Wagons, Wagons, Wagons!

Well, I just cant hide my excitement. The Detroit Auto show brought us no less than 4 new wagons and/or hatches to drool over. Sure, most were announced before hand, but seems like enough are on the horizon to keep things exciting.

 

Probably the most beautiful is the Audi Sportback. Not only does it look great from the side and rear, but they finally worked out something with that grill to make it look almost OK. 

Cadillac is still moving forward with the wagon 

version of the CTS. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I am glad to see it come along.

Another high-end mark, Lincoln got into the mix with its C concept. Looking more like a Renault than the usual FoMoCo offering, it is something that suggests luxury and aggressive futuristic design can go together. Love to see this on the market.

On the other end of the spectrum, Chevy was showing off the tiny Spark, which looks a bit more fun than a Fit. Ford is just brought out the rather humongo Flex, which comes with a supersized serving of MINI-envy. I am waiting for a Focus wagon type variation, or at least a low-rider Edge. Chrysler might end up as the American marketing and distribution arm for Fiat, bringing a whole range of Alpha Romeos and Fiats, including the new 500. All in all, not a bad outlook. 

Except for that whole economy thing...

Big Things In Small Packages

Well, the New York Times is reporting (you have to register on to view) that more people are optioning up their small cars as they trade in the SUV. That should be good news for car makers. For Detroit, it is mixed news, as how many people want a loaded up Aveo? How about a Cobalt GTI? Caliber S? Focus M?

Well, Detroit just doesnt have anything to compete in the premium compact segment. There is nothing that can come up against a MINI, Audi A3, or even a New Beetle convertible all tricked out. Nothing that is fun, sporty, or can be made to be so. Nor anything on the way, that I can see. Ford even just cut out some of the better versions of the Focus.

Oh well...

Tail lights Aglow

You might think me fixated on tail lights, but these days they are almost all too big, too similar, and add very little distiction to the design of the cars they grace. I remember as a kid, riding in the car at night and being able to ID the cars going the other way by the tail lights. Forget about trying that these days.

Here are a few schools of design in the current crop of tail lights:

1) Completely Random Shapes: I think Infiniti really got things going in this department with the G35 Coupe. But others have jumped in, notably BMW, and Honda (Civic sedan). A large subset of this school is the random intersecting blobs, a fine example of which grace the back of Toyota Avalons these days. What is that stuff doing on the trunk lid? Why are they that odd shape and size? Did they shrink in the wash?


2) Tail light as fender: Initially part of the Completely Random Shape School, this movement has broken off with designs pioneered by Lexus and Toyota. Currently, Nissan takes the prize at this with the new Nissan Altima Sedan. The entire top and much of the side of the fender is part of the tail light, aft of the C-pillar. Why not build the whole car out of plastic?


3) Clusters Under Glass: These are almost passe now, but were cool when Lexus did them on the RS400 crossover. Once again, the Nissan Altima Sedan seems to have the biggest, most over the top example.

4) Anything LED: Caddilac got this going a while back (who'da thunk it) but now Audi, Land Rover, and BMW are getting on the bandwagon, and with a dollop more creativity than the guys at Caddy ever thought to use. I saw a Land Rover LED light cluster just today, and its pretty cool. You cant tell in the pic below, but the top lens is both the brake light, with red LEDs clustered in the center, and the directional signal, with yellow LEDs circling the edge. I think the bottom lens is the backup light. I like the understatement, alot.



So, you may ask, anything else good out there? Well, I like the HHR solution. Oddly similar to the Land Rover, but about 10,000 times cheaper. The '97 Toyota Camry had slim, horizontal red bezels that were simple and elegant. That was just before they moved towards the Completely Random Shapes school of thought. The current Honda Civic Coupe has tail lights that are not too big, fit their context, and work to reinforce the identity of the car. Anything else? Ummmm.... lets see now.

At least LEDs have a lot of promise of bringing more elegant, svelte solutions to tail lights. Lets hope it happens.

Tail-lights

Did I mention I have a 65 Falcon Squire?

Well, it's true. So you can imagine my shock and dismay when walking to work that I see a total rip off of the tail lights on some kind of new GMC SUV:

Not that Ford was the only one doing tail-lights like these back in the day. I bet there was an Impala around the same time that had round lights with 4 or 6 radiating chrome doo-dads. But since a while back when Lexus shocked the auto world with its jewel like head- and tail-lights with their RS400, everyone and their mother has been cramming dozens of different light elements under one big uber lens. The idea for these things is to say, "look how cool and modern I am." So to see retro details inside a modern fixture makes one wonder where they were going with this. I wonder if the turn signals blink sequentially like my Dad's '69 Cougar. It says, "Look at my car. It has a little tail-light history museum built into the back."

Which in turn brings up this whole styling of rear lights in general. In my opinion, they are all way too big. If you look at a PT Cruiser, or a MINI, you can see that street legal lights don't have to be huge. So this is a design decision. Guy with the biggest red glowing things wins, I guess. Me, I'd prefer some sleek slim horizontal strip of light that seems tucked into a character line, and is perhaps even wraps around the side. Audi is starting to do something like this with the LED lights, but they are housed in a huge block of red plastic. Oh well.

Shut your mouth when you chew!

The front of a car says alot. It sets the tone for the rest of the design. So what were the designers at Audi and VW thinking when they did these:

  

Gawd dang. Those grills are just plain ugly. I know they are trying to do something to conceal that 6" battering ram that the feds require, but Audi's corporate look makes me think of sitting back in the dentist chair... one of my least favorite activites. VW seems to have been unable to figure out a way to make this look good, so they just threw alot of shiny stuff at it. People like shiny things, right?

And it is too bad, as the rest of these cars are so darn nice looking. But I can't buy (or love) a car that has an ugly grill. I just can't.