Awkward design details on production cars

[MesoForm]

Seeing a Ferrari 488 (I think) parked up the other day made me think of this thread:


Beautiful car but why wouldn't Ferrari do something to hide the physical key hole?

[ajprice]

595Heaven said:

Nickbrapp said:

I’ve seen loads of these MG HS as the estate, that all have this weird thing under the numberplate, what is it? I don’t think it’s a holder as the ones I’ve seen have screws in the plates?

Pretty sure it is a number plate plinth, but not optimised for UK style plates.

Found a picture of the rear of one with no plate and there are holes in the rear panel

It looks like the MG4 still has the holes but the plate might cover them now (it's hard to see with the lighting and dark car though)







A clearer picture of an MG4 with no holes and a standard size plate.

Edited by ajprice on Tuesday 23 August 08:26

[Nickbrapp]

Fords “that will do” approach to reserving cameras, both factory fit, why on earth is it there?

[Zad]

I would guess that in the tailgate there is a reinforcing pressing that goes down the middle of the unit to make it more rigid.

[MattyD803]

Not so much an awkward 'design detail' per se (at least I don't think so), more a mistake or factory quality control issue, but on early Jaguar XE hatchbacks, the LED rear taillight clusters mounted on the boot lid do not line up with those mounted on the rear 1/4 panels. It is not immediately obvious in the daytime, but once that red LED strip illuminates, it makes the alignment really quite obvious and just looks awful.

As I say, I think it was limited to the earlier cars, and probably a result of poor factory adjustment of the boot 'stops', but something that (as a geek always looking for this sort of thing), makes me twitch.

[F1GTRUeno]

I already thought that the lack of a continous screen panel on the new Astra interior was terrible but I didn't realise that it was two separate bits stuck together where the part next to the steering wheel curves towards the driver and there's a visible rise/seam that even appears in the current adverts.





Awful.

[Nickbrapp]

You can still buy a Mg3 with traditional wiper blades, the old style metal ones instead of aero ones that are most common now, I can’t think of a single other new car that still uses them, all other MGs have aero blades aswell.

Strange

[steveo3002]

Nickbrapp said:

I’ve seen loads of these MG HS as the estate, that all have this weird thing under the numberplate, what is it? I don’t think it’s a holder as the ones I’ve seen have screws in the plates?

id guess that ugly black thing is a reversing camera , too cheap to fit a hidden one as standard so thats some sort of universal bolt on fix?

[The Rotrex Kid]

steveo3002 said:

Nickbrapp said:

I’ve seen loads of these MG HS as the estate, that all have this weird thing under the numberplate, what is it? I don’t think it’s a holder as the ones I’ve seen have screws in the plates?

id guess that ugly black thing is a reversing camera , too cheap to fit a hidden one as standard so thats some sort of universal bolt on fix?

It’s to cover up two mounting holes for Asian market size number plates.

[heisthegaffer]

F1GTRUeno said:

I already thought that the lack of a continous screen panel on the new Astra interior was terrible but I didn't realise that it was two separate bits stuck together where the part next to the steering wheel curves towards the driver and there's a visible rise/seam that even appears in the current adverts.





Awful.

And that revolting steering wheel.

[The Surveyor]

Can I put the Tesla 3 rear into this thread, the way the boot shut-line misses the end of the quarter light does my nut in… would it have been so hard to allow the sweep of the rear window run through with the boot shut-line!

[AW111]

The Surveyor said:

Can I put the Tesla 3 rear into this thread, the way the boot shut-line misses the end of the quarter light does my nut in… would it have been so hard to allow the sweep of the rear window run through with the boot shut-line!

Same photo, the rear door shut line and the join in the glass.

[ecs0set]

MesoForm said:

Seeing a Ferrari 488 (I think) parked up the other day made me think of this thread:


Beautiful car but why wouldn't Ferrari do something to hide the physical key hole?

Also, what is going on with 488 door handles. Is that really the best design Ferarri could come up with?

[LastPoster]

The wing/headlight/bumper interface on a Clio 197 looks fine




But the facelifted 200 looks really badly resolved, despite the rest of the front end looking better IMO

[kambites]

LastPoster said:

This reminds me, one thing which really grates with me on many modern car designs is when the bonnet line runs up into the A-pillar rather than along into the shoulder line below the windows. It just looks horrible to me.

[SteBrown91]

Nickbrapp said:

Fords “that will do” approach to reserving cameras, both factory fit, why on earth is it there?

Dont understand why some transits have this as in-laws have a 20 plate one and its integrated into the plastic trim above the numberplate

[JonnyVTEC]

As a tool and a van the camera higher up will do a much better when reversing with no rear screen as a secondary.

Transit, function over form.

[Grumps.]

SteBrown91 said:

Nickbrapp said:

Fords “that will do” approach to reserving cameras, both factory fit, why on earth is it there?

Dont understand why some transits have this as in-laws have a 20 plate one and its integrated into the plastic trim above the numberplate

They are 'rear view cameras', and not 'reversing cameras' AFAIK. They are displayed in the rear view mirror in the cab.

The small ones over the number plate are the reverse cameras.

[patmahe]

The robot above reminded me of the Seat Altea XL (above), any time I was behind one I remember thinking I couldn't have one of those walking up to it in a car park it'd make me depressed. How that got signed off by Seat (whose cars I normally like) I'll never know. Not an awkward detail really but its hardly the best they could have come up with.

Edited by patmahe on Friday 9th June 17:30

[Vtekkers]

Nickbrapp said:

Fords “that will do” approach to reserving cameras, both factory fit, why on earth is it there?

i thought this was odd, my pal has just got a transit mrst all bells and whistles and this stonking great black eyesore in the recessed panel on the rear nowhere near centred to anything, it wound me up and its not even my van