Design

GM Design Relocation: Efficiency or Infighting?

By Robert Farago
September 2, 2008 - 1,300 views

I'm keenly aware that some readers believe that I'm a spinmeister's evil twin, viewing all stories involving The General through a Death Watch prism. But I know it's possible to read this story from Automotive News [AN, sub]– detailing a shift in GM's design responsibilities from the rest of the world to Motown– as a sign that the artist formerly known as the world's largest automaker is finally rationalizing its sprawling, overlapping, inefficient infrastructure. At first, it seems that way. "We have had a couple studios where some projects have been canceled," Ed Welburn, GM's design vice president, told AN. "We have other studios that are totally overloaded. We just need to level that work around the globe." But then… GM's small-car programs are based at the Adam Opel R&D center in Germany and GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. in Korea. With the change, vehicles for Daewoo, Holden, Opel or Vauxhall may be styled in Michigan. So what the Hell happened to GM's "regional centers of excellence" idea? 

Automotive News »

Posted in Chapter 11 | Design | News Blog | 9 comments

And Now For Something Totally Different…

By Paul Niedermeyer
August 26, 2008 - 1,957 views

American automotive design creativity and imagination in Detroit died with the 1977 wrap-around rear-window Oldsmobile Toronado XSR Coupe , but it's alive and well in the Nevada desert. At the annual Burning Man gathering, mobile imaginations/hallucinations incarnated run amok and are celebrated. It's a fitting (if extreme) reaction to the ever-more predictable and imitative automotive styling rut of the times. GM Styling guru Harley Earl would have felt (and looked) right at home tooling around the sand flats in his gas-turbine powered Firebird dream-car .

Posted in Design | News Blog | Whiskey Tango Foxtrot | 10 comments

ChryCo’s New Design Chief: We’re Going Organic!

By Robert Farago
August 20, 2008 - 1,114 views

If you want your brain to melt, ask a car designer to explain… anything. When it comes to torturing the English language and obfuscating meaning, these guys are the masters (these are not the Hoffmeister kinks you want). Ralph Gilles is different. Chrysler's freshly-anointed Design Chief is a man of the [Canadian] streets. OK, yes and an Art School grad. But when Ralph talked to Automotive News [sub] about his employer's new design direction (they have vehicles to design?), all we got, thankfully, was "We're done with the 'Edge' look." So it's in with "organic shapes." Like… the 300? Or those two-day-old moldering vegetables I no longer buy? I kid. Anyway, meanwhile, good luck getting that "monkey off our backs on interiors." And the following pledge (as reported by The Detroit Free Press): "With the Nissan project we're working on, we've got designers stationed there… and you'd never know it was based on a Nissan." Oops! I guess that cat's out of the bag!

Automotive News »

Posted in Design | News Blog | 17 comments

Optional Jaguar XF Hood Ornament Looks Horrid

By Justin Berkowitz
August 12, 2008 - 3,995 views

The Jaguar XF was meant to be a clean sheet car for Jaguar - a reboot of the brand, to use filmmaker parlance. With that in mind, Jaguar was planning on ditching the 'Leaper' hood ornament altogether. But old habits die hard, as I observed in my local shopping mall today. Presumably, too many people said to Jaguar "But it's supposed to have a leaper on the hood." They made their bed, and now they can lie in it. It looks horrible and out of place on the XF, which is a sleek and modern car. While cars themselves and many components tend to be phallic, this is just a little too far. Even if the XF's front end is a little bland, you don't want people to immediately know it's a Jag if it's going to look silly like this. But what's most important here is the lesson in listening to customers. Sometimes, manufacturers and dealers need to just say no.

Posted in Branding | Design | News Blog | 43 comments

GM Gives Trucks the XFE Treatment

By Frank Williams
August 12, 2008 - 1,542 views

While any move to improve fuel efficiency in full-sized trucks is a move in the right direction, you have to wonder if GM's straining at gnats while swallowing camels with their latest move: XFE versions of Silverado, Sierra, Tahoe and Yukon. The press release brags the changes make them "the most aerodynamic full-size pickups in the industry." To accomplish this, they'll install a soft tonneau cover on the pickups and extend the front air dam, lower the suspension, revise the chassis tuning, use aluminum in the wheels and engine and install low rolling-resistance tires. And what's the gain for all these changes? One whole mile per gallon on both the city and highway ratings, which "reflect[s] GM's quick adaptation to an evolving market that remains a very important segment." They haven't said how much all these changes will cost, but just like with the hybrid versions. it's bound to take a while to offset the additional cost with fuel savings.

Click here for PDF of press release 

Posted in Design | Fuel Economy | Marketing | New Cars | News Blog | 35 comments

The Venza, in Toyota’s Words

By Frank Williams
August 11, 2008 - 2,563 views

Press releases aren't supposed to be funny, but occasionally, one comes out that you can't help but laugh at, either for the product it's promoting, the way it attempts to make it sound unique, or both. Case in point: Toyota's release describing the "Design Ins and Outs of the 2009 Toyota Venza." Having seen pictures of this bastard child of a Camry and an Aztek, I think it would be better described as the "Design Do's and Don'ts," with emphasis on the don'ts. They struggle to find a way to describe it, settling on "not an SUV, not a wagon, not a coupe and not a sedan." So what the Hell is it? They say it "incorporates SUV utility and roominess, while maintaining passenger car essentials, such as ease of ingress/egress, performance, a lower, sleek side profile with aerodynamic lines." Uh… doesn't that pretty much describe a station wagon? Anyway, the design incorporates "Toyota's design philosophy, ‘Vibrant Clarity'" (which sounds like a Honda FCX with a tire out of balance) to produce "look-at-me" styling. Inside, it has a "floating…60/60 center dashboard" that makes spatially-challenged drivers and passengers "feel as if 60 percent of the space is in their personal zone."  There's more, but I'll let you read it for yourself.

Click here for PDF of press release.  

Posted in Design | Germany | Marketing | Media | News Blog | PR | 39 comments

BMW Niche-Wagen Watch

By Edward Niedermeyer
August 5, 2008 - 1,552 views

BMW was once known for the elegant simplicity of its vehicle lineup, but no more. Now the Boyz of Bayern must spend as much time imagining lifestyles and creating vehicles for them as they do developing new platforms. After all, if you can tweak a few chassis to reflect the infinitely variable lifestyle statements of postmodern life, why would you actually work on making your model line more broadly diverse? You wouldn't if you like profit like BMW likes profit. Accordingly, Auto Motor und Sport has spy photos of the latest BMW why-mobile, the "Progressive Activity Sedan" or PAS. What exactly are we looking at under the black camouflage? A fastback version of the five series, which will offer four-door coupe looks with better rear-seat room than say, a Mercedes CLS. Sound familiar? That's because it basically takes the X6 formula and plops it on the next-generation five series. Within a year or so of the PAS's 2009 launch (no word yet on American availability), BMW will sport no fewer than four four-door utes (X1, X3, X5, X6) and five four-door sedans (1, 3, 5, 7, and PAS series) in its European market lineup. In fact, Bimmer nearly went for a tenth model, the X7 (hilariously imagined as an extended model here), but AM und S says that it's been canceled. And if you think Norbert Reithofer's decision to can the X7 means BMW is aware of its bloated four-door lineup, think again. The weak dollar and high gas prices get all the blame. And shopping for a four-door BMW just got a tiny, tiny bit easier.

Auto Motor und Sport »

Posted in Design | Future Vehicles | Marketing | News Blog | 19 comments

Mk. VI Golf Sneak-Peeked

By Edward Niedermeyer
August 4, 2008 - 1,423 views

Volkswagen's newest Golf debuts at the Paris Auto Show in a few months.  Ahead of that blessed event, unofficially official images are surfacing around the web. Motor Authority has assembled the "leaked" images for your perusal, but there's not much to see. From the outside, the new Golf retains much of its previous form, with Scirocco-inspired headlights providing the only major contrast with the outgoing model. The Golf's taillights have also been refreshed. Although the whole shape seems lighter and more crisply styled, its bland visage and vacant gaze suggest a lobotomized Mk. V; while the rest of the car suggests… well, a regular Mk. V. If you've been obsessing over the new (Euro market-only) Scirocco for months, you'll probably love the Golf's new looks, and notice subtle similarities between the two. But as the Scirocco won't challenge the GTI for the hearts of American VW fanboys, most shoppers will probably think the Golf just got uglier. Which, until we see it in the steel, we're afraid to say it has.

Motor Authority »

Posted in Design | Future Vehicles | Germany | News Blog | 10 comments

The Devil In Project D

By Edward Niedermeyer
July 30, 2008 - 83 views

Nothing in Chrysler's dated portfolio needs attention more than its Camcord-fighting D-segment offerings, the Avenger/Sebring. The March departure of the lead on the Avengbring replacement didn't bode well. Motor Trend now reports that Project D is heading for disaster, gobbling-up huge engineering and design resources. Chrysler's in crisis mode. Option one: an all-new platform. No money. No way. Option two: deploy an existing chassis (e.g.  Nissan's Altima) and wrap it in new sheetmetal. Option C: rip off another automaker's work wholesale, a la VW Routan. Needless to say, these cop-out options will do nothing to improve Chrysler's rep for mediocre products. Then again a badge-engineered Altima might be better than what Chrysler can cobble together on a shoestring. Either way, with Project D seemingly doomed to mediocrity, what else can keep Chrysler alive? Hybrid minivans? Cherys? Government bailouts? Not good. 

Motor Trend »

Posted in Design | Future Vehicles | Industry | News Blog | 22 comments

New Abarth Sports Car Signals Lotus Elise Platform OD

By Edward Niedermeyer
July 30, 2008 - 102 views

Autocar UK reports that Fiat's performance brand Abarth is developing a mid-engined sports car. The restyled next gen Lotus Elise will feature a next gen Fiat turbo-charged, direct-injection, air-valve four-cylinder engine with 240hp. So, where are we? Lotus makes several Elise variants, from the Exige (racer) to the Europa (chiropractor's best friend). The Elise also underpins Rinnspeed's sQuba, Tesla's Roadster and Vauxhall/Opel's VX220/Speedster. Meanwhile, Lotus is delaying the release of a new Esprit. Does this mean Hethel's shortchanging its own models to work on its 340 development projects for 147 clients? Hey, you can't argue with $4m profit– especially after years of losses. And with a zingy Italian engine, the Elise-based sportster could ascend from the perfect to the sublime. You know; if you can get in.

Autocar UK »

Posted in Branding | Design | Future Vehicles | News Blog | 3 comments