Bangle my living room?  

some thoughts Part 4
Or how about that new Chevy Malibu? Now that's definitive airport rental chic.
All of GM's cars are basically irrelavent, except for the Caddies. But Caddy has a problem. Its CTS is cool. But every new application of the styling looks worse not better. The styling just doesn't change scales well at all. And how do you take stealth styling to the next level for the next model freshening? The airforce hasn't changed the F118's yet. And current Iraq is turning out not to be a very good war to use to help you sell the stealth Caddy. What will Caddy do?
How about econoboxes? Well, I rather like the Mazda 3S wagonette, but its probably designed by some Japanese guys in Japan, so can we count it? Ford's rather tidy new edge styling on the Focus is already trailing edge and being abandoned by Ford.
Maybe the Crown Vic updates get you hot. Not me.
I repeat: American car design is in huge trouble and that is no small contributor to the moribund state of the American car industry. Oh, of course, if they actually made good performing, highly reliable cars like the Japanese they could sell alot of bland uninteresting stuff just like the Japanese have for years. But they don't. And BMW and Mercedes both prove that you don't have to build reliable cars to sell what you build without massive rebates from day one. They also prove you don't have to build even especially good looking cars, because frankly there is nothing much homelier than the last three versions of the S Class sedans and they sold all of these over-priced, over gadgeted luxo barges they could build. But you do have to try to keep up with contemporary fashion and you do have to try successfully to set a few styling trends in order to be taken remotely seriously. Frankly, American cars and their designs are bigger jokes now than they were in the seventies, one of the all time high water marks of tackiness as Quentin Tarrantino intuited so long ago now. It seems when every generation of designers reaches middle age and near the tail end of their generations ten years of dominating car design, they begin to produce ghastly caricatures of whatever they set out to do. We are in one of those phases right now. Take away the big horsepower and force people to look at the sheet metal they are buying and most of them would probably throw up on their faux bowling shoes and their ipods. But that's just one man's opinion And as always I interested in those of others.

Quick takes on your links...
Mustang: an aggressive but heavy look with a ridiculously high belt line. Systematically less good and pleasing that the first two iterations of Stangs. Better than all the rest it does not copy.
Bronco Concept: Basically it is a hodge podge of off road cues and very heavy looking. J Mays strikes again? Essentially it is a Gelandel Wagen rip off with first generation Jeep Cherokee wheel wells and original Bronco fascia on the front. Question: why would anyone want a flat windshield on a car or SUV? I've four wheeled all over hell's half acre and I always want a windshield in front of me. Next question: the 45 degree fender cuts make a tidy statement, but aren't they going to allow those enormous tires to throw so much crud that any vehicle in front of it is in serious danger as this Bronco picks up speed on pavement? And any thing that tires can throw can wind up in the windshield and I can tell you that four wheeling with spidered or mud covered windows is not fun.
GR-1 Concept: I like this car the best of the retro contempos I've seen. But again the belt line is up around the driver's ears and the grill is basically unrelated to the rest of the lines of the car and so inappropriate.
Ford GT: Its a great car and a great looking car, but it doesn't look remotely contemporary in styling. It looks exactly like what it is: a celebration of what Ford once was--a great car company that could win Le Mans if it wanted to. It says nothing at all about what Ford is capable of today, except nostalgia. Put another way, I can admire this Ford GT just like I admire a remake of an Eames recliner. Both are wonderful and both can still do the job they were intended to do, but neither are contemporary expression of design. I frankly don't feel like I did in the 60s. Today doesn't feel like the 60s. And for new products to speak to me, they have to speak to me in a contemporary language, no matter how they may borrow from the past. This Ford GT is just a collector car you can live with, just like a new Eames chair is, too. Quite a good thing in and of itself, but hardly an authentic effort at building something great and organic to this time and place. If it satisfies your sense of great contemporary design, fine. It doesn't do it for me.

The perfect metaphor escapes me
...for all the models discussed, but "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" is close enough. If we're talking car design, give me the item in the enclosed link any day.
http://vintagecars.about.com/od/timeline1/ss/woodincars_9.htm

yes, it is a beautiful car, isn't it?
when i look at the old cars from indiana (Dusenberg, Auburn, Cord), or Bugatti, or any number of other early makers, it was remarkable how beautifully proportioned, lined and colored they were. these were after enormous, ungainly machines beneath the skins and the old coach builders managed to turn them into something approaching rolling sculpture.

Good one,
Geo -- and of course the Tulipwood Lagonda Rapide (#10). Missing from that page might be an orphan from not so many years ago: the Cumberford roadster, which had a cast alloy cowl structure (!) and pontoon fenders (Cord 810 et al) of fiberglass, somehow veneered in wood, an obvious homage to the Lagonda ?
Great stuff, guys. . .(an earlier auto design thread should be linked here. . .) I'm a lifelong Cord sedan fan; when I first saw this car it was only a dozen years defunct. More and more being restored every year, now ? Too bad it finally begins to look dowdy, to these adoring eyes !
So many great cars. . .
SDR