car design thread | Page 457 | FerrariChat

car design thread

Discussion in 'Creative Arts' started by jm2, Oct 19, 2012.

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  1. VigorousZX

    VigorousZX Formula Junior

    Aug 17, 2011
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    Commenters kept bringing up Syd Meads name, so much more class in the sketch design...
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    It was me actually, I overlapped the BMW Vision concept over it :)
     
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  2. jm2

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    More 'friendly & approachable' I guess.
     
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  3. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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  4. F1tommy

    F1tommy F1 World Champ
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    I like this quote from Syd Mead. That Syd Mead US steel painting was done after the wedge was already in full stride, although the SCG 009 does follow it pretty closely.

    "Syd: “My attitude toward current production cars is very ambiguous. Some of them are so ugly and contorted, you marvel that they were deliberately made to look that way. The design process is responsible. The vehicle design starts as a tessellated mesh describing the volume that fits over the package. Then door and light package cuts and DLO (Daylight Opening) contours are mapped over this mesh. The result is a perfect fit of what can be nutty match-ups at material splits."
     
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  5. F1tommy

    F1tommy F1 World Champ
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  6. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    Great interview with Peter Schreyer:
    https://www.frogdesign.com/designmind/design-mind-frogcast-ep-1-peter-schreyer-visionary-car-designer-recovering-petrol-head?utm_campaign=podcast%20&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Design%20Mind%20frogcast:%20Peter%20Schreyer,%20Hyundai&utm_content=Visionary%20Car%20Designer,%20Recovering%20Petrol%20Head

    Visionary Car Designer, Recovering Petrol Head
    Design Mind frogcast: Peter Schreyer
    Podcast

    Legendary car designer Peter Schreyer knows what it takes to design cars that people love. Now he’s committed to supporting a more sustainable transportation industry.

    On this episode of the Design Mind frogcast, we had the privilege to speak with Peter Schreyer, a world-renowned car designer, best known for his design work on the Audi TT, the Volkswagen New Beetle, the Volkswagen Golf, the Hyundai Tucson, the Kia Stinger, and also for revitalizing the Kia Optima line—among many others. Today, Peter heads design management for Hyundai Motor Group. For more than two years, his team has been working with frog to develop creative strategies to support a more sustainable transportation industry.

    Listen to the episode and read the transcripts below to hear how he got his start in design, where he finds his creative inspiration and why the most exciting thing about the future of designing cars might not be in designing cars at all. Plus, you’ll learn which cars he always enjoys seeing on the road—even when they pass him on the autobahn.

    Visionary car designer, recovering petrol head
    Guest: Peter Schreyer, Head of Design Management at Hyundai Motor Group
    Episode #1, 11 Dec 2020
    [​IMG]20 mins
    Some fast facts from Peter:

    Best Song to Drive Fast To: ‘Crosstown Traffic’ by Jimi Hendrix

    Manual or Automatic: Manual, even if it’s not as “practical”

    Most Valuable Design Tool: A black mechanical pencil he never leaves home without. “It’s an automatic kind of reaction. If I need to explain something, I need to draw it out.”

    His Proudest Design: “The car that I still see and I really love is the Audi A2. It was a low emissions car and still a very nice useful concept. I think this way of thinking is interesting to me—thinking for the future.”

    Why Cars Still Need Human Drivers: Personal responsibility and human spontaneity. “There’s a certain type of etiquette in pulling up in your car. Do you want to stop right at the door or further away? It’s a matter of feeling. You still need to have the possibility of influencing this spontaneously.”



    Episode Transcript:
    Design Mind frogcast
    Peter Schreyer: Visionary Car Designer, Recovering Petrol Head
    Episode 1

    [1:02]
    I have liked cars. Maybe in the old way I am kind of a petrol head. My father taught me how to take a bend, and how to go into a curve, and shift back, and how to overtake. He liked driving actively and fast, and it’s always fascinated me.

    [1:33]
    As a designer, or as a car designer, I always considered it the best job in the world. My whole career, I’ve always reacted on my gut feeling. I think this is the only way I can work. It’s the only way I can think. My visions come more from the stomach, from the emotional side. I think this is the advantage to be able to have creative input with design thinking. As designers, we know a lot about the trends and what’s going on in the world and we are able to translate it. You are in this constant process of improvisation and finding new things, and getting new inputs from all kinds of directions—from architecture, from fashion, from trends in society, from all kinds of things—and you combine them always in a new way.

    Following His Creative Instincts

    [2:49]
    When I grew up I was always interested in art, in creating things, drawing, painting, looking at the surrealists and the dadaists and all that, rather than being interested in mathematics and all those kind of things. So that path was probably paved in very early days. All these things somehow have an effect on each other and an effect on my work.

    [3:23]
    I actually walked past the Mozarteum in Salzburg yesterday, and I had my first key experience of a jazz concert there. A friend of mine and I, who was the drummer in the band that we had as boys, we went there on our bikes to see this concert and there were no more tickets. They said unfortunately there’s only stage tickets left. So we actually sat on the stage beside the musicians. This was such a key experience, this difference to everything else.

    [4:04]
    Classic musicians, as much as I admire this art form, they just play from a sheet and interpret what somebody else has composed before. A jazz musician invents it at the moment. What I really like about jazz is the way people improvise, and always react in the moment. They play together. This is also how you play on a team, on a design team. You have to have a good understanding of each other, a blind understanding—this is what happens in a band also. You have to find the right people and then you find this kind of, let’s call it a spiritual connection to them. Sometimes it’s important to have the same kind of humor, a similar way of looking at things.

    A New Era of Transportation

    [5:22]
    You know, that there is a saying from Federico Fellini who said, “Only the visionary is the true realist.” If you’re not visionary, you do not recognize the things that are possible and that are probably really coming. People think they are realists, but they are living in the present and not thinking about future solutions.

    [5:47]
    The car industry is under such an enormous change at the moment and actually the trends are not at the horizon, they are right in front of us. You can hardly see the horizon. The industry still needs and is still looking for stylists, let’s say—people who are able to make a car that looks good, which is really an art form and is very important. It will stay important to make things that are driving around on the street a part of the environment and make it attractive.

    [6:40]
    Our world and the world of transportation, the world of cars, has changed a lot. I’m thinking about what is reasonable and what works for the future. One of the cars I’m driving is the Hyundai NEXO, it’s a hydrogen car. I think it’s a very interesting technology and it’s very advanced. It’s basically, more or less, the only hydrogen car with a fuel cell that you can buy at the moment. I think it’s very interesting and I just simply want to be part of that and try it out. It’s actually a cool feeling to drive it, even if it doesn’t have the performance of a sports car. It’s a different perspective.

    [7:24]
    You know, one of my designers, quite some years ago, a Korean designer, he said to me, “So, how do you see electric cars? Don’t you think that we are missing the sound and the scent of a V8, which makes cars so exciting?” And I said, “You know, think about the other way around. If we only had electric cars and somebody came and said, ‘I made an invention. I invented the gasoline engine and it burns oil, and you have to make gasoline, and the burnt oil is coming out through an exhaust pipe into the air, and it makes a noise?’ Nobody would understand.”

    [8:18]
    The pure petrol head doesn’t do it anymore. I am still of this old generation, but now we need people who understand mobility. The Royal College of Art in London has changed the name of their department, and now it’s called ‘Intelligent Mobility.’ Before it was just ‘Transportation Design.’ So this is a big difference, and it needs people who want to be a part of that—still people who are, of course, creative, visionary and also people who can shape a car. It’s gotten more challenging, but at the same time extremely competitive.

    [9:03]
    All these environmental problems we have at the moment are certainly influencing us a lot and challenging us to find new solutions. Technologically there are a lot of things that are coming or are already present, like different kinds of electric, hydrogen, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, all these kind of things—they are there and we need to react on them and we need to take this challenge on. Artificial intelligence is learning probably, and in the future it’s going to improve, but I still believe in real intelligence. Real intelligence: creativity, fantasy and vision.

    Designing Transportation for the Whole World

    [10:38]
    I think this kind of German-ness in design, let’s call it the German philosophy, is something I grew up with. It’s also something I have learned when I grew up in design, and when I studied it, and when I came to Audi. On the other hand, I always felt that we are not doing cars for Germany only—we’re doing cars for the whole world.

    [11:23]
    I think that public transport, individual mobility from bikes and cars, and public transportation and maybe flying machines, it should all be part of a system that makes mobility easier and more effective.

    [11:43]
    Within the Hyundai Motor Group, we have one company that’s called Rotem and they make trains. Recently we have been developing a tram, a hydrogen tram. This is a really interesting project, I think—make a cool tram! Think about how you can make a tram more effective, and a cool piece that travels through the city.

    [12:11]
    It needs to be a system, that’s for sure. I think cars will still play an important role in the future, now with COVID I think people will want to be in cars again more because it’s a safe way, it’s your own environment.

    Sustainability in the Transportation Industry

    [12:46]
    My team and I have been working together with frog for about 2 1/2 years to develop creative strategies together. We’ve been very successful so far, but we cannot really talk publicly about it. Sustainability plays a very important role, especially in uncertain times like this. Yeah, I can’t give away too much.

    [13:12]
    As a big company—and I think this counts for every big organization—we need to think about and work on sustainability in every direction. If you look for sustainability in a translator, you will find about five or six German words for it there that are very different. I look at it that way. If there’s many different types of sustainability, you can talk about solutions for environment and pollution, but also for a cultural change in the company, sustainability in society and all these kind of things. To think about sustainability and find solutions within the group is very important. An industrial organisation like we are needs to aim for making a lower impact and there’s a necessity of speeding up to make the company more circular, and also find the right talent, and the right people, and to make connections to other companies—to find solutions and first do pilots, to try things out.

    The Power of Concepts

    [14:40]
    The way I always looked at it, when you do a concept car, it needs to have a potential and a theme about it—either with a new technology or to open a new niche in the market, to find a new solution for new demands that customers probably have. A production car when it comes out, when people see it the first time, it shows how we’ve been thinking three, four years before. When you do a concept car and you put it to a motor show, or you show it to the public and to the media, you have the possibility to give a glimpse into our thinking world where we stand now. It’s also good to ahead of time get people aware and interested in new things.

    [15:46]
    I think in the old days when you look at studies when cars looked like rocket ships, that was a time when the concepts only were about the shape and the styling. Concerning this kind of thing, we’re going through a paradigm change.

    [16:03]
    When you think about sustainability and our environment and all these kinds of things, I feel a responsibility towards the young generation and towards my kids who inspire me a lot. I can see how they think, how they look at the world and what they expect. I still want to be a part of a company that cares about the future and about these kinds of things, and tries to find solutions. It sounds very ambitious, but to create a better world, let’s say.

    Making His Mark in Car Design

    [16:44]
    My ambition was never to make a mark as a designer, you know what I mean? It just happened, because I tried to do good things. I tried to make good things for the company I’m working for. For me, it’s a very rewarding feeling if you get this kind of respect. I always enjoy when I see a car that I have made, when I pass it on the autobahn, or I get passed by one of them, or when I stop at the traffic light, and I have a car that I designed next to me and I look to see who’s driving it. It’s just a nice feeling. It’s the great thing about our job. You can see the results of your work everyday, everywhere in the world, everywhere. That’s fantastic—the feeling that you actually did something that is part of the environment somehow.

    [17:48]
    I remember quite some time ago, the new Golf was just out—the one that I did. I pulled up in front of a supermarket in Austria, and next to me, just after me came a young lady in that new Golf. She stepped out of the car and met her friend and said, “Look what I’ve got!” You know, you sit next to this and you think, how great is that? This is fantastic.

    His Advice to Young Designers

    [18:21]
    This is the advice I would give to young designers today: you have to be really open-minded, to be able to look at the big picture. You have to still be able to have the skills of designing a car, but that’s not enough. I also think they need to understand, and this is a big change as well I think, that there is not only cars. There are other things in transportation and mobility that are interesting and challenging to be designed. I think designers know what they need to do. It’s more for the leaders of the industry—they should listen to designers more.

    We want to sincerely thank Mr. Peter Schreyer of the Hyundai Motor Group for taking the time to share his thoughts on his work with us, and for giving us so much to think about in the world of mobility. Subscribe to the Design Mind frogcast wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you have any thoughts about the show, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out at [email protected].
     
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  7. HotShoe

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    Like his other cars, very derivative. Not bad but nothing really "new".
     
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  8. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    Interview with Mini Exterior designer:
    https://www.weareellectric.com/elle/5-1-with-minis-exterior-designer-khrystyne-zurian

    Meet MINI’s exterior designer Khrystyne Zurian. She not only gives us a great insight into her work at MINI and why the brand appeals to all genders, she also lets us know when her passion for cars started, which part of a car is her favourite as well as most challenging to design, how the exterior design has changed within the last ten years and how it will look like in 2030. Last but not least she tells us if during her career she has faced any disadvantage due to being a woman and how it looks in her team at MINI.

    When it came time for me to choose a career path, it seemed almost natural that I would follow my dad and blend my passion for art and design with automotive.
    1. When did your passion for cars begin and what was the first car you owned?
    Growing up in Southern California, cars were a big part of our culture. Muscle cars, exotics, hot rods, I grew up around it all. I was always sketching as a kid and had my crayons and colour pencils in hand wherever I went. My favourite subjects in school were Art History and art/design classes. Although car design didn’t become a passion until after high school, I was exposed to the idea at a young age.

    When I was a kid, my dad worked as a clay and digital sculptor at the GM Advanced Studio in Newbury Park, CA. In 1994, he founded TFX, where they specialised in the fabrication of feature film vehicles and concept cars for many of the studios in Southern California. When my brothers and I were really little he would bring us to the GM studio, and it was so inspiring to see all the chalk, marker, and airbrush sketches hanging on the walls and lying around on designers’ desks. By the time we were teenagers, we worked for him during our summer breaks at TFX, sanding down and laying up fiberglass parts. Getting to go to my dad’s shop was always exciting because there was always a cool car on the surface plate. The Kilmer and Clooney Batmobiles, the Fantastic 4 car, a few Acura NSXs. It was a creative environment that I wanted to be a part of. When it came time for me to choose a career path, it seemed almost natural that I would follow my dad and blend my passion for art and design with automotive. My two brothers also followed this path. My youngest brother Derek is a clay modeler, having experience in several Southern California car studios. And my other brother Dustin has worked as a fabricator on feature films and is with a California based EV company.

    I didn’t own my first car till I was 19 and until then I was driving my parent’s Chevy 4 door Dually and Dodge Ram V8 lifted crew cab. We’re a truck family. Very American. When I was attending Art Center, I bought a new, red 2006 MINI Cooper S with a contrast black roof. It wasn’t exactly my first car, but it was the first car I owned that I had an emotional attachment to. It had so much character and personality and was a total blast to drive. This is what drove me to fall in love with the brand.

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    2. You are an exterior designer of MINI, what are the iconic design elements and why does the design appeal to many women?
    MINI is an icon itself. MINI has a responsibility to its heritage to respond to the needs of sustainable mobility. It’s distinctive proportions, short overhangs, clever use of space and go-kart stance are all characteristics that have been built with the same spirit of curiosity and innovation intended by the classic Mini.

    In our core character, the MINI Hatch, we do have several exterior icons that we cherish at MINI Design. The round headlights, the floating contrast roof, wrap around greenhouse and the hexagon grill are all iconic design elements that are clearly recognisable MINI. Throughout the portfolio, you can see how these elements have been reinterpreted while still staying true to the MINI core.

    I believe MINI appeals to all genders and has become more than a product, but an attitude. The thrill of driving is not just for men; women love motoring, too. MINI is an inclusive brand with a positive attitude and outlook on the future of mobility. It’s is an urban brand that creates emotion between car and driver, allowing a dynamic expression of one’s individuality.

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    3. Is there any part of the MINI that you like designing most and what’s the most challenging part for you?
    My favourite part doesn’t lie in the details of the exterior, but in the design process. At MINI, not only do we do all the production work, face lifts, details, but we also do all the advanced design within the team. This means all the preproduction work is done in-house. Before we start designing the actual production car, we propose several character and proportion models. These proposals challenge package requirements and proportions for new and current models, and influence the future strategy of the MINI portfolio. It’s not the highlighted work you see in public but the important foundation for the produced model. This is my favourite part of the job. Developing a character concept, form language, fighting for areas of optimisation and then seeing these themes in the production car is quite rewarding.

    The most challenging aspect of the job is developing new solutions while working around strict technical requirements. Challenging engineering and fighting for design is the toughest part of the process.

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    4. How did in general the exterior design change within the last ten years? Where is the trend heading and what do you think how will it look like in 2030?
    Within the last ten years, we’ve seen a number of startup companies advance the shift toward sustainable mobility. They’ve pushed the big OEMS to react at a faster pace. Electrification is already challenging vehicle architectures and manufacturing processes. We’re seeing advances in autonomous driving solutions and we are becoming more connected to the world outside while behind the wheel. With digitalisation and AI, cars are able to anticipate and respond to vehicle occupants’ needs and commands. We are seeing a shift in consumer mobility behaviour which is changing the idea of ownership. It’s an exciting time for innovation in automotive design.

    We are definitely heading into a more connected future. I would really like to see further advancement in manufacturing processes which could potentially reshape the way we build cars and further advance the architecture of safety requirements.

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    Michelle Christensen, Lili Melikian, Kerrin Liang, Uli Schafmeister, Anne Forschner, Eva Günther, Ana Zadnik, Tisha Johnson, Christine Park, Katharina Sachs, Lucia Lee, Tünde Lee just to name a few. Shout out to these kick ass women. I look forward to meeting many more.

    And the +1 question from Khrystyne to you: “What does car ownership look like in the future of shared on demand mobility?”

    Thank you Khrystyne for the great and inspiring talk.


    Pictures: BMW Group
    Interview: Britta Reineke
     
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  9. 330 4HL

    330 4HL Formula 3

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    With your recent sseries of posts, you are on a roll my friend - 10*!
     
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  10. HotShoe

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    In your opinion is the industry still aggressively looking for female designers?

    I ask because when I graduated in 1994 they were desperate to hire any female they could. Even to the point of considering girls who could barely sketch. I know one who ended up in color in trim at Ford.

    Lol, I always said I I should have worn a skirt to my senior thesis. :)
     
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  11. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    The answer is yes, the industry still needs females interested in Trans Design.
    It has been very difficult over the last 40 yrs to find females that had any interest in Trans, let alone Exterior Trans Design. It's a tough sell. Most parents won't/don't encourage their daughters to pursue Design, and Trans Design is not on anyone's radar. The time I spent teaching, female students were the exception. It was difficult to find any that were even remotely interested. Then having actual talent was another thing altogether.
    Having said that I had a few females that I would put up against any male designer.
    Talent is talent.
     
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  12. anunakki

    anunakki Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    He touched on what i think is a very important point. Cars arent just transportation any longer. Same way the phone is a portable computer, the car is now an extension of ones home and workplace. Its far more of an appliance now.

    Designers need to understand that.
     
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  13. HotShoe

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    Thanks. I thought it was still the same. I've been trying to steer my daughter in that direction but she isn't having it! :)
     
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  14. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    I’m not surprised.
    Explain to her the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of your labor driving down the street.
    And the $$ ain’t that bad either.:rolleyes:
     
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  15. VigorousZX

    VigorousZX Formula Junior

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    Boobs on a car... this may have been part of the subversion that took place to bring women into the work force (I dont need a man, can buy my own car) and break the family structure. The sexual revolution and feminist movement were part of the same ploy. Sue Ellen Browder, former Cosmopolitan Magazine writer, confesses to this.

    A little marketing bit on how car purchases reflect consumer identities.
    Subconscious Marketing - Propaganda to Public Relations - Bernays with Freud in US 1920's - BBC
    2:25:00 - 2:27:00
    youtube.com/watch?v=2HLgAZLghH4
     
  16. VigorousZX

    VigorousZX Formula Junior

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    gm's executive Alfred Sloan, offering multiple models for different market segments
    The Men Who Made Us Spend
    @17min in
    youtube.com/watch?v=MFUt1iGxPvE
     
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  17. energy88

    energy88 Two Time F1 World Champ
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    I think we quickly come back to the old saying: "Sex Sells Cars!"

    The 10 Sleaziest Car Ads Of The Century

    No one utilizes the power of sexual suggestion like car companies. Cars are a sex symbol, and in the race to sell their brands, the top players in the industry have tried to out-sex each other, at one point or another.

    Some of them are just sleazy.

    Some don't even feature a car.


    https://www.businessinsider.com/sleaziest-car-ads-of-the-21st-century-2013-3
     
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  18. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    Is the traditional 3 box sedan dead? Or is there still life left in it?
    https://www.cardesignnews.com/features/the-three-box-sedan-requiem-or-revival/41465.article


    Stateside, the three-box sedan seems to be in retreat with VW withdrawing the Passat and Lincoln phasing out the Continental. Is it all over for this time-honoured format, or does its future simply lie in other areas of the global market?

    Recently, it was reported that the Volkswagen Passat will be phased out in North America, and will only be sold in its Estate Wagon variant in Europe. The reasons are long and varied, and seem congruent with the changing times and challenges awaiting Volkswagen in the near future. Nameplates come and go, of course, and although it is sad to see some cars disappear into history, the cancellation of the Passat shines a light on a larger trend, the demise of sedans in general, and of three-box sedans in particular.

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    So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen goodbye: the Volkswagen Passat is off

    Ford, GM, and Chrysler have gotten out of the mid-size sedan market. Lincoln, once competing with Cadillac for luxury sedan dominance, is phasing out the Continental and focusing on crossovers and SUVs. Speaking recently with Automotive News, Joy Falotico, Lincoln’s president said, “We’re going to look to invest in growth segments. We think we’ve made the right choice there.” Translation: “We don’t make sedans anymore.”

    And let’s be fair: for every OEM that retreats from the sedan segment, there are others waiting to take market share. In the US, these would include Toyota, Hyundai and Kia, and Honda. Even Volkswagen has its own (three-box!) sedan, Jetta, a strong seller in the US market. For marketing executives, this merely reflects the change of the times and the taste of the buying public. Crossovers and SUVs dominate because people value function very highly and these formats at least appear to serve that need very well.

    So what next for the venerable three-box sedan? Is it still a valid configuration? And if it is, does it need a rethink? Possibly, but there are undoubtedly strengths in this tried and tested format. Firstly, there is the question of aerodynamics: the svelte sedan offers less wind-resistance and can increase the range of both EVs and ICE-powered iterations. Danish car designer Andreas Warming’s work with a Saab concept suggests there is still scope for innovation within the segment.

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    The Bentley-esque Lincoln Continental, the marque’s last sedan, is soon to disappear

    The sedan is versatile, too, accommodating estate and even crossover versions with minimal alterations to its fundamental architecture. Journalist Nick Gibbs noted,” It also benefits from long-held associations with elegance and luxury – many buyers of premium cars prefer a separate passenger compartment from the luggage compartment.” You can pinpoint these notions of luxury way back to before the motor car was invented.

    As Richard Kim, formerly of BMW and now at Canoo, noted in a CDN interview last year, compartmentalism began before there were cars. “A horse-drawn carriage was a three-compartment vehicle – the horses as the ‘engine”, the carriage as the passenger compartment, and a trunk hung off the back of the carriage.” The “coach-and-four” as the original three box sedan? It’s an argument that has its merits. After the car was invented and developed its own distinctive forms, the memory of the formality and elegance of the carriage remained and influenced the design of many cars, from luxury marques down to mid-size sedans.

    The three-box sedan brought with it a strong formality to car design. You could take any number of Rolls-Royce models – the Silver Shadow or Phantom IV being stellar archetypes. The Mercedes Pullman is also worth mentioning, along with the early 1960s Lincoln Continental – a strong entry from the American market. And of course, BMW’s E32 and E38 are three-box sedans of impeccable proportions, stance and performance. It is not all high-end. The Alfa Romeo Giulia QV, and some American muscle, the Dodge Charger SRT Widebody Hellcat occupy sportier ends of the spectrum, and the Peugeot 604 makes a very Gallic statement about the classic three-box sedan.

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    Classic three-box: Volkswagen Passat B5

    No less than former design director of Pininfarina Fabio Fillipini, nominated the Volkswagen Passat B5 (1996). “That is to me the perfect archetype of the sedan. A car that raised enormously the quality standards in the segment, to become a benchmark in his class. And it is an almost perfect expression of balance, purity and rigorous design, in the most faithful German functionalist design philosophy.”

    Still, there is space for innovation in the three-box sedan segment. Indeed, the typology has given us some innovative vehicles such as the Saab 900 and 9000, the NSU Ro80, Volvo 460 and Marc Newsom’s 021C Concept for Ford. This innovation would be in body massing, technology – both in powertrains and handling and in cabin interior design, or preferably all of the above. The forthcoming Lucid Air as a near-future sedan that opens some new possibilities for both exterior and interior design.

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    Three boxes, four doors and one drawer: Marc Newsom’s 021C for Ford

    A recent project from Anders Warming displays some possibilities for the future of the three-box sedan. The Saab X_Ray Vision project imagines a newly reborn Saab premium sedan. The Saab design language is still here, although in a much-updated statement. In true Saab fashion, the detailing is elegant and minimalist. The three-box statement is highly streamlined, with a curving blunt nose, a long passenger compartment, and a long tail. The interior is described as being like a “Penthouse – Apartment” by Warming with vast areas of glass at the roof and sides, with two broad rectangular doors of glass, each rising like gullwings but folding up against themselves for maximum ingress and egress area.

    Does the three-box sedan have a future? In a word, yes. But as Scott Krugger, head of Dodge, Chrysler, passenger car and utility vehicle exterior design, remarks: “It’s important that the next generation of three-box vehicles takes advantage of what its package and format can and should be in order to maintain relevance.”

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    Warming Design’s SAAB X_Ray project reimagines the three-box

    No discussion of the three-box sedan would be complete without some input from Chris Bangle, designer of the (in)famous Bangle Butt, introduced on the BMW 7 series back in 2001. “I think your question should be, What will be the metrics by which car design will be discussed in the coming years… and do ‘boxes’ merit discussion?”

    Bangle cites his REDSPACE concept car as an example of the new type of thinking needed by designer. His team moved beyond discussion of boxes to volumetrics, innovations along the x, y, and z planes of the car’s architecture, and layers of meaning or “texts” that describe the car at different levels of experience. “It isn’t holistic design - It’s textual design,” says Bangle. Certainly the interior, with its clever flexibility has something to say about the future of sedans where different experiences (texts) can be read by reconfiguring the seating in the cabin.

    Finally, it is interesting to note that the three-box sedan may find its next, most contemporary expression in a design for Chinese, or Latin American markets where the demand is strong. The three-box format is also popular in Eastern Europe and Turkey – developing markets that have room for growth. Or perhaps a totally new expression of sedan will emerge, one beyond discussions of volumes and boxes. Whatever the future holds, it seems clear that there will be a place for the three-box sedan in the showroom of tomorrow. As journalist Jens Meiners notes: “The potential of the three-box sedan has not yet been exhausted.” We could not agree more.

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    X_Ray vision: Warming Design’s concept for Saab
     
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  19. NeuroBeaker

    NeuroBeaker Advising Moderator
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    Oct 1, 2008
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    Andrew
    I'm sad about the withdrawal of the Lincoln Continental. I quite like the look of them.

    All the best,
    Andrew.
     
  20. energy88

    energy88 Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Jan 21, 2012
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    John
    And just as they were just starting to grow on me. Reminds me a lot of a Genesis in that you just don't see many on the roads except in Florida.

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  21. 330 4HL

    330 4HL Formula 3

    May 12, 2005
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    Rick Bradner
    Ah yes, the REDSPACE concept. The vehicle that makes the Cybertruck look sophistcated...
     
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  22. tritone

    tritone F1 Veteran
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    And I have yet to even see one in the wild (Seattle)..... oh well, off to Craigslist to shop......
     
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  23. tritone

    tritone F1 Veteran
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