Awkward design details on production cars

[Vergis]

Why did Mercedes have to trace the curves of a Porsche 911 rear to compete with the same market. Kills the all the styling cues of the front of the car. If you cover the bonnet the resemblance to a 911 is uncanny.

[Bispal]

I hate the panel line that runs straight across the bonnet of the 3 series, it really bugs me! Why didn't they take it to the kidney grille and down? Why is it so close to the roundel? Why does it make such an awkward junction with the lights and front wing? It's all I see on the car and it draws me in. It's so ruler straight too. One if the worst bits of design ever!

[Blown2CV]

l354uge said:

Johnny 89 said:

Blown2CV said:

not sure i agree with the sagaris wing slashes!! Maybe overly masculine but not awkward!! They did however start life as open slashes but stones kept smashing the windscreens so they closed them off... maybe a bit awkward from that perspective i guess.

Where would the stones come from?
Is that just a Top Gear ism?

Go drive over some gravel/stones and tell me what noise you hear....

i am guessing it could be that stones get picked up in the wheels, moving clockwise clearly, then by chance are thrown off the wheel surface vertically right into a slat, which is just at the right angle to cause a ricochet straight at the windscreen.... dunno. Stones are pretty common on our roads...

[Bispal]

Dale487 said:

PorkInsider said:

5-series (E28 shape) exhaust placement.

Either put it on one side or in the middle. Not a bit of both.

I like this, particulary the twin exhaust on the M5

I agree I always really liked this, it was probably agonised over and they found the perfect position and proportions, wish they did this now!

[rehab71]

The handbrake in many early '00s VAG product that fouled on the armrest!!!! How the fk did it get signed off? (Picture from Google)

[carl_w]

Blown2CV said:

i am guessing it could be that stones get picked up in the wheels, moving clockwise clearly, then by chance are thrown off the wheel surface vertically right into a slat, which is just at the right angle to cause a ricochet straight at the windscreen.... dunno. Stones are pretty common on our roads...

Or anticlockwise, depending on which side of the car you're looking at A ricochet against fibreglass will cause a massive loss in energy for the stone.

The angles involved make me suspect it's not the case. I reckon you'd be more likely to put stones through the slats driving in reverse. I guess the acid test is if some Saggy owners can show us the back edge of their slats covered in stone pits, or not.

[OwenK]

Bispal said:

I hate the panel line that runs straight across the bonnet of the 3 series, it really bugs me! Why didn't they take it to the kidney grille and down? Why is it so close to the roundel? Why does it make such an awkward junction with the lights and front wing? It's all I see on the car and it draws me in. It's so ruler straight too. One if the worst bits of design ever!

These weird bonnet lines of late strike me as a crash-related thing. What exactly the purpose is, I couldn't tell you, but styling departments fight tooth and nail for things like appealing shut lines; if they're weird it's probably for a good reason.

[Johnny 89]

Blown2CV said:

l354uge said:

Johnny 89 said:

Blown2CV said:

not sure i agree with the sagaris wing slashes!! Maybe overly masculine but not awkward!! They did however start life as open slashes but stones kept smashing the windscreens so they closed them off... maybe a bit awkward from that perspective i guess.

Where would the stones come from?
Is that just a Top Gear ism?

Go drive over some gravel/stones and tell me what noise you hear....

i am guessing it could be that stones get picked up in the wheels, moving clockwise clearly, then by chance are thrown off the wheel surface vertically right into a slat, which is just at the right angle to cause a ricochet straight at the windscreen.... dunno. Stones are pretty common on our roads...

Very clever lads, thankfully we get arch liners to prevent these (admittedly) common stones to prevent them hitting the underside of the wings..
Or do you drive around with musical wings? :-)

[skyrover]

The forward tilted wheel arches on the New Hilux along with that awful creases on the rear tub

[RS Sean]

Citroen C4 Cactus. Why have they stuck egg boxes on the doors?

[wildcat45]

Valgar said:

It's a 'bold' design for sure, the convertible looks MUCH better IMO

The winged badge on the back looks like a sad set of arse antlers tattoo.

[l354uge]

Johnny 89 said:

Blown2CV said:

l354uge said:

Johnny 89 said:

Blown2CV said:

not sure i agree with the sagaris wing slashes!! Maybe overly masculine but not awkward!! They did however start life as open slashes but stones kept smashing the windscreens so they closed them off... maybe a bit awkward from that perspective i guess.

Where would the stones come from?
Is that just a Top Gear ism?

Go drive over some gravel/stones and tell me what noise you hear....

i am guessing it could be that stones get picked up in the wheels, moving clockwise clearly, then by chance are thrown off the wheel surface vertically right into a slat, which is just at the right angle to cause a ricochet straight at the windscreen.... dunno. Stones are pretty common on our roads...

Very clever lads, thankfully we get arch liners to prevent these (admittedly) common stones to prevent them hitting the underside of the wings..
Or do you drive around with musical wings? :-)

This is TVR we're talking about, so arch liners aren't guaranteed.
A quick google reveals it was too time consuming to cut and finish the holes, the more you know!

[EnglishTony]

Vergis said:

Why did Mercedes have to trace the curves of a Porsche 911 rear to compete with the same market. Kills the all the styling cues of the front of the car. If you cover the bonnet the resemblance to a 911 is uncanny.

Try and sell the Germans a luxury performance 2 door car that doesn't look like a Porsche from behind.

[FredClogs]

RS Sean said:

Citroen C4 Cactus. Why have they stuck egg boxes on the doors?

I'm surprised it took this long for one of these to crop up...

For me it's these rib thingys on the rear quarter of the second gen Mini, having had both the 1st and 2nd gen cars I know exactly why they're there for, in rain the rear window on the first gen car above 30mph became a weird water feature, but for me they ruin the car.

[Johnny 89]

l354uge said:

Johnny 89 said:

Blown2CV said:

l354uge said:

Johnny 89 said:

Blown2CV said:

not sure i agree with the sagaris wing slashes!! Maybe overly masculine but not awkward!! They did however start life as open slashes but stones kept smashing the windscreens so they closed them off... maybe a bit awkward from that perspective i guess.

Where would the stones come from?
Is that just a Top Gear ism?

Go drive over some gravel/stones and tell me what noise you hear....

i am guessing it could be that stones get picked up in the wheels, moving clockwise clearly, then by chance are thrown off the wheel surface vertically right into a slat, which is just at the right angle to cause a ricochet straight at the windscreen.... dunno. Stones are pretty common on our roads...

Very clever lads, thankfully we get arch liners to prevent these (admittedly) common stones to prevent them hitting the underside of the wings..
Or do you drive around with musical wings? :-)

This is TVR we're talking about, so arch liners aren't guaranteed.
A quick google reveals it was too time consuming to cut and finish the holes, the more you know!

They certainly had them in the mid 90s ;-) in fact they form part of the body. I'm calling bull on the stones!

[shalmaneser]

Swoxy said:

Nope, not seeing it.

Just a boot line, and a window, and a tail light and a quarter panel.

Hang on, what's going on with that boot line?

That's not....


Oh no!

[PartsMonkey]

The position and styling of the rear lamp units on the latest Mercedes C-Class. The fact there is a strip of metal between the boot lid and the lamp annoys the hell out of me. Why didn't they make the boot 20mm wider each side or make the tail lights slightly bigger. It reminds me of the lamp transplants that were ever so popular among the Max Power fraternity at the turn of the century. It just looks like such a bodge!



Maybe they are harking back to the C140 Merc from the 90's which had a very similar arrangement

[85Carrera]

Zod said:

EnglishTony said:

Zod said:

You're voting for Brexit, aren't you?

No. That would be shooting myself in the foot. I live in Germany.

Ah, I apologise for my presumption. The thing is that Mini, despite being BMW-owned is thought of as British by both the British and the Germans, much like Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

l

Not sure about that. I thought they were seen (rightly so) as a poor pastiche of what Germans though a mini/Bentley/RR should look like.

Of course, the other alternative is that the Germans think we're chavs, which seems to be the demographic of those who buy these models, so they've probably just done they're market research quite well, given who seems to buy these.

They're all pretty nasty compared to the traditional variants of each model, anyway.

PS - presumably you (a) would put a Union Jack on the roof of a Datsun Cherry/ whatever they are churning out in Sunderland now and (b) try to categorise the Slough-built Citroen DS's as English as opposed to French, which shows how ridiculous your argument supporting MINIs with union jacks is

[Murph7355]

RS Sean said:

Citroen C4 Cactus. Why have they stuck egg boxes on the doors?

Am guessing to take car park and other incidental knocks without having to stump up a few hundred quid for getting paint sorted.

[Speed addicted]

cb1965 said:

Zod said:

The first CLS was an ugly thing. It looked like a banana. The current one is horrible too.

Well it was nowhere as near as bad as the current one, but yes it's not to my taste. It always seemed a bit pointless to me. There's not much headroom in the back, the interior feels like a very cramped place to be given the size of the car and even with Merc's woeful visual designs there were better looking similarly sized cars in the range.

I think if you want to look like an apprentice drug dealer, bouncer or footballer's agent then it's a good choice other than that get a proper car

To be honest I really like the early CLS design, it was ruined in the facelift though. Most modern Mercedes just look like over designed and blinged up tat.