Awkward design details on production cars
Discussion
Today on my commute to work I saw a couple of cars that had little design elements to them (or maybe lack of design elements) which just looked awkward to me.
There must be others, but the two which stand out to me are:
Peugeot 508 hatchback - the badge placement on the rear bumper is a bit off when viewed from directly behind, surely going on the lower right of the boot lid would have been the better option?
The other is every current watered down "Chevrolet" Aveo where they put the front badge on the bumper, rather than on the grill, and it looks wrong on a lot of levels...
There must be others, but the two which stand out to me are:
Peugeot 508 hatchback - the badge placement on the rear bumper is a bit off when viewed from directly behind, surely going on the lower right of the boot lid would have been the better option?
The other is every current watered down "Chevrolet" Aveo where they put the front badge on the bumper, rather than on the grill, and it looks wrong on a lot of levels...
Jezzerh said:
JordanTurbo said:
Another with the Clubman.
Having a 7 letter name badged across the back of a car with vertically split rear doors.
Argh you monster! I'd never noticed that before! Absolutely triggering or what?!Having a 7 letter name badged across the back of a car with vertically split rear doors.
Its like vans with really bad sign writing where the lettering crosses a shut line and they just hack it off down the middle.
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Benmac said:
The other one I have is another automotive gem. My neighbour had one of these and it made me cross every time I looked at it. The number plate position on the some Hyundai SUV. I can't recall if this is quite right but google images suggest it might be a Santa Fe. If it wasn't a Santa Fe they've done it to another one as well.
The positioning allows the enormous boot release some space with the result being that the number plate is ever so slightly off centre. Not so much that it's a "feature" (I have a Alfa 159 so I'm fine with asymmetric) but enough that it's obvious and annoying. Looks like in markets with smaller plates like the US it doesn't have that effect but anywhere like the UK with long rectangular ones this is the effect.
Arrrrrrggggggghhhhhh
that whole boot handle area is just terrible. The positioning allows the enormous boot release some space with the result being that the number plate is ever so slightly off centre. Not so much that it's a "feature" (I have a Alfa 159 so I'm fine with asymmetric) but enough that it's obvious and annoying. Looks like in markets with smaller plates like the US it doesn't have that effect but anywhere like the UK with long rectangular ones this is the effect.
Arrrrrrggggggghhhhhh
What was wrong with the more normal idea of having it hidden in the trim panel above the number plate like other cars?
It's not like it has sideways opening door, so why does it need to be offset?
marmitemania said:
Talking of awkward things that drive you nuts. I have the pleasure of owning one of these f
ktard, stbags. The headlight wipers drive me fking bonkers. The little fkers never park level and even the Land rover press shots have them splayed out a silly angles. Not acceptable on what at the time was a £50,000 car. To cap it off one of my kids put the passenger head restraint up and now it wont go down you push the button and and can hear the motor but no movement. I cant stand things not being all symmetrical or level. Look at this bd below.
This is mine with the wipers which have been manually leveled, if you use the wipers with the headlights on though................ I suppose it's just one of the many things that are crap about these cars.
Regarding the headrest movement - I had the same issue on an old BMW I owned. It is driven by a worm gear on a screw and what has happened is either the thread has stripped, or the gear has popped out. ktard, stbags. The headlight wipers drive me fking bonkers. The little fkers never park level and even the Land rover press shots have them splayed out a silly angles. Not acceptable on what at the time was a £50,000 car. To cap it off one of my kids put the passenger head restraint up and now it wont go down you push the button and and can hear the motor but no movement. I cant stand things not being all symmetrical or level. Look at this bd below.This is mine with the wipers which have been manually leveled, if you use the wipers with the headlights on though................ I suppose it's just one of the many things that are crap about these cars.
If you can be bothered...
Take the seat cover off at the back, if you can. Once you're into the inner workings you should find that you can either re-set the gear, or, if you need the re-thread it, then use something like a speedometer cable and repurpose that, or, put some old wire coathanger in the end to give it some "bite" again.
yes I have simplified it a bit, but that should be how the mechanism works.
marmitemania said:
Shakermaker said:
Regarding the headrest movement - I had the same issue on an old BMW I owned. It is driven by a worm gear on a screw and what has happened is either the thread has stripped, or the gear has popped out.
If you can be bothered...
Take the seat cover off at the back, if you can. Once you're into the inner workings you should find that you can either re-set the gear, or, if you need the re-thread it, then use something like a speedometer cable and repurpose that, or, put some old wire coathanger in the end to give it some "bite" again.
yes I have simplified it a bit, but that should be how the mechanism works.
Thanks for that little tip Shakermaker. I will give it a try this weekend. I would think that the motor and workings are possibly BMW bits anyway.If you can be bothered...
Take the seat cover off at the back, if you can. Once you're into the inner workings you should find that you can either re-set the gear, or, if you need the re-thread it, then use something like a speedometer cable and repurpose that, or, put some old wire coathanger in the end to give it some "bite" again.
yes I have simplified it a bit, but that should be how the mechanism works.
It's a simple mechanism but just an arse to get to it probably.
Didn't get a photo as I was driving, but yesterday morning on the M25 I followed a BMW 5 series and it took a while to work out what was wrong.
The 520d badge was on the left hand side, rather than its usual place on the right hand side of the boot lid. Very odd. Why would that be I wonder?
The 520d badge was on the left hand side, rather than its usual place on the right hand side of the boot lid. Very odd. Why would that be I wonder?
I started this topic with a Peugeot and I've found another problem with them
The rear light clusters on a Peugeot 307 CC do not match side to side. I can't find a photo that adequately demonstrates this. One side is obviously the rear fog light, and one side is the reversing light. But to achieve this, they have made the entire light cluster "white" on one side behind the red glass, and red on the other. When you're stuck behind it, it jars much more than any other car I've seen with similar set ups of fog light one side/reverse light on the other
The rear light clusters on a Peugeot 307 CC do not match side to side. I can't find a photo that adequately demonstrates this. One side is obviously the rear fog light, and one side is the reversing light. But to achieve this, they have made the entire light cluster "white" on one side behind the red glass, and red on the other. When you're stuck behind it, it jars much more than any other car I've seen with similar set ups of fog light one side/reverse light on the other
brimson said:
saaby93 said:
If you took the badge off that Chevvy, would you be able to tell immediately from the design cues that it was a Chevvy?
It looks like a Kia.But the badge would be better located on the grill than on the front bumper
swanny200 said:
Late to the arguement with this, I have been behind a couple of these now and the brake lights on them are the strips in the bumper, not where you would expect the brake lights to be. Why would you put your brake lights so low down and not incorporate them into the big clusters on the back, thought they were fog lights to start off with.
So they can still be seen when the rear doors are openA new one that I've seen too much of today, the Toyota C-HR. I've seen three of them on the road today, all in this same grey colour.
But what the hell is going on with those rear door handles? What is wrong with putting them in the normal place, where they'd look fine as they mirror those at the front? And from a practical perspective, how is your young-but-capable child (or other very short relative) meant to reach that without a leg-up?
But what the hell is going on with those rear door handles? What is wrong with putting them in the normal place, where they'd look fine as they mirror those at the front? And from a practical perspective, how is your young-but-capable child (or other very short relative) meant to reach that without a leg-up?
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