Posts Tagged "2012"

If you were busy looking for brand new concept and production cars here in LA, you’d have probably left half way through the first morning. But just because there haven’t been dozens of new unveils, doesn’t mean we’ve not found some interesting details to pour over on the cars here in LA. So from the top, we offer you:

BMW i3 coupe floating centre screen

The i3 coupe interior is a delight pretty much everywhere you look. But we love how the wrapping leather element of the dash concludes to become the arm from which the (floating) centre screen is suspended.

Jaguar stand colour sculpture

Shown sideways here, just to accentuate its arty-ness, the colour sculpture ring on the Jaguar stands resembles one of those electricity pylon details.

Mazda CX-5 180 Concept lamp/grille detail

There are quite a few of these SEMA/custom-type SUVs at the show. Our favourite was this Mazda and the red pin-stripe grille element, which runs into the lamp and then is crossed by the red dash-dot graphic.

Hyundai Veloster C3 Roll top rear deck

We’ve already blogged about this concept and its fixie bike. But the bit we really like is the recycled bits of skateboard that make up the trunk deck floor lining. Reminds us of Freitag bags and feels very fresh and perhaps more importantly, non-corporate

Acura RLX Anodised starter-button

We’ll be honest, it’s completely out of place in the RLX. But this is the kind of start button that a sports car should have – red, and formed out of anodised aluminium

Range Rover lashing points

Good illustration of the Range Rover’s push-up market are these load lashing points, which are exquisitely detailed and give a real sense of perceived – and actual – quality

Lincoln MK-Z headlining rear reading lamps

It wasn’t perfectly executed (pressing the headlining’s a bit odd, and it felt a bit hollow/cheap) but hovering your finger against a little LED, and the reading lamp then illuminating as if from nowhere, is what you might term a nice ‘surprise and delight’ novelty

VW Beetle Cabrio hood/header intersection

So often, convertible soft tops mess up a car’s lines and just look like plain bad fits. We really like the fact that on the new Beetle Cabriolet’s hood, the A-pillar is visually continued by the soft top, forming an impression of a cant rail.

Porsche Cayman rear cubby hole cover

Porsche is really starting to get its detailing and PQ together – in the new Cayman, there are a pair of really neat, sliding lidded cubbyies either side of the rear load area.

by Joe Simpson

We’re still getting to grips with the looks of the 500L – tottering-stance et al – and of the fact that Fiat plans to expand the 500 into a wider range; nee sub-brand.

So there was a degree of trepidation when we heard about the 500L Trekking here in LA. But the reality of it is that the 500L Trekking might be the version that really makes the 500L make sense. The lower body cladding and front mask – although it gives the car a bit more of a chin – actually lends the car some attitude. It grounds the stance a little better and there’s now some much needed accent over the wheels, dragging your eye down and taking some of the perceived weight out of the body side.

And maybe it’s just us, but this dark lower cladding, yellow body and white roof colour scheme worked better than previous cars we’ve seen too. Neat lamp graphic too – how come we’re not getting this in Europe Fiat?

And in anecdotal news that will be music to Fiat’s ears, the three American journalists we sat in the 500L with – who came from middle American states – were keen to tell us just how much more successful they thought Fiat would be with this car than the regular 500. Seems that the adage is true. In the US, bigger is always better.

by Joe Simpson

The Forte is a more important car than you might first think. The c-segment sedan market is a huge growth area right now. We might still be wedded to the hatch in Europe, but in both the US and perhaps more importantly China, without a C-sedan, you’re stuck. Cars like Audi’s new A3 sedan (seen up until now in concept form) suggest the breed’s come of age – a well judged C-segement sedan is now actually as big as a three-generations ago D-segment A4 or 3-Series. And that’s allowed the proportion to really breath – no longer feeling crunched up, and really helping the design.

And so it proves with the Forte. For our money, like the European Cee’d, the cab and A-pillar is still a little too far forward. But other than that, there’s very little we can pick fault with. This is a very handsome, mature and immaculately surfaced car. The details – particularly the front and rear light graphics – are very modern, and feature more advanced technology than some would-be premium brands. Sold also as the K3/Cerato in other markets and first seen as long ago as July, this is nonetheless our first really look a the Forte and on this viewing it deserves – and we expect will – do well in the US market. It also makes us look forward to the forthcoming Coup version, always a college kid favourite in the US. It’s great to see a mainstream production car that really stands up to scrutiny and looks great in the metal.

by Joe Simpson

We’re not really sure about the Mercedes Ener-G-force. On one hand we really like the fact Mercedes keeps doing these full size model/concepts for the LA Design Challenge. It brings the whole competition alive and makes it real (and if other manufacturers followed suit with some of their challenge concepts, LA would instantly become the most exciting show of the year). But we’re not really convinced about the G-wagen references – the old stager is a car that seems to actively resist replacement (like Land Rover’s Defender) and this is far away from being its spiritual successor. But there are things to like…

Such as these ‘G’ insignia lamps, which might be the coolest detail of the show. In theory, they sound cheesy. But in reality, there’s a subtlety and lightness of touch to them that’s been missing from some Mercedes designs recently. You only really read them when you get up close, but the detail execution’s really rather good.

by Joe Simpson

There’s a surprising amount to like about the new, full-size fancy Honda if nothing to truly dazzle except, that is, its lamps. Up front is a full complement of 20 projectors that gives a super-techy look to what is an otherwise sober proposition.

The light fantastic continues around the rear with a particularly well-executed light pipe that very slickly highlights the lamp graphic.

By Owen Ready

At first glance, there’s nothing much to see on the new Chevy Spark EV – complete with its electric range projection of 55 miles. But step inside and the interface for this new EV is actually quite pleasing and for what is an A-segment city car, you get some a very high-value set of displays. It’s interesting (if not entirely surprising) that Chevy has chosen to effectively use the Volt’s display for the main gauge pack in front of the driver.

But glance to the centre console, and it’s the parts bin of the European Opel Adam that’s been raided – the centre touchscreen the exact same one we were playing with in Paris a few weeks ago. Except that here it’s mounted higher up the IP and therefore easier to see. And it functions not just as an infotainment centre, but a high-resolution display for the electric power flow, range and driving information datasets. We were surprised and quietly impressed, until we noticed all the scratches on the gloss black surround of the centre screen display…

by Joe Simpson

Porsche has now launched a new 911, Boxster and Cayman in the last 15 months. A cynic would say that the evolutionary nature of the design changes means there’s very little for anyone in the design space to get excited about. You turn up knowing exactly what you’re going to see. Having seen the Boxster we were pretty sure we knew how the Cayman was going to look. Our greatest hope was that they might have re-worked the rear light treatment. No such luck.

But there’s a lot more to see than first meets the eye (especially when seen in photographs) with this new generation of Porsches. From 987 to 981 Boxster, there were some major proportional shifts. And so it proves with the new Cayman, too. From the front, it’s as expected, carrying over much of the new Boxster’s sheet metal and meaning it now has a fairly different (for Porsche) face to the 911.

But move round to the rear – and especially when seen from the rear three-quarters – and the Cayman has changed quite significantly. The volumes, forms and proportions are really quite different to the car that went before. Gone are those flying buttresses and the sense of an almost duck-tail. In its place is a much more stubby, fastback coupe-like rear end.

The volume swept by the fall of the roofline to the rear of the car has been increased. It’s pulled further backwards, such that there’s a greater volume of metal above the rear wheel than before. It could have been heavy and clunky, but as with other new members of this new generation of Porsche, it’s exceptionally well managed in terms of volumes and surface resolution. And the Cayman retains its distinct rear fender treatment, which gives it much of its personality and just enough differentiation that you’re not in danger of ‘small 911’ mistaken identity moments.

There are elements of the design that are less well resolved. It’s a shame, given the greater differentiation to the core product than before, that it shares some of its wheel designs with the 911 and the side air intakes seem overly soft in form. But overall it’s very well resolved, and this writer happens to think this is a very fine piece of design – a smart step on for the nameplate. But others we spoke to, including some members of the CDN editorial team, were less sure about it and were just a little bit disappointed, saying they thought it had lost some of the old car’s character. What do you think?

posted by Joe Simpson

It’s easy to forget in the burgeoning world of CUVs that Toyota’s original 1996 RAV4 effectively gave birth to the segment. It proved not only a huge sales success but also a massive inspiration to other manufacturers who scrambled to catch up.

Throughout its next two generations, the RAV4 eschewed the jacked-up, car-like, hatchback forms that many C-segment SUVs have taken on. It retained a softer, more leisure image and the distinctive spare wheel hung from the back door. It also sold well as a 3-door, to people who bought one instead of small coupes.

Generation four has just been unveiled here in LA and it’s all change for the RAV4’s personality. Gone is the distinctive style, the rear-door mounted spare wheel, the softer edged styling. In its place a generic amalgamation of SUV parts, that’s no more distinct than rival SUVs from Mazda, Hyundai and Mitsubishi to name but a few.

It’s easy to understand the company’s thinking. The RAV4 now aims at the sweet spot of the market and it’s got more of a formal, upmarket image. Presumably, the company hopes this will allow models higher in the range to compete with premium, German opposition.

Yet, despite the Germans being fairly weak in this segment and the fact Korean and other Japanese opposition show little in the way of innovation, the RAV4 is a luke-warm effort.

It’s well packaged with a thematically interesting interior, but the exterior form features surfacing and detail execution that’s sloppy at best. Perceived quality in the interior is poor enough to undermine the design theme thanks to hard plastics, sharp edges, cheap metal-look fillets that are oh-so-obviously plastic. And that’s before we get to one of the cheapest-feeling steering wheels we’ve ever held.

Sales of other products in the segment show that customers perhaps care less about this kind of stuff than we do. But for a nameplate that was so original and that has had so much personality in its back pocket, it’s a real shame to see Toyota going down the ‘me-too’ path with this car. In its static form, it brings nothing standout or original to a now very crowded class.

by Joe Simpson

We’ve been on the ground in LA since Monday, soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying weather that’s a little less inclement than in our native London. With the press days of the LA show moving back, closer to Christmas this year – and the larger Detroit show being just six weeks away – you might have expected this to be a thin pickings kind of show.

But we’re expecting to bring you coverage of a new Porsche Cayman, Toyota RAV4 and Avalon and Subaru Forester production cars. Along with concept debuts of BMW’s i3 coupe (moving the i brand ever closer to a production form), Mercedes Ener-G-force, Smart’s For Jeremy (yes, seriously) and, as we always hope, one or two surprises.

Whether, reviewing that list, you still think it counts as slim pickings, we’ll let you decide. But along with the cars, LA brings us the added interest of the design challenge, the car culture of California and a host of local design studios for whom this is a local show. We always enjoy it over here – there’s a very design-led vibe, even if there aren’t world debuts a plenty. So stay tuned for all the insight, comment and analysis from the CDN team here on the west coast over the next two days.

by Joe Simpson