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?

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Cadillac XLR was the first convertible for Cadillac which came out in 2003 since Allante was withdrawn in 1993.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

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Infiniti M….Good design sketch for wrong car

When I was skimming American car magazine “Road & Track” , I saw a very impressive design sketch on an Ad. of Infiniti ( luxury brand of Nissan).

I was surprised about Nissan having such a capable designer….Look at this….such a simple, strong and elegant line….!

At least, I am not impressed about Nissan design at all especially past 10 years. GT-R, Skyline etc……they even can’t design RWD large coupe which supposed to be easier.

Look at this line…….at least I can say it is way better than their proud GT-R.

But, when it come to product…..what we get is this……

Such a disappointing…..First of all, I don’t understand why they used this sketch for 4 door sedan? It is for 2 door coupe line.

Original simple line has gone and too many unnecessary curvy lines are fighting each other…….

To make it adjust to 4 door, they had to lift up the roof line and that completely destroyed the balance.

I always say “roof line to C pillar is the key point of car design”.

• When they started thinking about space utility, they had to lift up the front windshield and that destroyed the harmony between the body to roof line.
• Then, they just lifted up whole the roof line without much thinking.

For try, I matched up the photo of Infiniti M on top of the Image sketch. It was surprising……the body line except for the roof completely much to the first rough sketch!!

Also matching with the body of Infiniti M and the roof line from sketch is perfect!!

It does look like Aston Martin or something…..!

This means the body design was not that bad…..just matching with the roof line is not good.
At least I can see Nissan still have designers……but maybe they don’ t have a good environment to do what they can do.

They should have used this image sketch for GT-R or Skyline 2 door coupe.

I have to say they used good design sketch for wrong car.

Simply, I don’t like Nissan’s design especially after Carlos Ghosn started to control Nissan. They are just complicated for nothing.

Car Design…..Chevrolet Camaro

Chevrolet Camaro came back after 7 years of absence since last produced as 2002 model.

After the long blank, they gave up new design and came back with the 60’s retro outfit like what Mustang did.

What’s an ugly pig!!………….that was my honest impression when I first look at the real one although they are considered as hot in the market.

First of all, why did it have to be that big? Remember the previous one? It was low and wide……but believe it or not, current model is even wider than the previous although it looks normal style…. !!! What is for?
Of course it is taller as well.

Look at how huge those wheels are……..what is the point of having 20 inches wheels???? Remember….big wheels are always heavy and it affect “unspring mass”.

There is nothing good about increasing “unspring mass”.

Imagine how much those tires are going to cost!

To adjust to the unnecessary huge wheel, they had to make the body taller and that is why Camaro looks huge and heavy. They did the same thing as Chrysler 300 did.

Also because of the huge wheels, the body looks popped up. Too much ground clearance makes car look unstable as well.

This is the one I modified by Photoshop.
First of all, I did not touch  wheels size because If I change, I will have to re-shape wheel arches and then, I will have to adjust whole body style as well.

1.Sliced body to reduce  height.
I you get into this car, you will notice how high the dash board and windows for nothing.

 

2.Lowered down the body to reduce the clearance between Wheel and wheel arch.

It is very important part for car design….but modern designers does not care too much. They are just happy as long as they fit huge chrome wheels.

Even those 2 things made way better than the original.

Camaro is using “Zeta platform” which was originally developed by Australian “Holden”.
Holden Commodore is reasonably good car….but why did they have to make things worse than what they did in Australia?

Big fat ugly body, tight interior, high dashboard and windows and too much unnecessary space above the head……everything is coursed by this design problems.

Retro style is always difficult.
All the cars need model change after certain period of time, but what are they going to be?
As long as they are dead copy of original, there is not much they can do. Maybe what they can do for Camaro next time is……what I did here, then it is the end again.

By the way, this is the original Camaro from late 60s….well they tried to trace it….but it does not look a like at all…..

Turning into Retro design means giving up evolution and trying to find easy ques from past history. It means designer is admitting they are not as good as past people.

Then, all they can do later is….get closer to the original model. Then, what are they going to do after that? That is the end!!

You designers!! Do your job!!