Archive for The Motor Forum talking cars since 2006          The Motor Forum Forum Index -> New Cars and Concepts Racing Am I alone... ...in finding this quite funky? http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=20652 maz mean looking machine TimR It looks like a modern interpretation of the Riley Elf (original mini-based badge-engineered posher version for te youngsters aboard). Matt I like that. It's quite nice how it was a 'peoples car' for the communist era and how it could hopefully be a peoples car for the economist era. BeN If done well, it could be a decent rival for the Tata Nano thing. PG An electric car with heritage. An Austin E40 (insteadof A40 might be a good idea? Who owns that name? DaveGibson PG wrote: An electric car with heritage. An Austin E40 (insteadof A40 might be a good idea? Who owns that name? Nanjing Auto (now owned by SAIC) will have acquired the Austin name when they bought Rover's remains. Grampa Re: Am I alone... Racing wrote: Am I alone... ...in finding this quite funky? http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=20652 No Nice Guy Eddie I like it but keep thinking it looks like a SKoda of some sort. Bob Sacramento Look like they took a MINI Clubman and grafted on the front end of a Trabant. Frank Bullitt Seriously nice, it's got my attention now and quite like the piccies that have been travelling 'round the net for yonks. Blarno Why are manufacturers suffering some weird retro fascination? Beetle, Mini, 500 and now this. Wasn't the Trabby unbelievably shit the first time round? I can't imagine it'll be too hard to make this one better, but surely it'd make more sense to design something new? I can only conclud that design students are taught to be lazy bastards at uni nowadays (more so than normal). "Don't think of the future, we don't want new. Just trawl through history to find some old relic, dust it off, smooth the edges and you have a winner" Bob Sacramento Blarno wrote: Why are manufacturers suffering some weird retro fascination? Beetle, Mini, 500 and now this. Wasn't the Trabby unbelievably shit the first time round? I can't imagine it'll be too hard to make this one better, but surely it'd make more sense to design something new? I can only conclud that design students are taught to be lazy bastards at uni nowadays (more so than normal). "Don't think of the future, we don't want new. Just trawl through history to find some old relic, dust it off, smooth the edges and you have a winner" The trouble is if they don't look to the past they come up with such dreary efforts such as the Peugeot 207, Renault Clio, GM Corsa, Toyota Yaris, etc etc, the driving of which makes me seriously consider suicide. Blarno Ford managed it with the original Ka. Bob Sacramento Blarno wrote: Ford managed it with the original Ka. Good point, well made.   They failed in the sequel though. Blarno Absolutely. Although in reality, that only proves that the Fiat 500 is a show pony. What with them being the same car. DaveGibson Designs which have gone too far from the accepted have often failed to sell. There are exceptions but even those that were ultimately successful often suffered a fraught beginning. It's a brave management that opts for the bold design over the safe one. You only need to re-read some of the comments on this forum to realise that one man's bold is another man's ugly and one man's neat is another's bland. Grampa DaveGibson wrote: Designs which have gone too far from the accepted have often failed to sell. There are exceptions but even those that were ultimately successful often suffered a fraught beginning. I guess the Ka falls into this category - it didn't really take off until it had been around for a couple of years to get accepted and Ford dropped the price to a really appealing level. We paid £7500 for our 97 (basic model no PAS) and felt we got a good deal - eight years later we could have had one with PAS for £4995.        The Motor Forum Forum Index -> New Cars and Concepts Page 1 of 1