The immediate reaction to the ZDX is that this is Honda's take on the BMW X6. The design shares the same fastback four-door SUV/crossover profile and is to the Acura MDX what the BMW X6 is to the X5; it shares the same platform and some of its interior with its more conventional sibling. But unlike the BMW, the Acura is a class size smaller – more BMW X3 than X5 – and is less off-road and aggressive in terms of design identity.
Beyond its coupe-like crossover design, the most striking aspect of the ZDX is the way its crisp, diving side crease lifts up over the rear wheel. This feature line then runs, slightly lazily, up around the trailing edge of the C-pillar and forwards along the cant rail. Another side feature line picks up just below the base of the A-pillar to wrap forwards under a near-horizontal upper surface, the headlamps and the grille. The combination of these two striking feature lines is very distinctive and was much liked by the designers we spoke to at the show. But just above the rocker is another crease, which oddly does not key with the crease behind the rear wheel.
The DLO is also quite striking and incorporates the rear door handle to accentuate the coupe-esque aesthetic of the ZDX while avoiding the potential conflict between that distinctive side feature line and a conventionally placed door handle.
The rear aspect is dominated by the dark tinted glazing that runs from the windshield through the roof to the tailgate. As pioneered on the 2000 Honda Insight – and now present on the new Insight and European Civic – there is a separate, near-vertical glazing element. This is graphically connected to the rear lights, although the material match in the show car was poor and the light illumination graphic doesn't gel well with the rest of the design.
Billed as a 'prototype', the ZDX is clearly production-ready bar the front lights, paint and interior trim details. And judging by the positive reception it recieved in New York, this new type of Acura strikes a better balance of coupe, SUV and crossover than its closest rival, the BMW X6.
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The current Grand Cherokee is based on the original 1993 design, but the new design debuting in New York is based on the monocoque structure of the Mercedes-Benz ML, and as such is a far more sophisticated vehicle. This is also reflected in the refined and controlled surfaces of the new car; witness the way the more softly blown volumes wrap around from the side to the front, with the upper side crease gently fading at the front to be picked up again by the creases running from the A-pillar and around the front of the hood. Only a slight fussiness at the base of the rear lights disturbs this high-quality impression.
The new-found quality feel of the design is equally evident in the interior, with upscale features such as a leather-covered instrument panel and the ‘Selec-Terrain' control dial which adjusts different traction control and air suspension settings. Soft-touch plastics, high-quality tan leather seats in the car presented in New York, air-conditioned front seats and optional wood appliqué on the sporty three-spoke steering wheel ensure that Grande Cherokee is truly a premium SUV – although the metallic plastic appliqué around the center stack, air vents and door handles fall short of European standards.
One aspect of the new Grand Cherokee that most of the designers in New York we spoke to were critical of is its inherent conservatism. Given the number of premium SUVs now in the market and the way they are becoming more distinctive, it seems a missed opportunity not to have used more distinctive Jeep and Cherokee design cues, or to have forged new design elements in this important new car. Similarly, it is disappointing to see several details so similar to those found on the previous-generation BMW X5: namely the gentle bodyside recess and the use of dark gray plastic wheelarch, rocker and valance extensions.
Unquestionably, the new Grand Cherokee is a big step forwards for Jeep, but it seems overly conservative for a car billed as a 2011 model. But perhaps this will affect its critical acclaim more than its sales performance in this inherently conservative sector of the market. And in these times, commercial success is more than ever the ultimate judge of good design.
The Terrain was one of the more significant debuts at New York: a compact SUV-crossover sitting below the Arcadia in the GMC model line-up. What was most striking about the design in the flesh is its confident and very well resolved exterior design.
Although essentially an orthodox type of car, every element of the exterior has clearly been carefully considered and well integrated into the whole. The fender treatment is perhaps the best example of this: around a squared-off wheelarch aperture is a surface that flares outwards to give the requisite muscular look fitting for this typology. It pushes out from the flanks conventionally at the front and rear, but at its top it pushes out from a recess to give visual bulk without extending the car's overall width. A faint bone line runs across the upper part of this fender flare and keys into the start point of the recess above. We expect to see this subtle innovation on more cars in the future.
The fender flares are also interesting for the way they run into the deep rocker and under the front of the Terrain. This treatment is then echoed in the hood surface, which rolls around and under the grille. Relating to this also is the way the slim shoulder surface wraps up into the C-pillar and around the DLO.
Inside, the Terrain is more car-like in its aesthetic with a sweeping instrument panel ‘wing' in soft-touch dark charcoal surrounded by a recess on a lighter gray base. This theme is well executed if slightly generic, and focuses attention on the center stack, below which is a center console area featuring several large storage volumes. Interestingly, the hooded instrument binnacle has a chrome surround instead of individual chrome-ringed dials, as is the current convention. The other notable aspect to the interior is a sliding rear seat that in its rearmost position affords ‘full-size SUV' legroom.
The Terrain does not re-write the crossover rulebook, and perhaps its vertically oriented DRG makes it appear a little narrow. But it does moves the GMC brand forwards through an impressively well executed design.
Hyundai's North American design team unveiled the HCD II ‘New Vision Utility' (NUVIS) concept at the New York Auto Show to showcase the Korean automaker's proprietary Blue Drive technology. The packaging allows for a great deal of design freedom and is seen as a ‘bold departure' for the Hyundai team.
Created from an original design theme by Arash Badeanlou, the main inspiration for the Nuvis was one of earth's natural elements: wind. Badeanlou worked with senior exterior designer Andre Hudson under the direction of design manager John Krsteski to develop the theme, resulting in a vehicle that blends elements of a ‘tall urban car' and those of a premium vehicle.
The design, adorned with Hyundai's bold new grille treatment and stretched headlamps at the front, leads to a series of flowing and twisting character lines along the bodyside, accentuating the dynamic theme. One of the more interesting elements is the floating roofline above the large gullwing door, which integrates the taillamp graphics into the backlight, complete with LED elements flowing naturally into the shoulder off the rear quarter. According to Krsteski, the goal was for the design to feel connected from any angle.
Inside, the four-seat interior (originally penned by Krsteski and further refined by former Mercedes designer Andrew Moir) features a series of curves, accentuated by the flowing floor with cascading light. Technology has also been neatly integrated. Devoid of mechanical controls, users operate the HVAC and audio systems via a seamless touch user interface. The 100 per cent recyclable seats - created by color & trim designer Amy Fremin - include a woven gradation conceived to "flow like a river".
As the last concept created under Joel Piaskowski (former GM designer Phil Zak has now been formally enrolled as head of the automaker's California studio), the Nuvis bears certain familiar elements from the Blue-Will concept unveiled in Seoul, Korea last week. But ultimately it is not as successful as other crossover concepts revealed by Hyundai in recent years.
Following the international debut of the Kia Forte in Chicago a couple of months ago is the debut in New York of the coupe variant. The exteriors of both cars were designed in California by Kurt Kahl under Chief Designer Tom Kearns. Kahl told us how despite such close debuts, the design process for the coupe didn't start until the sedan program was well progressed.
The Koup concept shown a year ago in New York previewed the Forte, which is clearly gunning for the Scion xC and Honda Civic Coupe. It carries over the same hood and front lights as the Forte sedan, but every other exterior surface is unique to the coupe. The rear is where the biggest differences to the sedan are visible, with a large non-functional diffuser in dark gray plastic jutting out and incorporating the twin exhaust outlet. Changes at the front revolve around larger lower air intakes and a grille that are blacked out, making the unique Kia indents at the top and bottom of the grille aperture difficult to see.
The theme of both coupe and sedan is very clean and contemporary, although there are echoes of the Honda in its DRG and Scion in its profile. The single most distinctive design element is the bodyside feature line, which kicks up below the front side window and runs into, and up, the A-pillar. It is then picked up again above the front wheelarch before running forwards.
Inside, the coupe and sedan are largely identical. It is handsome and there is little to offend, but ultimately the Forte's interior is less clean and contemporary than its exterior, or indeed the interiors of its already well-established competitors.
Both sedan and coupe impressed the designers we spoke to at New York. They may not redefine the parameters of the North American small coupe and sedan sectors, but they do bring Kia right up to the front of the pack.
The PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) is an early prototype of a new vehicle that Segway is developing in partnership with GM. While it's rare to see concepts unveiled at this early stage - the PUMA was created in just 90 days - it was felt that media attention and the ensuing public and political support is necessary to develop the legislation (it cannot legally drive on roads or pavements yet) and infrastructure prior to committing to the development of a production version.
As an intriguing novelty and proof of concept the PUMA succeeds. The conceptual design uses the existing 'lean forwards to go forwards, lean backwards to go backwards' propulsion system of the classic Segway Personal Transporter. But with the two occupants sitting down, the shifting of weight forwards or backwards is achieved by sliding the small cabin forwards or backwards on rails relative to the floor and chassis. When in the vehicle, your seat moves relative to where your feet are - a sensation that pleasantly connects both driver and passenger to the vehicle's movement.
This Segway also impressed with its turn-on-the-spot manoeuvrability, inherently smooth and intuitive movement (not dissimilar to a helicopter), and in the potential for a chain of these drive-by-wire vehicles to run autonomously. Its lack of deceleration for a 35mph vehicle might pose a problem though; we asked for a demonstration of maximum deceleration during our ride and it felt to be about half that of a car under emergency braking. If it were travelling down a hill this problem would be significantly more acute - the center of gravity must be lowered and or the degree of cabin sliding backwards relative to the chassis increased.
We saw Segways incorporated into the Opel Fextreme concept, and now GM is set to contribute to this Segway in providing the autonomous control aspect of development and the body design. And while a production PUMA is a very long way off, we expect to see a more complete design concept with a body designed by GM later this year.
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This is the international debut of the fifth-generation Legacy and its slightly off-road derivative, the Outback. It follows the Legacy show car spoiler that we criticized earlier this year at Detroit, and our view hasn't changed much since then: this is one of the poorest new production designs we've seen for a long time.
As we detailed in our show car coverage, the flared wheelarches are crude and overly large - although this is less of an issue for the Outback: the swollen wheelarches better suit its SUV connotations. The overly deep DLO and crude wing motif grille emblem also remain, as do the cheap-feeling interior plastics.
But look closer and there are even more uncomfortable aspects to the design. The standard-fit plastic side skirts of the Legacy look aftermarket in their design and in their fit and finish. The intersection of lines and surfaces creates weak points and leads the eyes into dead ends; this is particularly evident around the sides of the grille and at the rear corners. On the Outback the gray plastic appliqué on the lower body side oddly runs far higher up the doors than it does ahead of the front wheels or behind the rear wheels (something all of its competitors and its predecessor successfully avoid) and the sump-guard jutting out at the front is a flimsy plastic fake.
The interior is thematically similar to the Impreza, and as such is a retrograde step compared to the previous-generation Legacy, which although slightly anodyne was handsome and well-executed. Indeed the presence of the previous Outback on the Subaru stand in New York served to show how much more desirable this older design is in every respect.
The only aspect we can find to report positively on is the roof bars on the Outback, which are ingenious. A bar running longitudinally on each side can be disconnected at one end and pivoted to run sideways across the roof.
Like many people in the industry, we have a soft spot for Subaru and its unique engineering approach, but we fail to understand why it continues to allow design to seriously undermine its business.
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The changes to Land Rover's heavily revised Discovery unveiled at the 2009 New York auto show yesterday (April 8) are so significant that the British company decided to give the SUV a new name: the Discovery 4.
The new car reveals a softer exterior appearance brought more into line with the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport by utilizing the Range Rover's hexagonal grille (but with two vanes rather than the three on the Range Rover), plus more jewel-like lights. These lamps now have LEDs that highlight their circular shape for a sharper nighttime down-the-road graphic. Overall, the aim with Discovery 4 was, as design boss Gerry McGovern puts it, "to try to reduce some of the visual bulk" of the outgoing model while keeping key Discovery features like its upright stance, simple bodysides and stepped roof (to allow six-foot adults to sit in comfort in the third row), all of which remain.
The interior is all-new. Every surface has become more dynamic and the whole theme moves away form the overtly functional Discovery 3's, which McGovern concedes some customers found "too brutalist". Thus the instrument panel, doors and center armrests are now wrapped and stitched in soft-touch materials, and the reconfigured center console angled more towards the driver. The new seating for rows one and two offer a longer cushion for better support, and the leather covering them is stitched less tautly to provide more comfort and a greater sense of luxury.
This final point sums up what is evidently the thrust of the project: to move the Land Rover Discovery 4 further upmarket towards Range Rover territory.
More than just a model-year tweak, the 2010 Range Rover unveiled at the 2009 New York Auto Show features two technological advancements in its significantly upgraded interior, plus some subtle exterior changes.
The first technological addition is a center touchscreen that offers a 'dual-view' system, whereby the passenger can watch a movie while the driver concentrates on the satnav, for example. This system has also seen application in the Opel/Vauxhall Vectra and certain Japanese-market Toyotas. In the Range Rover, more of the 'less used' functions have been integrated into the touchscreen's functionality, enabling the design team to reduce the hard button count by almost 50 percent - from 50 to 29.
The other technological innovation is the fitment of the world's largest TFT (Thin Film Transistor) display under the driver cowling. Replacing conventional driver dials, the 12-inch screen displays 'virtual' instruments and other driver information configurable via a new five-way controller on the steering wheel. A further interior enhancement on the Autobiography range is the use of high-grade leather trim for the full headliner, pillars and door casings. Wood still features - either piano black or walnut - and the IP top is wrapped and stitched. Fit and finish both looks and feels world-class.
Exterior changes are less major but include a prouder, more upright mesh grille, a more sculpted bumper, shallower front lamps and the addition of LEDs to accent their signature interlocking design. New three-fingered indicator lights to the sides of the front face are mirrored by three similar details on the side vents and on the rear light indicators too - which are now all-LED.
Elements of this exterior execution can be seen on the 2010 Range Sport, also launched in New York. It features two- rather than three-finger indicators and side vent detailing to differentiate and explain the range connection. The 2010 Range Rover goes on sale in July 2009.
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