Auto Design

Those of you who read Car Styling magazine might have been puzzled by my report on the Geneva motor show published in the latest (and last?) issue of the magazine.
For some mysterious accident that are more common in the printed press than you can image my text was cut and mixed up. For a more accurate reading and for the records I am publishing here the original text. Just as a sign of respect for my readers.

Official statistics show that the latest and 80th Geneva Motor Show set a new record for “premieres”, with as many as eighty “new cars”, or so, unveiled for the first time there. Now, considering the space in the magazine is not growing with the number of new cars at motor shows, let’s go straight to the point and answer the usual questions: how was the show this year. What was relevant and worth recording for the years to come?

First I would say that I saw more irrelevant, disappointing or irritating cars (read designs) than interesting and attractive ones: be for their design or their lack of innovative ideas/concepts. A short list includes the Aston Martin Cygnet,  Renault Megane CC, Renault Wind and Toyota Auris.

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by Enrico Leonardo Fagone.

“The automobile today is an individual means of transport within a complex system of collective transport. The relations within such a system can­not be ignored. The individual means of transport has to submit to the constraints imposed by the system. This implies a form of transport that fulfils certain fun­ctions: hence a functional vehicle. The designers of car bodies are clearly faced with new structures, new tasks: scienti­fic and technological evolution is a stimu­lus but at the same time a warning not to remain anchored to the positions of the past and present.” (Pio Manzù)

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The Mercedes-Benz 190D BlueEFFICIENCY experimental vehicle.

If you too have been questioning why today cars are so large and heavy, and wondered what could they do for us and the environment if they were simpler and lighter, here some facts and food for thought from Mercedes-Benz. Read the rest of this entry »