modest Proposal for the Ultimate Alt. Fuel Automobile

By Andrew Hellard
October 26, 2007

I learned to drive in a 1985 Volvo 240. The Nordic boxcar's 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine deployed one hundred and fourteen horsepower against three thousand pounds of Swedish steel. For reasons best left to Roswell conspiracy theorists, the feds recently re-calculated the 240’s mpg: 19/26 (coincidentally the age of the average 240 driver).  That’s not bad for rust, but let’s face it: a used 240 is hardly a Prius driver’s second choice. Even so, the humble Volvo recently inspired an automotive epiphany that could lead to The Mother of All Environmentally Friendly Automobiles.

A Modest Proposal for the Ultimate Alt. Fuel Automobile editorial continued »

Posted in Design | Editorials | Electric vehicles | Technology | 54 comments

Cadillac Flunks History. Again.

By Justin Berkowitz
September 19, 2007

Cadillac is something of a comeback kid. The first time the brand was on the ropes, its divisional president interrupted a GM board meeting with a winning proposal: sell Caddies to America’s burgeoning black population. In the ‘90’s, America’s African-American community once again rescued the struggling brand; their passion for a rebadged Yukon infused the ailing automaker with fresh marketing momentum and a pile of cash. Now that the Escalade’s a bomb instead of da bomb, and Caddy’s passenger cars can’t cut the transplanted and/or imported mustard, Cadillac has a new plan. I call it The Beginning of the End. 

Cadillac Flunks History. Again. editorial continued »

Posted in Design | Editorials | Sales and Marketing | 47 comments