Maybe it’s because they’re too busy designing all the bells and whistles that go inside a car these days that they just don’t have the time to have their own style on the outside. Everything seems to look just like everything else.
Is that a BMW or a Hyundai? Mazda or Subaru? Jeep or a, oh, wait, Jeeps still look like Jeeps. At least the Cherokee and the Wrangler.
In the words of Peter Sellers, “Not…anymore.”
Introducing the new 2014 Jeep Cherokee. Or…is it a:
- Acura RDX?
- Chevrolet Traverse?
- Ford Edge?
- Hyundai Tuscon?
- Kia Sorrento?
- Infinity QX50?
- Lexus RX350?
- Mazda CX-5?
- Mitsubishi Outlander?
CX-5, RDX, RX350, QX50, even the names are redundant.
How many of those can you identify? No prizes involved, just me being impressed if you can do it without an internet search. I can pick out specific details on about two of them that would key the name of the manufacturer.
Click HERE for the answers.
2 comments:
Ah, ha! It's not just me being a stupid non-car-type person. They really do all look alike! And then when they're all those non-colors, too, like sort of goldish silver or sort of silverish copper, then they REALLY all blend together.
Oh, and you know, a VW Tiguan also looks quite a bit like all the whatevers you just listed.
01 - Lexus RX (can't tell if it's the 350 or hybrid), but it's clear this is the third generation unit.
02 - Ford Edge - post-facelift. Built near my 'burg in Oakville, Ontario
03 - Jeep Cherokee. Meh. Good thing you didn't get the front view. Those lights....gah!
04 - Chevy Traverse, post-facelift. Not a bad adaptation of GM's Lambda platform, but still, huge and aero-jellybean-generic.
05 - Mazda CX-5. I'll give Mazda some credit here: in the metal, the thing has a presence that other cute-utes lack. I'm starting to dig their new Kodo design language. It sure beats the dumb smiley-faces of their earlier designs.
06 - Infiniti QX50, nee EX35/EX37. You're right: Worst. Naming Convention. Ever.
07 - Acura RDX. This second-generation model is a neutered version of what once was a somewhat unique model in the segment. Bums me out that the focus groups have gotten their way. They'll still struggle to sell 172 of them this year.
08 - Kia Sorrento - post-facelift. Still a meh-mobile. Took a look at one and was shocked at how small it is on the inside. For something that casts that large a shadow and consumes that much dinosaur-remnants, there's no excuse.
09 - Hyundai Tucson. Reminds me of a tuna fish for some odd reason.
10 - Mitsubishi Outlander Sport - this is is the little brother to the full-on Outlander. In Canada, they call this the RVR (I have no idea why.) Doesn't matter: I think I've seen three of them in the wild since they went on sale a couple of years back.
Either way, they all seem to crib from the same design palette, and they increasingly target the same zone of banality. Kinda sad, and I refuse to accept that aerodynamics forces designers to follow the same path. We can have our cake and eat it, too, but the industry seems to have decided otherwise.
Post a Comment