awesome-express posted:

I remember reading an article written by Bangle where he emphasized the importance of defining certain animalistic physical resemblances on cars.

awesome-express posted:

Hmm, that droopy door sure does make it look like a Chinese knock off in those phone pics, but I doesn't look bad from these angles.





Makes it look organic/muscular. I remember reading an article written by Bangle where he emphasized the importance of defining certain animalistic physical resemblances on cars. That's why the 1 series had that funky rocker panel/side skirt thing. Man I feel like a Chrysler spokesperson right now

InitialDave posted:

You mean the Bangle who made BMWs look loving ugly and who probably shouldn't be allowed more crayons anytime soon? That Bangle?

quote:

The development programme for the E60 began in 1997, concluding in 2003. The final design, penned by David Arcangeli under the directorship of Chris Bangle, was approved in 2000 and German design patents filed on April 16, 2002.

awesome-express posted:

EDIT 2: Ok I admit that I'm a total Bangle fanboy, but you gotta cut the dude some slack since this is what most cars looked like 10 years ago:







He kinda described the automotive design process as something that happens in two stages - evolution and then revolution. So while everyone was still doing those 90s bubbly shapes, the guy pretty much set the benchmark for design trends that we see in cars today. And that makes him kinda important.

awesome-express posted:

My point was that Bangle managed to design a car that looks modern to this day, back when most cars looked considerably worse. But that again is just my opinion.

anonumos posted:

Yo! I heard you like headlights, so...



They narrowed the selection of headlights to 3, but still couldn't decide. So they used them all.

awesome-express posted:

Hmm, that droopy door sure does make it look like a Chinese knock off in those phone pics, but I doesn't look bad from these angles.





Makes it look organic/muscular. I remember reading an article written by Bangle where he emphasized the importance of defining certain animalistic physical resemblances on cars. That's why the 1 series had that funky rocker panel/side skirt thing. Man I feel like a Chrysler spokesperson right now

quote:

Sixty-one year old Frenchman Clotair Rapaille is an auto industry "guru" of sorts. European and American carmakers trust his uncanny instincts about future vehicle trends and buyer motivations. And when it comes to the phenomenal success of the sport utility vehicle in North America, Rapaille's insights are chilling.

Born just two months before the Nazi invasion of France in 1941, Rapaille's earliest childhood memory is of an American tank and the "big American with a net on his helmet and flowers [who] took me on the tank and gave me chocolates and gave me ride," he recounts to Bradsher.

After working as a consultant for Renault and Citroen, he moved to America in 1979 to become one of the industry's leading market researchers, one who specializes in psychoanalytic techniques, especially those propounded by Carl Jung. He developed an especially close relationship with Chrysler and with Bob Lutz, the hard-driving head of the company's light truck division at the time. Both men shared a common, "gut" instinct about that kind of vehicles would appeal of American buyers.

For the Jungian Rapaille, American obsession with the SUV is seated in the deep, dark reaches of the subconscious mind. The Frenchman sees the human mind divided into three levels of activity. The cortex makes intellectual assessments about a product. The limbic produces the emotional response.

Then there is the most "primitive" part of the brain thought to have been inherited from our reptilian ancestors that is concerned purely with survival and reproduction. It is this part of the human brain Rapaille sees as the silent driver of the SUV craze in America. And it is this insight that serves as the cornerstone of all marketing and sales pitches for sport utility vehicles.

"With the detachment of a foreigner, Rapaille sees Americans as increasingly fearful of crime. He acknowledges that this fear is irrational and completely ignores statistics showing that crime rates have declined considerably. He attributes the pervasive fear of crime mainly to violent television shows, violent video games and lurid discussions and images on the Internet, which make young and middle-aged Americans more focused on threats to their physical safety than they need to be." [High and Mighty, pg 95].

"'There is so much emphasis on violence -- the war is every day, everywhere,' he said in an interview two weeks before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001."

"For Rapaille, the archetype of a sport utility vehicle reflects the reptilian desire for survival. People buy SUVs, he tells auto executives, because they are trying to look as menacing as possible to allay their fears of crime and other violence. The Jeep has always had this image around the world because of it its heavy use use in war movies and frequent appearances in newsreels from the 1940's and 1950's, and newer SUVs share the image."

awesome-express posted:

asmallrabbit posted:

I think that there is some initial shock as it's not something people are used too, but I really kind of like it, if for no other reason then its different. There is only so much you can do with the front end of most vehicles before they all look the same or resemble something else. This is definately a huge departure from that imo, and I kind of welcome the change.

Devyl posted:

This is how you make a Jeep look sexy:







That abomination is NOT a real Jeep.

NOTinuyasha posted:

Attention haters: go to google, find some pictures of the original Compass, stare at them for a while, like as long as you can bare it. Then take a second look at the new Cherokee and re-cast judgement. Report back.

Cream_Filling posted:

Hmm, nope, still worse.

Snowdens Secret posted:

straight door lines

straight door lines

meltydoors

TTAC thinks this isn't really for American buyers who have the 4-door Wrangler and probably some Dodge thing to pick from anyway, and that it's for Euro buyers who love swoopy melty poo poo. Is Fiat bringing Jeep over to Europe in any big way?

Throatwarbler posted:

The original idea for the Compass was that women didn't like the butch square styling of the old jeeps, so they needed some kind of round bubblely car to appeal to them, while the Patriot (literally the same car) would appeal to traditional jeep buyers. The execution of the first gen Compass wasn't great but they had the right idea, I think. Same goes for this, I don't mind the swoopy doors and whatnot, it's pretty much where everything is going, and the 4 people who are actually looking for some live front axle mudcrawler can just buy the 4 door Wrangler. The Liberty was a sort of neither fish nor fowl type deal that didn't really fit. It was supposed to be a midsize SUV competitor but sucked at actually being a midsize SUV for 99% of midsize SUV buyers - was amazingly cramped inside and got terrible fuel economy.

Cream_Filling posted:

Yes, but notably the Patriot outsold the Compass basically every single year. Sales of the Compass only improved in 2011, when the Compass was redesigned to be less fat looking with a more traditional Jeep front-end: they tripled sales after the redesign that made it look more like the old Cherokee.

code:

Year	Compass	Patriot	
2006	18,579	
2007	39,491	40,434
2008	25,349	55,654
2009	11,739	31,432
2010	15,894	38,620
2011	47,709	54,647
2012	40,235	62,010
2013YTD	3116	5248

I'd say that people who buy a non-Wrangler Jeep basically want the Jeep image and styling but don't want to pay a premium in cost/comfort for an actual off-road car. They want a butch-looking cute ute instead of a puffy or swoopy one. If they wanted a swoopy, rounded car, they'd buy one of the many, many strong competeitors.

I rented a liberty, and I do agree that its primary problem was that it sucked as a car, not due to exterior design.

Throatwarbler posted:

Once they manage to make the Compass somewhat less terrible it sold, and look, if all those people wanted patriots they would have bought them, so overall it was a success considering it didn't cost them anywhere near double the development money to almost double the sales. The old Compass was meant to look like the old GC, just like the new one is supposed to look like the new GC, the new one is just a vastly better execution. The bulbous proportions are still ugly and I can't get over that silly vertical door handle in the rear.

The Liberty and the Dodge Nitro were available with a 6 speed manual for a while, so there was that.

Un-l337-Pork posted:

I cannot get over how loving ugly that Jeep is. It seems pretty clear to me that they were trying to ape the Evoque/Land Rover (I'm mainly looking at the headlights here and the "swept" design), but they have failed, spectacularly. The grille looks like some awful Jeep/BMW mutant, and why does it have 3 pairs of headlamps? God drat.

AdmiralViscen posted:

I don't think 3 sets of lamps is that odd, if anything it's an emerging trend. The E class has 4 pairs, the new Altima has 3. The Audi Q7 has headlamp/foglamp/DRL-strip.

I think the problem is that the DRL strip is too high, or the headlight is too low. I'm not totally opposed to the concept. It does seem like more of a Compass or Liberty replacement than a Cherokee/Liberty though.

angryhampster posted:

The Cizeta V16t would like a word with you all.

discstickers posted:

The LS is awesome, definitely the American equivalent of the E39.