Design language

New Z4: enticing or challenging?

2008-12-15T12:01:45Z

The BMW Z4 was not exactly a runaway success. Indeed, it was easily outsold by the Mercedes SLK throughout its lifetime.

The uncompromising styling - perhaps the purest expression of Chris Bangle's theories about surfacing - made it a hard sell.

The Z4's looks were also said to have put off a great proportion of the female buyers who helped make the Z3 a success.

The Z4 was also noticeably more expensive than a Z3 and was never sold in a more affordable four-cylinder version.

So while the Z4 was clearly a far superior car to the Z3, and a better driver's car than the SLK, it seemed to fall between two stools.

It lacked the handiness, hard-top security and chic looks of the SLK, but it also never gained a reputation as a serious driver's roadster in the manner of the Porsche Boxster.

So when I saw the new Z4 in the metal for the first time, I was taken aback.

BMW had done little to change the recipe. It retained the extreme long-nose proportions of the old car and although the styling has been softened, it is still strikingly atonal, shot across with odd cutlines and ridged panels.

The hard top might offer the security many buyers want (and the it solves the problem of over-the-shoulder vision of the old cloth top) but my first impression is of another BMW roadster that is determined to challenge, rather than entice, buyers.

Technorati Tags: BMW,Roadster,Z3,Z4,Chris Bangle,SLK,Merc,Mercedes,Porsche Boxster

MX-5 - better to wait until 2012

2008-12-10T10:40:00Z

I’ve never really felt much for the current Mazda MX-5 and the new facelift does little to change my point of view.

The last one I loved and the first one doubly so. But the current one looks a little bloated and off the pace for my liking, especially when it’s got a folding metal hard top.

I mentioned all this to Mazda’s design boss, Laurens van den Acker, several months ago and he seemed to agree with me. He started talking about the next MX-5, due in around 2012. He plans to make it much more dramatic and ‘give it some balls’. It will also be lighter and better to drive.

That, I’d say, is an MX-5 worth waiting for – not this rather tepid facelift.

Jaguar XF - the purr of a big cat

2008-11-10T18:04:21Z

I drove our Jaguar XF a few hundred miles across the country at the weekend and truly found it one of the most relaxing cars that I've ever driven.

The diesel engine's refinement is tried and tested, but what doesn't get as much attention is that incomparable ride/handling compromise that lets you ride in comfort but also position the car with abandon.

I'm a great fan of the S-Type, but wasn't until i parked by my father-in law's S-Type and looked at the two of them alongside each other I could see for myself how much Jag had moved on.

To make matters even better, the XF has got an absolutely cracking Bowers and Wilkins sound system.

Insignia's telling tail lights

2008-10-24T14:37:27Z

This rather unusual-looking machine is the new Vauxhall Insignia estate, which made its public debut at the recent Paris show.
I had to take a step back when its huge clamshell tailgate automatically opened to reveal a pair of secondary rear light clusters hidden in the boot lining.

But this unusual layout prompted a piece of well buried piece of trivia to come to mind. There’s an obscure EU regulation that requires all of a car’s lights to be visible, even when all the doors and lids are open.

This law is the reason many estates have stacked tail lights, wrapped around the corners of the body and why the old Freelander and Discovery (which had side-hinged tailgates) had the brake and tail lights mounted in the rear bumper.

Further back in time, it's part of the reason front-hinged bonnets, such as those on the old 3-series and 5-series BMWs, were killed off.

At least one car maker has been caught out by the regulations. A few years ago I recommended the Toyota RAV4 to two buyers. They both went to the dealer and rejected the car for the same reason. The rear tailgate wouldn’t open fully.

This didn’t make any sense until I realized the Toyota was forced to fit a special EU-market check strap to the side-hinged rear door, preventing it from opening fully and obscuring one of the rear lights… Another thing struck me about the Insignia too. This estate was clearly conceived in the boom times. In these post-credit-crunch days, there’s no way a car would be passed for production with two pairs of rear light clusters.

Renault Laguna Coupe, but Aston DNA?

2008-10-22T07:20:00Z

It may not be immediately obvious in photographs, but the Laguna Coupe has more than a hint of modern Aston Martin in its styling.

This was much commented upon at the Paris motor show. It’s said that ex-Aston design boss Ian Callum visited the Renault stand and was particularly complimentary about the two-door Laguna. Perhaps Callum was flattered by the Vanquish-style grille.

Anyway, I mentioned this at a dinner with a senior Renault design boss who confirmed our suspicions. The designer of the Laguna Coupe is not only a fan of Astons; he’s also an Aston owner.

And the car’s harmonious design is a consequence – all too rare in the car industry - of the same designer following the project from the first sketch right through to putting the car into production.

The Laguna Coupe is easily one of the most appealing Renaults in years. I think there are more than a few crossed fingers in Paris that the company finally has a car in the D segment that might finally hit the spot.

The future of car design

2008-10-17T16:17:36Z

For students of the way car demand is changing — and how design will adapt — the next few years will provide some fascinating spectator sport.

Seems to me that many of the rules about how cars look and are laid out will be rewritten, even before the expected blizzard of hybrid and electric powertrains arrives.

There are signs this week that Volvo is about to redesign its traditional V70 estate - because customers think its roof is too low - just as Renault is preparing to drop its Espace MPV because customers feel, in this new age of insecurity, that the pioneering people-carrier’s glassy, high-riding way of doing things makes them too vulnerable.

Discovering who’s right (each company doubtless has iron-cast research to justify its point of view) will be fascinating.

Other trends? Big-engined cars are obviously in trouble, now that fuel efficiency is all. That threatens formerly bulletproof premium cars.

Buyers have traditionally used their BMW purchase to justify an extra-performance engine with accompanying trimmings. BMW does perfectly good ‘cooking’ engines, of course, but it’s the pizzazz that earns them the money. If they start making a higher proportion of ordinary cars, as they surely will, the bottom line is bound to suffer.

Don’t expect big-cabin cars to go into a spiral, though. Consumers keep growing, and they enjoy the comfort too much to squeeze themselves into micro-cars. Look forward instead to a renewed crop of innovations in packaging, accompanied by cheaper and more effective weight saving.

Superminis that weigh 1100kg can’t be afforded, when they used to weigh 800kg. So which are the areas of traditional strength?

Ironically, I believe the Mondeo/Insignia crop of models may generate renewed interest as we wait for the hybrids to arrive. They’re big bodied and well priced, while their staple engines are both advanced and economical. I’m especially impressed by their traditional voluminous estate versions (which is one reason why Volvo should have a care before it kills the traditionalist’s V70).

One thing Volvo could consider - and I’m half-serious here - is to reprise the old shovel-nosed Volvo design. After all, retro-cars like the Mini and Fiat 500 continue to provide islands of sales strength in a world of uncertainty, and Volvo marketing men continue to protest that the perception of the boxy and upright Volvo hold-all refuses to die.

Maybe it’s time to stop fighting the old image and to see it as a virtue.

To ‘spud’ or not to ‘spud’?

2008-10-02T13:04:07Z

It’s difficult question to broach: how do you ask the designer of the BMW X1 Concept whether he knows what everyone else is thinking? “Adrian van Hooydonk, chief designer at BMW: do you realise that you’ve created another car apparently trapped underneath a fallen ugly tree?”

I wasn’t quite that abrupt, as you’ll see in our Paris show video on the car. But still, the question had to be asked.

And to his credit, van Hooydonk swatted it with diplomatic ease. “Actually, I think we’ve created a pretty car,” he said. He then went on to point out that the X1 had to look like a contemporary BMW; it had to share the brand’s SUV design DNA; it had to be smaller than an X3 and yet muscular- and powerful-looking; and that beauty was in the eye of the beholder anyway, so he didn’t much care whether I thought it was a spudder really.

Correct answer, Adrian; top man.

You get the impression, when you look at BMW’s last decade or so of design heritage, that Munich values distinctiveness much more highly than conventional beauty anyway. With one exception (that of the conservative E90 3-series) I can’t remember the last time a new BMW was unveiled to reactions anything other than ‘eeew’ or ‘errugh’.

Pretty cars, it seems, age much more quickly than ‘challenging’ ones; they disappear much more readily into the darker margins of the automotive landscape.
When you look at them three- or four-years into their lifecycle, even, often once we’ve acclimatised to their unconventional shapes, surfaces and proportions, most BMWs seem much more attractive. I’d say that, somehow, the E60 5-series has blossomed into one of the most eye-catching and handsome saloons on the market.

Give it three years and, who knows, maybe we’ll all be looking at the BMW X1 through more favourable eyes. One thing's for sure: as Ratan Tata must have been pleased to observe when I saw him taking an eyeful of the new BMW earlier, it's nowhere near as good-looking as the Land Rover LRX.

Technorati Tags: BMW,Adrian van Hooydonk,X1,SUV,Ratan Tata,Land Roverver LRX

Turning down the Voltage

2008-09-11T13:32:44Z

Are you disappointed by the look of the new Chevrolet Volt? Compare the leaked pictures of the real thing with the much-publicised concept car, and you see a car of tame, even lame, looks that appear to do nothing to proclaim it as revolutionary.

The sharp edges have gone; so has the subtly aggressive proportioning and with it much of the aura of excitement that has surrounded the Volt since it was first previewed.

It’s an excitement that has done much to create an atmosphere of hope around GM, even though its North American activities are going through the economic wringer. Again.

Admittedly, GM has never said so, but most commentators have seen the Volt as a saviour, a car that might finally allow the General to land a punch on Toyota and even turn a profit. Look at these pictures, though, and you see a saloon with all the impact of a used Toyota Corolla. How could GM stumble - again - at such a crucial moment?

In fact, the sharp edges had to go because they create drag, and the wide stance was a non-starter for the same reason. But while the shallow side windows of the original remain, a strip of matt black bodywork beneath them does much to eliminate the drama of their lack of depth.

Of course, the Volt is about far more than looks of course, but the real thing looks weak. And yet these leaked pictures could be cleverer than they appear. Undisguised scoop shots of a Volt on test reveal a car striking for its cab-rear look, its swooping roofline and minimal rear overhang. It appears a lot more impressive than the ordinary-looking Volt in these leaked shots.

So has GM played a blinder in a bid to massively lower our expectations before the reveal on 17 September? That way our first proper sight of the real thing will have us thinking that actually, it looks pretty good after all - even though it’s not as striking as the original. Clever.

Technorati Tags: Chevrolet Volt,Toyota,General Motors,GM

New Mini - is this just more of the same?

2008-09-10T16:22:28Z

So what do you think of the Mini SUV? The right way to go? Or does it look too much like what’s gone before?

I’m in the second camp to be honest. BMW is absolutely right to think about stretching the brand – and this genre is guaranteed to generate sales. Not just in Europe but in the all-important American market too. And its timing could be perfect. After all, buyers are currently desperate to get out of bigger cars.

I just wish that Mini designers had used this car to take a different direction. It looks good, but too much like a pumped-up hatch and that’s a wasted opportunity. The new Mini brand is now such a fixture they could have had the luxury of greater extravagance.

Of course, this is only a concept and the real thing could be end up being different. So could the more conventional five-door hatch that’s also likely to be built using the SUV’s underpinnings. But I doubt it.

That said, the Mini SUV should be arriving at exactly the same time as the Land Rover LRX. The battle between these chic off-roaders is going to be an interesting one. Though at the moment I reckon the Landie has it licked on looks.

Cadillac Sports Tourer at Pebble Beach

2008-08-18T07:46:35Z

I was at Pebble Beach this weekend for, amongst other things, the unwrapping of the new Cadillac Sports Tourer. It went down really well with the mainly US audience and it deserved the praise: it’s a fine looking thing in the metal and a lot more handsome, somehow, than the saloon.

But I was probably more interested in the Evoq concept that Cadillac also wheeled out for us to have another look at.

Remember it? It’s a pretty, and muscular looking two-door coupe that Caddy unveiled here in Pebble Beach exactly ten years ago. I remember thinking then how radical and edgy it looked but it seems a lot more restrained now.

But the Evoq has turned out to be an important car, as it kickstarted the current Caddy look that is epitomised by this new estate.

Even more amazingly perhaps, the Evoq was styled by Brit Simon Cox and his team in the West Midlands. And the rather talented Mr Cox has played a key role in just about every Cadillac since.

So remember that when you finally see a new CTS on a British road. It may be an archetypal brash American saloon (albeit rather well executed) but it was born just outside of Birmingham.

Aston One-77: the work of a genius?

2008-08-08T08:57:41Z

Given that Aston Martin chief Dr Ulrich Bez once spent many months of his life painstakingly developing and building making a small batch of ultra-lightweight racing bikes of his own design, you’d expect him to love the art component of great engineering.

Since taking the controls of Aston Martin in 2000, he has continued to talk fervently of cars as art, insisting that the Aston models he has created are appreciated for their fine detail, and photographed with loving care.

However, this new venture, the One-77, values the art component of a car more highly than anyone has ever done before. What he’s offering is, essentially, a beautiful and very expensive development of the cars Aston builds now – yes, with a new carbon chassis, hand-beaten aluminium panels and hugely powerful version of the well-known V12 - but he wants to charge six times as much for it as he does for a DBS.

On the face of it, that’s a rather poor deal for the squillionaire who can afford to take the proposition seriously, and I’ve always been told that rich people are that way because they’re rather better than the rest of us at judging what makes good value.

Aston promises its One-77 owners unprecedented input into their cars. If someone wants it to be a two-plus-two, he’ll get his car that way. If another wants it to be a convertible, that’ll be fine, sir. If the owner wants to take part in his own tyre tests or suspension development programme, he’s welcome.

It’s an enticing idea. The question is whether it’s worth all that extra money. And by the way, should Aston Martin choose this moment to appeal to the super-rich when many are affected adversely by the credit crunch and those who aren't are reluctant to flaunt their wealth? It’s also true that Aston dealers in the developed world are having a struggle to sell existing models, and to keep residual values firm, and could probably do with some better targeted help from mission control.

Whether One-77 works boils down to whether Bez understands wealthy people better than the rest of us. And whether this kind of ‘secret’ car is something they want. So far, his record has been immaculate. But if a product is so exclusive that ordinary people will never know enough about it to have an opinion about its quality, performance and specification, maybe it’s not as desirable as something everyone loves.

We won’t see a finished car until the year-end, and first production cars won’t be delivered until the end of 2009, so there’s plenty of time to cogitate. But if One-77 works, as far as I'm concerned it will take Bez’s reputation for making amazingly effective instinctive judgements about the car market right up to genius level.

Ka target audience - but I'm not convinced

2008-08-01T09:52:53Z

So we’ve seen pictures of the new Ford Ka, and I have to say I’m not sold on it yet.

Okay, so the gaping Ford face was always going to be an awkward addition to such a small car, and following in the footsteps of a phenomenon like the original Ka was also never going to be easy.

But am I the only one that thinks it looks like the stunted lovechild of a new Fiesta and a Vauxhall Corsa?

I’m particularly disappointed because I am almost exactly the target audience for the Ka. Twenty-something women such as myself should be rushing out and selling our handbag collections in order to raise the funds for a deposit right now. Frankly, I think I'll keep the handbags.

This is just my initial reaction, and there have been lots of recent cars that appeared dreadful in their first shots but then looked great on the road: both the Jag XF and Volkswagen Scirocco spring to mind.

And, of course, the new Ka will have all the stuff that the old one didn't manage, including modern engines, decent safety equipment and plenty of toys.

But the whole essence of the original Ka was to be great even in its most basic, student-friendly trim. It didn't matter than you had to wind your own windows, or that the engine was born sometime in the early 1950s. After thirty seconds on a twisty 'B' road, all that ceased to matter.

I just hope the new Ka hasn't become so concerned with fashion and toys that it loses it's most important selling point: the ability to offer fun, stylish and unpretentious bargain motoring.

Technorati Tags: Ford Ka Fiesta Vauxhall Corsa Jaguar XF Volkswagen Scirocco

Ferrari California in the flesh

2008-06-17T16:59:13Z

Modern cars are notoriously hard to judge from press pictures and, judging by the new car standing in front of me, the Ferrari California, is no different.

There are aspects of the car which are unusual – the rear deck is high and so the rear elevation is remarkably deep and aggressive.

You might say that it is at odds with the rather more delicate and classically elegant Ferrari nose, but then you can’t see the front and rear of the California simultaneously.

That extraordinary rout running down the car’s side that flips over onto the rear deck is also less shocking in the flesh, though it is more obvious when the roof is up.

Part of the idea of the feature is to reduce the visual height of boot lid (which has to cover the folding roof). The other job of the flourish is to define a haunch over the rear wheel, in the style of the original 1957 California.

Overall, this is a striking car. But Ferrari hasn’t taken the path of least visual resistance.

Disguised California prototypes are still running in and out of Ferrari’s factory as Autocar was photographing this pre-production example. But then the first Ferrari California deliveries are still six months away, and there’s much tweaking still to be done.

The company says this car is designed to deliver both ultimate supercar performance and drift-down-to-the-shopping-mall effortlessness in one package.

We won’t find out if it’s true until later this Autumn

Designing the car's future

2008-06-04T14:17:12Z

Luc Donckerwolke, boss of Seat design and before that the man behind Lamborghini, recently told me: “If we [designers] do our tasks, we can create a clean conscience for car buyers and change the way people live with cars.”

This was in reply to a question about how he thinks car designers will have to react to environmental pressures.

Donckerwolke’s response was an unexpected one, as I have always assumed that engineering was the main answer to the environmental questions. Yet, when you think about what makes a car sell, the only conclusion is that Seat’s design guru is right. As he says, “Designers are the ambassadors of a new era – a way of living.”

Engineering clearly paves a way for the essential new fuel solutions, but cars sell mainly because they are a practical means of transport that has become essential to modern lifestyles.

Creating a totally eco-friendly, efficient method of propulsion will do little for the world’s motoring industry if it’s only available in something that looks like a G-Wiz.

It’s the belief of many, myself included, that the motoring masses won’t give up the comforts of a modern car for the sake of the environment – even if a minority will. So the real challenge is to create a solution that doesn’t compromise this.

Is design the key? I’m convinced – this enlightenment came from the man that designed the Audi A2, after all, and that car was only flawed because it was ahead of its time.

The parting statement from Donckerwolke was: “You can only be happy about such pressure.”

I reckon he’s right. We should all be embracing the “new era,” and as long as we have this kind of foresight and energy behind the industry, there’s hope for us all.

Land Rover SVX - an extraordinary concept

2008-04-28T10:18:53Z

Land Rover's latest incarnation of the Defender will certainly get heads turning... and quite possibly a few stomachs. I saw the SVX soft-top at the Geneva motor show and instantly felt that the Defender’s timeless concept - the flat panels, front and rear beam axles, minimal electrics and hose-clean interior – had been Islingtonised. It’s like finding your local pig farmer has taken to wearing high heels, a tiara and pearls.

Few Land Rover drivers would unflinchingly defend the standard seats and driving position from criticism, but if Recaro buckets are the answer, then I’d love to know what the question was. Yes, sat-nav and iPod connectivity are excellent cabin additions that will have wide appeal; similarly, a bit of damping refinement will be appreciated by anyone who drives in town, where the combination of speed bumps and poor road surfaces presents most 4x4s with their greatest challenge. But what is the point of putting an high-end sound system in a four-wheel-drive soft-top, where you’ll struggle to hear it above 30mph?

I’m delighted that the four-pot Transit engine has proved popular – rightly so – but how does losing a cylinder fit with installing the best part of £10,000 of upmarket kit? I suspect that under Tata’s ownership a ‘UN-spec’ Defender will soon appear. If it’s a soft-top with wind-up windows, I will be the first to rejoice. Even if it's only for overseas consumption.

Technorati Tags: land rover,defender,roll-bar,svx,geneva