While we question just how much Rolls-Royce’s bespoke cars in Paris truly represent the Art Deco movement they claim to be inspired by, there’s no doubt that these bespoke posters on the wall outside the stand are truly fantastic. Showing the three cars on display in Paris in a beautifully recreated vintage style , these posters would look very nice on my office wall and show Rolls-Royce’s continued attention to detail and understanding of the super-luxury market.
Drew Meehan
We live in a world of micro-niches. The Mini Paceman perhaps illustrates that most effectively. A blown-up, outsize variant of a car that was initially conceived to be the most efficient automotive form of packing possible, engorged into some West Coast-targetting automotive bauble and presented as a (distinctly un-packaging efficient) Coupe/SUV crossover.
One would think that, given the exploitation of the niche, we’d be celerbrating the variety of different conceptual formats on show. And yet, looking around Paris, what appears to be happening at a macro level, is convergence.
Everyone appears to need a B-sector sized (or based) SUV/Crossover. B-sized hatchbacks must have a touchscreen to compete. Lexus is playing with some interesting surface language, but ultimately just chasing Audi and its successful ability to hit the ‘sweetspot’ in every segment in which it competes. Likewise Jaguar – whose roll out of a ‘long-needed’ coupe is cause for celebration – ultimately, simply shoots calculatingly between Cayman and 911 and wraps things up in a saccharine sweet, pretty but largely predictable coupe body.
The cars that define – or once defined – their segments: Range Rover, Golf, Clio and Mondeo – present new versions that in the most parts, are simply subtle evolutions of their previous incarnations. 10% better every which way, but nothing more than predictable.
In the midst of this we wonder whether the ‘different by design’ philosophy is dead? A decade ago, Renault was in its wheelhouse of flamboyant, anachronistic design – Megane II, Avantime and Vel Satis leading the wooing customers in some markets, repulsing them in others. BMW was undergoing a surface-based design revolution under Bangle, which challenged even the most avant-garde-leaning customers. And we were treated to cars like the Mazda RX8 – a conceptually unique rear-drive Coupe, whose rotary engine brought packaging advantages that meant four, adult-sized seats fitted in a coupe body style and which then threw in suicide doors for good measure. Today, the Megane is dull, the Avantime and Vel Satis dead, BMW is becalmed – chastened even with the sensible, front wheel drive Concept Tourer, while the RX8 is no more – its rotary engine consigned to the bin thanks to regulations.
There are perfectly good, financial, environmental and hard-nosed business-logic reasons for all of this. But from a design perspective – and especially when we look beyond the superficiality of exterior graphics, details and surfaces – there is little to excite, spark the imagination or truly challenge. Even Lamborghinis are predictable, lacking the shock factor they once had. In a crisis, it seems, no one can afford to create a car which risks challenging – and therefore ultimately failing – in its market. But we can’t help but hope that somebody, somewhere soon takes a risk – and remembers that conceptually innovating can often be the fastest way out of the abyss.
Joe Simpson
At first sight, the Paris show appears to be about studied evolution and new production cars – it’s not every day you get a new generation Golf, Clio, Mondeo and Range Rover all at the same show.
Unveiled at its traditional group ‘preview night’ here on Paris’s left bank, the day before the show, VW has played it safe with the Golf VII, but in a very good way. We wouldn’t expect anything else, given the Golf’s evolutionary design history and the fact the model line exists in its own design right, rather than belonging to a wider VW picture. As Walter da ‘Silva said at its unveiling; “There are a handful of cars with a design that, like the Golf’s, has been refined, tweaked and enhanced down the decades and thus become timeless.”
But the big story here is that it builds not on Golf VI, or even V, but that it returns to the some of the values of the Golf IV, which so many designers admire. Mk IV’s influence is most apparent in the rear fender and C-pillar treatment. Unlike Mks V and VI, the side feature line doesn’t run through the rear fender into the rear lamp cluster, instead fading out before the rear door shutline. That leaves the C-pillar to run down in one continuous surface into the wheel arch, as it did on the IV, which re-endows the Golf with so much of its visual strength and classless-ness.
Also banished are the last vestiges of the round theme that gave the Golf V, in particular, its slightly ‘blobby’ appearance. It’s most apparent in the lamp cans – the internals at the front feature square-edged chrome bezels – and remind us somewhat of the way BMW’s signature four-rings have progressed into more of a squircle. Meanwhile, at the back there’s a much more wide-rather-than-deep can, which is visually reminiscent of Audi, until you catch sight of the signature VW hockey stick motif when they’re illuminated.
The biggest shift though, is a very subtle yet important proportional one. The new MQB platform allows Golf VII to swim against the C-mainstream trend. The proportion is ‘cab backward’ (rather than forward) – the A-pillar indexing with the front wheel centre line and the front overhang reduced. It positions the Golf towards the C-premium A3 and 1-Series and puts clear air between it and cars such the Focus, C’eed and Astra. There numerous interesting surface and detail finishes which we’ll come back to in a blog on the show floor tomorrow.
But for now, because it’s longer, lower, wider and crucially lighter, one can’t help but compare the Golf VII to the recently unveiled iPhone 5. It’s the obvious choice in its segment, it will be bought by many people who would never consider anything else and – while visually very similar to the model that went before it – it manages to come across as simply 15% better than its predecessor all round. And while its design evolution might be obvious or even seem unimaginative, considered in isolation it is still peerless in its class. There won’t quite be queues at VW dealerships, but expect it to sell like the proverbial hot cake.
by Joe Simpson
A Panamera we can love? It certainly looked that way at the VW Group Preview night here in Paris, where the long rumoured Panamera Shooting Brake broke cover as this ‘Sport Turismo’ concept. It seems likely to give way to a production Panamera wagon and from our seats in the audience, the integration of a rear tailgate and extended roof line, helps the Panamera’s profile enormously.
The stance of this car looked truly excellent and the detail execution first class. It’s interesting, also, to think that Porsche are doing this just a couple of weeks after Mercedes unveiled the CLS Shooting Brake. For burgeoning numbers of Chinese middle classes who are just discovering the great outdoors,and the pursuits of Golf and activities such as camping, could this format become the car of choice?
by Joe Simpson
