Cadillac CTS Coupe

I have been critisizing the design of Cadillac CTS for years.

It is simply ugly and just it does not look impressive.
People says it is because of high gas price…. but still people by Mercedes S class.

This it the coupe version… what’ a hell…. I guess GM designers really like Toyota Prius or something.

This laxury coupe looks like Prius to me.

It is thick, tall, long front overhang, tail is unnaturally lifted up…. it is just ugly….

1. First thing I did was… modified the angle of B-Pillar which is tilting forward.
This is extremely important for coupe as I talked in Acura NSX.

2. Then, the waist line is too high and side windows are too small. This is typical for
modern Cadillac and it is creating funny interior space.

3. Front and Rear windscreens are lifted up. Again this is typical for modern Cadillac
and badly spoil the space utility.

4. Lower down the rear boot and bumper which looks ugly and restrict rear vision.

5. Doors are looking dull and flat… it just makes it look fat.

6. Americans are bad at designing RWD. Long front overhang make it look like
FWD and completely spoils whole design.

That was how things were moved and this is the result….

Isn’t it much better?  The overall length hasn’t changed.

I really don’t like the interior of CTS. It is just unnatural.

1. Huge front windscreen is nearly touching on my forhead.
2. Waist line is too high and side windows are too small.

3. Rear windscreen touches to head of rear passengers.

4. High rear boot restrict rear vision.

As usual, all I did was, make the interior space more natural and it dramatically improve the body design as well.

Spending over $50,000 and the what you get is the ugly body design and cramped interior… what’s the point?

Lincoln MKT… new Limos in New York

I was in New York for a while.

New York City is a very different city especially if you talk about cars.
Most of cars you see there are taxi cabs or Limousine…. Lincoln Towncar has been dominated the limo market for many years, but as you know, they have been discontinued and limousine companies have to find something to replace those.

As I noticed, quite a few Lincoln MKT short version were in the city and I also saw some stretched limousines.

Well….this design….. at least it is way better than Cadillac Escalade… but still a bit boring as a flagship vehicle….

This is how I did. I was always thinking MKT was looking a bit classical like late 1930s, so I modified like sedan at that time. Actually all I did was stretched rear and moved rear wheel to adjust the balance.

Actually, I guess it is the perfect shape for taxi cab!!

Also it looks reasonably good in the landscape of American city!

MKT is a type of Cross-over…. which means it is between SUV and Station Wagon. But as a result, it is classical looking too. This could be another way especially luxury cars to go.

2013 Buick Riviera Concept

Buick has been known as a brand for pre-WW2 generation.

There is a joke says

There are 2 type of Buick owners…..

1. Old person bought from dishonest sales person.
2. Young boy got from his grand farther……

Actually… it is a kind of true…

Buick used to be a luxury car for working class people. It was a bit like today’s AUDI
or something.
But, what about now? They are only meaningless re-budged Opel. They got rid of well-known brand and brought new names to confuse consumers.

Riviera was a luxury 2 door coupe especially known as a twin brother of Oldsmobile Toronado in late 60s.

It was purely stylish and respectable 2 door coupe.

The previous and last model of Riviera retired in 1999. Over a decade after, they brought back a valuable name….

As I see, it is very early version of concept car. It looks a bit like Aston Martin or something…. well, at least Buick is trying to do something….

But what I don’t understand is….. why the front grill is mounted that low??? Does it look any good?

I don’t think so. It just looks like uneducated teen wearing pants down.

This is the one I modified by using Adobe Photoshop.

All I did was lifted up the grill. If you compare, you will notice that made a big difference.

All I did was moved the grill to where it supposed to be.

On the original one, grill is not located to where it supposed to be and that makes your vision will endlessly float around between headlamps.

In this case, the styling will never look impressive.

On the modified one, your vision will go straight to the grill, then look around and come back to grill again.

How to attract vision is quite important point of industrial design.

Still there are lots of things to do on this design. But I am happy to see this because it is telling me that Buick is trying to restore their brand image.

They are trying Cadillac to be international…. in that case, Buick should be Luxury cars for American people.

Go Back >>

Cadillac XTS…Car design Part2

American Big 3 has been doing downsize for last 3 decades, but particularly to GM, I just don’t think they are still having problem with it.

I talked about Cadillac XTS the other day.

For try, I extended Front & Rear end of Cadillac XTS.

This is how I did by Adobe Photoshop….actually, it is not bad at all……

This means XTS needed longer front and rear ends to be better design.

But, I still can’t stand the popped up rear end and limited head clearance at the rear seats.

So, this is what I did….this is based on my previous work plus extended front and rear ends.

Actually, this is quite impressive….but even original XTS is 5.1m long and those modified one is well over 5.5m….this is about same as ancient Full-size vehicles…..

At least they should have done this kind of model 10 years ago when gas was cheaper.

Old day, Americans did not care about body size at all. They just extended size to make better design. That is how they are still not good at designing within limited size.

This is also the good example of it.

Or….designers make this kind of model….but they have to fit it to smaller size….this will completely destroy the design. In this case, I would have to say design process itself is wrong.  Designers and engineers need to work more closely to…

Cadillac XTS….Car design…

When I was walking around Downtown San Francisco, I ran into cheaply ugly looking car in front of a Luxurious hotel….At least, Audi which was parked behind looked way more respectable to me.

I looked at the vehicle carefully and I recognized that it was Latest Cadillac XTS….which is the largest Cadillac 4 door sedan today !!

Cadillac does not look good in front of luxury hotel???  What is happening?

Let’s look at the design…..well….it is hopelessly bad….it looks like big fat Toyota Prius or something…At least it is not the proportion of Luxury 4 door sedan.

Badly sloped front windscreen creates poor drivers position, also rear windscreen is causing limited head clearance at the rear seats.

Doors are too flat and it makes it looks dull and fat.

Popped up rear end…

This design is completely ignoring basics of basic of car design.

So, this is what I did by using Adobe Photoshop…..

• Lifted up Front windscreen to create better front space.
• Lifted up Rear windscreen to get extra head clearance at the rear seats.
• Dropped down the popped up rear end.
• Extended height of door windows to improve the vision.
• Added press line on doors to give some accent.

That is how I did….basically, all I did was related to improve cramped interior space and at the same time, it is improving the styling.

But….unfortunately the base was too bad…..to me it looks like Prius turned into Camry….I still don’t think it is enough for luxury sedan.

It has been a year since this model came out, but I have seen only a few times in Vancouver and it was the only one I saw in San Francisco !!

Do you remember that Cadillac used to be the most popular luxury car and saw everywhere in the United States…?

It is based on Chevrolet Impala and costing more than double, but it looks much worse than Chevy…..that is the reason It is not popular at all.

Last 2 decades, GM have been  trying to copy Japanese. I don’t think anything wrong to learn from something…but they are making big mistake.

“Each design has a right size.”

Prius looks OK (Personally I don’t like it) because of its size. If you transplant the design into bigger size, usually it will not work.

That is the risk of copying Japanese design. They have to be very careful…..

Cadillac XLR….Car Design

Cadillac XLR was the first convertible for Cadillac which came out in 2003 since Allante was withdrawn in 1993.

2003 was also One hundredth anniversary of Cadillac and XLR came out with $100,000 of price tag which was the most expensive mass-production vehicle made in the United States.

This is the only vehicle which is sharing the platform of Corvette.
This also means it was supposed to be very special model for GM…

Cadillac Eldorado used to be the most popular 2 door coupe….but not anymore. All the market was taken over by Germany and now, Cadillac has strong complex against Mercedes…

This is obviously targeting Mercedes SL….but what about this design?

Cadillac has been trying to be different past 10 years and they call it “Art and Science”….But it only look like cheapy crappy Lego toy or something.

I am amazed that nobody had complained about this front mask.
In case of Mercedes SL, It goes well with wealthy old women or even  fashion model…but this thing…. I just can’t think who could look good on it….

This is what I did some modification by using Adobe Photoshop.

First of all, I just did not like those headlamps. When you see the original one, your vision is just floating between strange-looking headlamps and doesn’t stop.

That is why it is looking spiky….but it does not look strong or looks vague.

Look at my one….your vision will go streight to center of vehicle, then look around and the vision comes back to center again.

This is typical example that GM designers are not understanding basics of car design.

Today, there are lots of people who are good at drawing or good at operating computer graphic…..but I don’t think there are enough people who understand basics of car design.

Cadillac designers don’t know what is good about Cadillac, or history of Cadillac. All they do is putting Cadillac budge and vertical tale lamps.

Meaningless lines are not beautiful, practical lines are beautiful.

Go back >>

Nissan GT-R Car Design

Nissan GT-R is the pure sport car which was developed by Nissan ruled by French chair man.

To European people, sport car means to be Porsche or something….so, even though GT-R had been a variation of Skyline for many years, but they got rid of the relationship with Skyline and was completely re-made as an independent model.

Well….lets look at the design of Japanese Super car…..

I will have to say it is ugly pig…!

1. Extremely unnatural slope of the roof line.
2. Flat door panels make it look dull and fat.
3. Short and fat ass spoils its sporty feeling.

It is large 2 door coupe….one of the most exciting design for designers…but is that the best Nissan designer could do?

This is what I did by using Adobe Photoshop.

1. Lifted up the roof line and modified the line of C-Pillar which is the key point of car design. It will improve rear head space as well.
2. Added press line at the top of door panel to give extra accent.
3. Modified rear end of the door. It will look more sophisticated and also improve accessibility to rear seats.
4. Modified bottom end line of side glass.
5. For the final adjustment, rear trunk is slightly extended…but we can skip this part as well.

Japanese people has never been good at designing “Sporty” some reason….Whenever they do, they make something childish.
Apart from 240Z, RX7 or MX5….they are not that impressive…..

Each line is too sharp and too straignt. I wonder if it is because they are drawing by computer. People used to spend hours to decide just 1 line but not anymore….

Tell the truth, to own this vehicle, it will cost more than Porsche…in that case, what is the point of owning this ugly creature?

Maybe they are faster than Porsche….but where are you going to try it?
Of course, performance is important….but beautiful styling is as important as its performance and that is what Nissan missed this time.

When a Japanese motor journalist complained about its design, Nissan said the reason was the…”cost”…..well….they are misunderstanding something very important.

At least I know Nissan has a good designers. They really should have used this rough sketch to GT-R instead of slow selling Infiniti M.

Go back to Home >>

Cadillaac Eldorado

It is not bad….but It just looks like “Seville Coupe”.

When Cadillac Seville went through drastic change in 1992, the 2 door coupe Eldorado came out as well.
Although the Seville was bigger than the previous model, it was much more sporty and quite exciting looking.

Then, this is Eldorado……well….it looks just like “Seville Coupe”……with a bit more dull looking…..

Vertical tail lamps make it look more traditional compare to Seville.

But, believe it or not, none of the body panel is the same as Seville. This design is specially made for Eldorado!!

American Luxury coupe had been popular because they used to be quite good-looking although they were not as practical as 4 door sedans.

But, in this case….I just can’t see what was the point of having 2 door coupe which does not have any character.

This model was quite well designed and Average age of Cadillac owners dramatically dropped.

In early 90’s there were still American coupe existed…but none of them were popular and then, disappeared by the end of the decade.

Designers should know this…..

Coupes are easier to design because they can be less practical and less rear passenger friendly.

To sell coupes….they need to be Beautifully designed.

Thanks to the “Aerodynamics” and “Safety standards”…..what designers can do is limited compare to old days and 90s was the time all the coupe lost its style due to those reasons.

Today, all the luxurious coupe in North America are made by German or Japanese.That is partly because Big 3 are not really keen about this market.

Eldorado was not polular….but it did not mean the market disappeared. Maybe the market was smaller than before, but biggest problem was….Eldorado did not have advantage against Seville. That was all….
Then, the market was taken by Imports now…..That was haw American big 3 are keep loosing their own market.

 

Vancouver Auto Show 2013

Jeep booth was by the entrance

In Vancouver BC, Canada, we have Auto Show every year in the end of March.

Compare to Tokyo, it is way more relaxed and more brand….at least I though most of the brands we see in Canada today.

But….why was it that relaxed…? Was it because of the Easter weekend or people in Vancouver are simply not interested in cars?

At least, it is good chance to check around randomly at the same time.

Then….what I felt was….Americans are still way too fat for nothing and wasting space a lot.
They are very hard to judge the size from driver’s seat and interior space is not big enough for its size.
Even me 5.8 feet tall did not have enough head clearance in most of American cars.

I spend nearly half a day and 2013 Honda Accord was my favorite…..what is the boring result???

Quite well designed next American standard.
The person next to the red shirt had quite good understanding about American car industry. They need this kind of person for their management.

 

In American cars, I would say 2014 Chevrolet Impala was my favorite.
As I mentioned in a past article, the design is quite well done and so as interior design.
It also had generous interior space on both front, rear and also extremely big size trunk as well.

At least, it was way better looking than brother “Cadillac XTS”.

There were couple of concept models in Chevrolet booth.

This compact Italian super car look model was slightly more popular.

From rear, it looked like small Camaro….

A stuff told me those are only empty body shells for design research and taking votes which we liked.

When I was there, the Yellow one was a little bit more popular. But I could say it was partly because of body color as well.

The gray one would look way better with stronger color as well.

Generally speaking, Vancouver BC has never been to be the place to reveal exiting brand-new models as result, and all I saw was something I already knew from some other media including internet.

But, it is hard to play with so many cars at the same day is very valuable experience and compare to some other big shows like LA, New York or Detroit, it is quite relaxed and I did not have to deal with long waiting line at all apart from Free Cafe ran by Buick.

$15 for this was great deal form me…..

This is where we had the show.

This was built before Vancouver Olympic and now criticized as waste of tax money.

2014 Cadillac CTS

Photos of 2014 New Cadillac CTS were revealed yesterday.

First of all, they are getting rid of ugly “Art & Science” line. That is a good thing!! I don’t understand why they kept using that ugly toy like design for a decade to ruin their own reputation.

At least those rounder lines looks more sophisticated….but at the same time it looks like mixture of Mercedes and BMW essence…….

When you see the rear view, it looks more like Cadillac XTS.  At least it is better than current CTS.

What about front?

Huge grills and tiny headlamps at the corners….do they know the word “harmony”???

To do design, most important thin is harmony.
In this case, the huge grill attract all my vision and can’t see anything else….or other parts looks quite week.

If they want to use that kind of grill, they will need more accent on the tail lamps as well.

This is how I did modification by using Adobe Photosphop.

I made the grill smaller and made the headlights wider instead to balance.

Also big difference is…..I had to reduce the height of the front mask.

I wonder why modern designers like “thick face”…..???  It is OK to do it if they know what they are doing.

Look at Rolls Royce…not the latest one.

When they use huge grill like it, they will have to think of headlights and bumpers, but they did not have enough time for it.

I want to tell all the car designers

If you are not sure what you are doing….go back to basic!!

Also they are trying to follow international standard, but following BMW or Mercedes does not mean to be answer for Cadillac.

People who want something like BMW will buy BMW. They won’t go for Cadillac eventhougth they were slightly cheaper.

Cadillac has to have something which BMW does not have if they really want to sell outside of North America.

They used to have it…but not anymore. They are just too busy to copy BMW and got rid of their own culture.

For Luxury cars, most important thing is their own cultural background. Cadillac has 110 years of history and culture which Lexus does not have. But now, they just look like downgraded BMW or Lexus.

Perhaps….like me, people who feel something special to the name of “Cadillac” are already old generation……

<<Go Back