Posts Tagged "la auto show"

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

The Hyundai Veloster C3 Roll Top ‘concept’ adds a couple of new strings to the asymmetric hunchback/coupe’s bow.

As the name suggests the Roll Top features a a fabric roof similar to that found on the Fiat 500C and Citroen DS3, leaving the bodysides and cant rails in place as the soft cover retracts. However while the European pair’s roofs simply fold back, the Veloster’s can also slide forward and drop its tailgate to create a kind of pick-up lifestyle wagon, perfect for all those non-existent active lifestyle clichés.

It’s actually a neat and no-doubt cost effective solution and, in the LA sun, the idea of cruising Highway 1 with a couple of surf boards in the back is no doubt giving the marketing team plenty to high-five each other about.

In order to demonstrate the Roll Top’s load-carry capacity a matching fixie has been loaded into the one here in LA, the Veloster doing its best dad at the disco impression by wearing lime green rear wheels to emulate the bike’s Aerospoke.

The color and trim work on the car is actually the highlight – Liz Curren’s billboard-style roof fabric and upcycled skate board trunk lining feel fresh. It’s a nice bike too.

Overall, nothing really new here but it adds a little more appeal to Hyundai’s college kid offering.

By Owen Ready