It’s been a while since I wrote anything… Busy time. Sorry for this silence. Some editorials will be here shortly. But for today… I just bumped into the “2010 Car of the year award” info on some website. And I’m shocked…The winner: VW Polo?
Car of the year award is considered to be “the Oscar” of auto industry. Group of 59 experts (auto journalists) from 23 countries, vote for the best car of the year. It’s that simple. But… in case of this year’s choice, if You check the particular points assigned to all of the nominated cars (here), You will see the problem.
Considering their content, they are pretty nice to watch. In both cases VW is showing groups of young people. Talking about new way of living, style, mentioning ecology… Or showing the car to work like chick magnet Why do I post them here? What makes them worth mentioning along 500 other commercials. These 2 don’t fit the car at all. This is a VW – what means: it’s boring as watching polish soccer team play. Read more…
In modern motoring world, what was very unlikely to happen 2 years ago, now is becoming reality. As all car makers race to release as many electric/hybrid vehicles in the shortest period of time, you could feel this coming.
Porsche… brand that had only 1 model in production for the most of it’s existence time, stubbornly putting the engine in the wrong place of the car… at the same time proud brand, famous of it’s history, consistency, heritage, sport image… is testing a new model equipped with 2.0 liter engine. Read more…
Smart scientists once discovered that when we look at the cars, we use the same part of our brains as we use for peoples faces, to recognize them.
SsangYong Stavic
Probably that is why they are designed the way they are: lights on the sides – eyes… some grill or badge – nose, and bumper – mouth etc. And the same way we feel the mimic emotions and character: like Mini has wide open and cheerful eyes… And new Mitsubishi Lancer is aggressive (narrow headlights descending to the middle)…
Knowing that… why do the designers put all these funny, ugly or sad faces on the cars…
Why “bottoms” – rears?
Because that is what we see the most of the time on the streets. We stand behind the cars in traffic lights. We are forced to look at their rears … And some of them are just harmful to our feelings
Check out the following photos of horrid modern car designs from this decade, below…
Volkswagen BlueSport Roadster concept was seen first time in January this year… and caused some turmoil on the car market. The project is hot, especially while all the “fun cars” are being postponed due to the “crisis” going on. And it looks like that VW is working fast as after only 5 months more concrete and optimistic details are being unveiled. What is worth mentioning: the car doesn’t even look like most of the boring VW design’s.
Here’s what Carscoop recently wrote about the car:
Some time ago I watched a road test of the new Ford Fiesta on TV. Guy was doing a full scale review, praising Ford for a good job. Talking about the interior, trunk, drivers position, brakes, engine, fuel economy and prices… all the boring stuff. And then he said (what was in his opinion the greatest news there) about the car: New Fiesta is not heavier than the previous model! Wow, a success?
And that made me think. What happened with the motoring… if during the review they find as a success that the car didn’t get fatter? That is a real success for myself, when I look in the mirror from time to time and see that the diet is working But with cars? All the hi-tech, aluminium, carbon fibre, computers – and they still get heavier. And needless to say: what weight does with the fun of driving.
The world car market is a complicated thing. Every major producer has it’s strategy, like every country has it’s local taste and characteristic. For ex. the US market doesn’t like diesel engines, don’t care about interior design much, must have huge bumpers. Europe on the other hand likes smaller cars, don’t use hybrids (cause diesel is cheap) and has worse prices on cars
Also there are international brands that work only locally. French trio: Renault, Citroen and Peugeot are not present in US. Fiat and Alfa planned to go accross the ocean in 2010 – but due to current car industry situation, nobody knows if they will. Also brands already present in US, choose models that will be sold in US and Europe separately.
Renault, Alfa, Opel, Honda...
Below You will find a list of 7 cars, that I find to go under category “fun” cars. hey are available to buy in Europe, but were not (so far) introduced to the US buyer. They’re all affordable options.
Recently I wrote a little “aggressive” comment about Prius, not being Eco friendly and expensive and ugly etc (link). I think that I had a bad day and the post didn’t sound as it should have:) I wasn’t against Toyota in this one. Well… excluding it’s ugliness… The topic was about Prius, but You can compare it to all this class Hybrid solutions that are branded as Eco. Ofc not including luxury cars like Lexus “h” models, which use electric engines to deliver extra power You don’t talk about ecology when You have 3 liter gasoline powered engine In this case: electric means fun.
But in this post I would like to think about the big picture: Diesel vs Hybrid. To find that “Vs” word, doesn’t actually fit here. These two are not actually against each other. I believe that soon enough we will see a diesel powered hybrid cars, which will make the best of these two.
Why do I post them here? What makes them worth mentioning along 500 other commercials. These 2 don’t fit the car at all. This is a VW – what means: it’s boring as watching polish soccer team play. 
