Posts Tagged "design"

Its name may sound ill-advised to English speakers such as myself, but the Fiat Viaggio is more significant than its suggestive name.

The car itself is, in fact, completely unremarkable, bringing nothing new to either the C-segment sedan market, nor the Fiat brand. What it represents is the first product from Fiat/Chrysler that spans two brands (it’s the sister car to the Dodge Dart) by more than simply attaching Lancia badges to Chryslers and vice versa.

It’s clearly something we’re going to see far more of as new models are co-developed and, while it appears to work reasonably well in this this case, makes us wonder how such as strategy will work in terms of design across such seemingly disparate brands. Is it possible, through relatively minor changes, to make a car that can genuinely feel either a Lancia or a Chrysler, for example?

By Owen Ready

We all know the score – Kia is the industry darling and has been for the last couple of years thanks to its meteoric rise in quality, design and brand image.

Yet here in China – a brand-savvy market don’t forget – someone in the comms department didn’t get the memo. While at the front of the stand sit the (impressive) Rio, Optima, Sportage et al., on the main stage, next to the on-brand Trackster concept, sits a VQ-R, or a 10-year old Sedona to you and I.

As a form of low-cost, dependable transport, that’s fine, but as a piece in a strategic jigsaw in which the final picture is a design-led vista it doesn’t fit. It’s an advert for how miserable and soulless Kias used to be. Its tacked-on tiger nose grille is as unconvincing as its (beige) interior plastics.

By Owen Ready