Chrysler Crossfire

I think it's a good design effort on the exterior, but I hear it needs a bit more power underneath. Glad to see Chrysler going back to edgier designs after flirthing with bulbous nonsense.

They really have some great designers there, I find myself attracted to a lot of their models. I love their use of chrome and gold. I am not usually attracted to gold, but they do it very well, IMO.

A link would be nice.

That front grill looks kinda like the cady front end that has been around awhile, but other than that very nice.

That's nice, but so is the new BMW 645Ci.

That is a cool twist for BMW, I like the front end.

You mean this one.

Lets see.



and

Eh,..... maybe if you hold your tongue to the right between your teeth and squint a little...

All cars are looking the same to me these days. You ever see that car commercial where everyone is driving a cardboard box. Then the family comes down the street in a car that looks oh so different ... a four door sliver mid-sized sedan So original.

cars? you mean SUVs...

One car i really like and plan to buy is the Honda Element. I have an 86 civic that I keep saying "when it breaks down I will get a new car"... well 236000+ miles and it is still going. I would love to buy US but that is quality.

I think the rear looks weird, but I'm generally not into boldly unusual designs. The front is nice, though. I agree the exterior looks really beg for an engine with greater aspirations for reckless abandon.

I would guess it's a "midlife crisis man car for those who can't afford a German import"

PONTIAC EXCITEMENT!

I'm waiting for the M6.

If your waiting for that thing to break down, your gonna be driving it for a loooong time. Honda's don't break down. A buddy of mine had one that he got up to 900,000+ miles before he finally decided it was just time for a new car. The thing still ran great. The element is cool though.

And that BMW is amazing...wow, I would love a car like that.

thanks for nothing mercedes...

The Crossfire is a cool car. The interior looks a bit cheap in some areas but for the most part it is pretty nice. It's cousin is the Mercedes SLK. That is to say that underneath the sheetmetal is a lot of MB.

Recently Chrysler has been going up as far as interior build quality and that is all thanks to the Daimler merger. Thank god for that.

As far as the BMW goes...Chris Bengel needs to get killed slowly. He took one the most amazing German brands and ran it through a crapper. I really dislike the new direction that BMW is going in. A lot of people seem to agree. The 7 Series is going through a redesign of the back end for the 2005 model year. That is only 3 years into the new body style which is sorta unheard of. The from of the 6 Series looks ok but i ABSOLUTELY HATE the rear styling. That is my 2 cents on it.

I'm struggling to think of truly pretty BMW's. There aren't that many.

Their X5 is inoffensive. The previous two generations of 5 series were both nice for their times, but only the last was a pretty sedan. The last 3 series was pretty too, and looked good as a coupe. The last 7's were stately and formal, good enough for what they were.

But when you come down to it, BMW has never really been known for pretty vehicles. The Z3 was kinda cool once they fixed its ass, and I actually liked the Z3 coupe, not pretty at all, but angry in all the good ways.

The new Z4, 7 series, and latest 5, and new 6 seem to be reversing some of the progress BMW was finally making with their sedan/coupe shapes.

Sure, the 6 is not really offensive, but Eugene is right, it's a Pontaic with nicer surface detailing. Is that even a compliment? Pontaic has possibly the worst surface detailing ever.

I find the 7 least offensive of all Bungle's new designs. It's different from the old model, but again, not bad for what it is, though it looks a little blocky up front, I'm getting used to it. The Z4 bothers me every time I see it, from almost every angle. And the 5 series looks a bit like some Samurai cartoon caricature of BMW as drawn by a subaru ricer.

These are premium sedans/coupes are they not?

Mercedes has improved the look of their sedans enourmously in that time. Their coupes, however, are getting a lot of confused design flourishes. Why is an F1 nose cone on a closed coupe? Too many dishonest cut lines.

Sad day when an Accord sedan/coupe is actually a nicer shape than some of Europe's best, though Honda seems to have learned a lot about proportion from the good people at Peugot, who seem to be forgetting it.

Getting back to the Crossfire. Not bad looking, mebbe they'll steal a "Kompressor" out of the Merecedes parts bin?

Bah. I'll take them down easy in my four cylinder Subaru POWER wagon!

The X5 is fine. The current 3-Series is fine. Even the 7-Series is growing on me, but the sweeping headlamps and the grillework of the new 5-Series/6-Series is abominable. The previous 5-Series wasn't pretty at all. The 5-series of two generations ago was the best, and that's one reason why it lasted so long. You see more 5s here from the two generations than you do from the one generation ago.


The M-Coupe is beautiful.


The Z4 ... ugh


Yesyesyesyesyes.


Here's the thing. Mercedes-Benzes still look like Mercedes-Benzes.

The Crossfire is based on the Mercedes SLK platform, right?

I think the Crossfire looks better in person than any photo I've seen...maybe it's just me.

BMW's have always been more about performance over style (although the yuppies of the 80's made it fashionable to own one). For pure driving satisfaction, few are able to match BMW.

As much as I dislike the new 5, I do think the 6 and 7 are much better. The upcoming 3 looks horrendous. And if I'm correct, I believe the name is Chris Bangle.
The Crossfire is at least an attempt to shake things up on the American car design front. Other cars of note is the new Acura TL and the new Mazda 3 (great sporty econo car).

crossfire looks macho, too bad it dances like a bitch -- the SLK platform, drivetrain, and even the interior (look at it, it's an SLK with chrysler badging and details!) are all awful.

Bangle's stuff works.

Once the entire line is reworked, it'll become much more evident the grand plan

there are two aesthetics - the 'sculptural' forms of the 6 and 7, and the 'flame surfacing' which is evident on the Z4 and on the CS1 concept.

the line will be a progression from flame-surfacing on the lower end cars to the more 'sculptural' on the higher end. witness the 5- it's a mix of the two aesthetics. it's got some of the 'sculptural' form language, but with the flame surfacing surface detailing.

the upcoming 4 and 3 will probably be the same way. again, because they're BMW's bread and butter offerings, they can't be too radical.

Having a new 545i in the family, it's a hell of a car. a hell of a car. iDrive in its revised form is easy to use, hell, it's even INTUITIVE! Active steering is the mutt's nuts - going from driving the 5 to any other car, even another BMW - is disconcerting because the other car feels so unresponsive compared to the 5.

The 6 is gorgeous. Photos don't do it justice - the design has gravitas and elegance in person. Any comparison to a Pontiac is unwarranted, the only similarity is the twin-grilles. As soon as an actual order time is established, pretty sure one's (maybe even a cabrio!) making its way into the family garage.

The new TL is an uglier version of the TSX. The side and rear end designs of the TSX are nicer than the TL's. That groove in the side and the wonky rear just kill the car. Like the TSX though, very clean for a Japanese design.

270 HP + FWD = Torque steer. Problem.

Mazda 3 looks quirky, but good. Not sure how well the RX-8 tail schema translates to a hatch or a small sedan.


Satchmo, i'm really curious what pictures you've seen of the upcoming 3.

None of the spy shots have any real idea what it's going to look like, they're all cobbled together from other models...


Eugene: Since when do Benzes look like Japanoboxes?

A Benz should be big, square, boxy. Always have been, always should be.

Save the roadsters, the SL is fine, but the SLR and upcoming SLK are both disgusting. Too busy. The F1 nose detail = ugh. Cheesy.

They'll undoubtedly apply that disgusting little detail to the otherwise good SL design, though.

The previous CLK vs the new CLK, the new one looks cheap and feminine by comparison. Mercedeses are big brutes of cars, in the same vein as how Bentleys are to be 'locomotives on wheels' --

Funny, how the Lexus LS looks more like a proper iconic Mercedes than the S class does.

Mercedes needs to abandon their current design direction, as it does not have any driving clarity of vision-- it's just application of the same swoopy, droopy (see the new CLS concept car?), melty language to different forms, and putting some sort of rounded, or half-rounded headlights and vaguely triangular taillights on it.

The Z4 is not as well-resolved as it should be. I agree. The rear end proportions are the problem. A longer Z8 style tail would have obviated many of the concerns with the current design. The surfacing details are fascinating, though, and the interior is, again, fantastic. There was no evolutionary course to be taken from the Z3- revolution had to occur.

It's bolder than anything else put forth by a luxury carmaker in the past few years, at least since the Audi TT - i respect the design for that.

It did win Automobile magazine's design of the year award, in its defence.

^^^ Chris Bangle's bitch.

You should write for a car magazine. Good stuff.

Eugene:

Hardly.

I take serious issue with several elements of many of his designs.

The taillights on the 5, i'm not sold on.

The 7's front is not aggressive enough. The door handles are monstrosities. The sleeker units from the 5/6 should have been used. The back would look much nicer with the smoother detailing of the 6 series, and without the useless strip of lights across the middle of it.

The X3's bumpers are too busy and would look better body-colored. Exposed headlight washer points are bad form on the X3 and the X5.

You forget that Bangle isn't the designer of these individual cars -- he's merely the 'vision' guy.

It might pain you to know that he oversaw the design of the Z8 and the E46 3 as well, both eminently good looking cars.

I was growing tired of boring designs long before Bangle's new crop appeared. To see fresh design languages coming out of my preferred marque (and therefore coupled with excellent driving dynamics) is good.

That's funny, I figured that's where he ripped most of the comments from. I have no doubt in my mind that the designs are functional, and that they are a dream to drive. My 535i is 13 years old, but still more fun to drive than my pop's Jag XK or any of my friends' Japanese performance minded imports.

As it stands now, BMW might as well be Banglean Motor Works.

If i'd ripped the comments from any car magazine, the opinions expressed would have been in complete opposition to mine.

terms and language, maybe. I'm not a designer, i'd never heard anyone talk about design languages or form purity until i started reading about car design. i concede you that.

I do not follow cars as much as I used to, I just really like his style of writing, he is very... i don't know... um ...colorful or ... descriptive. I dunno, something.

Thanks

Don't mind Eugene, he forgot his anti-bitter meds today. Poor thing.

No really, you should write a review of a car, probably BMW and send it to some mags, You would be a breath of fresh air to them i think.

I too have very little clue about what you said, but I got the feel of it...

Does that make any sense?

Whenever I see the F1 nose , it reminds me of a proboscis monkey: