Small is beautiful?!!
What’s with the styling of small cars in the US? Why it seems challenging to design attractive looking small cars by the American designers for the American consumers? Why do the bigger cars look better?
Until the higher oil prices hit the shores of the US, we were all happily singing the “Big is Better” mantra that was conveniently imbibed in our minds, thanks to the oil and auto industries. The sky rocketing price of oil has forced the consumers and the manufacturers to think small and efficient. As a result we have seen a surge of small and midsize cars in the in the US auto market. The change in the market place was so rapid that the auto industry struggled to replace the “Gas Guzzling” heavy weights with “Relatively Environment Friendly” alternatives. It seemed like an overnight change for the auto manufacturer who did not see this coming. This is apparent from the cars they have put in the market place. As a designer and a consumer, I am completely disappointed with the designs of the car models offered by most of the auto manufacturers in US market. Let’s see why?
Styling wise, the key to any car design is its proportions. Yes, proportion of height to length to width of a car; proportion of the green house to the belt line to the body side; proportions of the wheel base to the front and the rear overhangs; proportion of the wheel diameter (size) to the wheel well opening; proportion of the wheel size to the body side of the car; position and design of cut lines and so on so forth. Once the automotive designers have conceived the best proportions the given platform and the Oscar study, they start to sculpt the skin, the surfaces of the cars, both the exterior as well as the interior. It all starts with sculpting scaled down clay models. Eventually a full scale clay model is sculpted to dot the i's and cross the t's. Although, this is the typical process followed across the auto industry for all segments, it is disappointing see that the small cars lack in their styling. I guess more time is spent on stuffing gadgetry and cup holder as opposed to developing a more proportionate form.
To ascertain my point, let’s look at the exteriors of few cars currently sold in the US. Amongst these are cars offered by two manufacturers known for designing stylish cars and setting newer styling trends. I am referring to Chrysler and Nissan. Yet they could come up with terrible looking cars. Hmm!
Chrysler Sebring:
Nissan Versa:
Ford Focus:
Carefully looking at the above images one can see that none of the above cars have a totally integrated form. Each element of the form is making a loud statement, trying to get your attention. Yeah! Look at me. That goes to say a lot about the coordination within the design team.
To be continued…
