Bad design

Activity here on Shamu seems to be dropping to an all-time low. I suppose this is down to two main reasons; people losing interest in the forum and the move over to Facebook for communicating between friends. I have no problem with either, but I really can’t get in to Facebook as an alternative. I find it way too difficult to actually find what people have posted, posts don’t stay easily visible long enough and I just don’t like how one can respond to an existing post. It just seems to lack any real depth of thought, and I hate the whole structure of it. No matter, change is inevitable and I can accept that. However, I will continue to post my rants on here even if nobody reads them anymore.

Today I wanted to write about car design. Recently there has been a lot of uproar in France as Peugeot have announced the closing of one of its factories, and the related lay-offs. I suppose it is a sign of the times, and part of the current crisis the world is going through. However, at the same time we find a number of other car manufacturers producing record profits such as Porsche (although not a fair comparison since they specialize in the high-end sport and luxury market) and Volkswagen. The French people seem at a loss to understand why their cars are not selling as they feel they are at least as good as the competition.

I am amazed that they just can’t see they are producing crap! If you look under the shell a bit, the quality of their cars is really poor, and after two years of driving a Peugeot they look like a 20 year old Volkswagen inside. I remember how our Renault Twingo was like after less than three years, and compare that to our current Mercedes A Class which is some 9 years old now. I can also look at my 4 year old Mini which still looks completely new inside. But, this is not necessarily something that you notice when you are in a showroom checking out a brand new car.

What gets a buyer normally is the design of the car, how it looks and feels. Having decided the type of car you are looking for, it comes down to personal taste. Now, I know that we all are different, and we all like different things, but seriously how can anybody be attracted to the monstrosities Peugeot have been putting out recently! Granted, their Citroën range is not bad, and there is a general design line they have which is actually really nice, but Peugeot not so much.

It starts with the distinctive front. As of this year, they have changed the general design of the front of their cars, but up until then it was simply awful. This is a key element in car design, and is made to easily distinguish a certain brand of car. A Rolls Royce is instantly recognizable by its grill, as is a Mercedes or a BMW. Here are some samples of recent Peugeot fronts:







Unfortunately it does not end there. Out of their range, they have produced some hideous models where everything is just wrong no matter how you look at them. The proportions are all wrong, and you sometimes don’t really know if you are looking at the front or the rear.

Peugeot 407 SW


Peugeot 307 cc


Not to be outdone by the follow up 308 CC


Yet, in spite of models such as these, the French still can’t understand why their cars are not selling…

The obvious answer is...a lack of Sideburns.

Sideburns make you go faster - that's why a bloke, born in Belgium, moved to Malta, and then to England, wins the Tour...and still manages to speak fluent French...

..it's all down to Sideburns I tell thee...

OK - point 1) Spacebook is exactly as you describe: a chance to post a quick comment in the hope that someone you know has the time in their day to post a relevant reply - before your origonal comment falls off of the bottom of the page. It's not a forum per se. It's more "passing ships in the night". Yet these days, the ships move so much faster than when that phrase was first coined. C'est la vie.
Point 2) I for one read ALL of you monologues / diatribes. I just don't comment on them as a rule, because quite often you have either answered your origonal question via the rest of your essay (good), or I cannot comment due to my lack of knowledge on the subject (My bad).
Point 3) I don't do bikes - sorry.
Point 4) Peugeot have always been shit.
Point 5) You spell tyre, "tire".
Point 6) There is no Point 6.
Point 7) Nah poofters.
Point "origonal" isn't spelt like that.
Point 9) Er, that's it.

Okay, I'll tri to write tyre instead of tire....

Thanks for the feedback! Oh, and I do have a soft spot for the Peugeot 404, but that goes back a bit...

The origonal Peugeot 205 hatchback was the origonal hot hatchback, so that knocks Gelerts number 4 out.
I agree with his number 2 and 3 points, but not number 1, I think all these facebook type site are just a result of the Murdoch types dumbing down of the people, and reducing life to meaningless 20 second sound bytes.
Point 5, don't like american type spelling,
Point 6, is of course, famous for making woolen socks, so I am surprised the leather buttoned cardigan wearing, pipe smoking, best bitter drinking, so the evil old fart is totally wrong on that point.
Point 7, I am sorry there are no poofters on the site for Gelert to bond with.
I have sppelt origonal correctlllly, so that covers point 8/
Point 9, we had a GP last week, and not 1 post about it!!!!! WTF

Well, doesn't actually the Golf GTi MK1 qualify as the origonal hot hatchback? I agree the 205 was amazing, it was just unfortunate that it also suffered from the same poor quality inside as all other Peugeot. After a year or two of using it, it would just become sort of "soggy" inside. But it was still fun to drive!

As to point 9, I think that was also one of the reasons I was mentioning an all time low activity on here. Seriously, WTF?

They wont stop until someone steps in and makes them. Look at Detroit. Ford made the move, and now the Taurus, Fusion, and Escape look awsome. GM however, keep building crap cars like the Volt that will never sell. With the Hyundai Elantra, and Kia Optima showing sporty designs, these old manufacturers need step up or be the next Saab.

Whats a Peugeot?

H8R wrote:Whats a Peugeot?

Well, there was this:



and this:

Peugeot 205 GTI was great. Anyone who has driven will tell you that.

I drive it's big brother, 206 180 GTi. It's like a big go-kart, if you can't have fun driving this car, you won't have fun driving full stop. Looks-wise it's 'mehh' but I don't have to look at it when I'm using it!

Peugeot's designs really went to sh1t when they decided to drop Pininfarina and do their design in-house. The last of the Pininfarina designs (I think) was late 90s with the understated but stylish 406. Pictures don't do it justice though.

Don't forgot the dominating multiple WRC winning Peugeot 206 WRC:


Or the Peugeot 905 WSC multiple Le Mans winner:

PLAYLIFE wrote:I drive it's big brother, 206 180 GTi.

You drive a front wheel drive car and dare to call yourself an enthusiast?

da silva wrote:You drive a front wheel drive car and dare to call yourself an enthusiast?

Don't go there, DS...you'll get me started...

MMMMmmmmmmm....Front-Wheel Drive... insert [Bart_Smiley]

To get things back on track, here is another beauty. The Peugeot 308 SW:

Perhaps its a product of living in North America, but the pugs don't look any worse than the majority of crap they force feed us over here. I could link dozens of hideous vehicles on sale in NA that look worse than that 308. That said I totally agree it is not pretty.

The Nissan Juke.
This is bad design.

da silva wrote:

The Nissan Juke.
This is bad design.

That's a still-born "Transformer" isn't it...?
Sort of half-way between a car and a destruction-tested crisp packet....

Speaking of bad designs....for the MotoGP fans...and it's funny btw.

Vale would concur.

da Silva, I think you may have a point about cars "over there". I had erased from my mind the Pontiac Aztec....

The Aztec was an odd idea. It had nothing to do with Indians, and the whole sleep in the attached pup tent was just odd.

There is just so much that is wrong in the design of the Aztec. Even individual elements are just wrong, and then they have been assembled by a 2 year old who doesn't know how to play with blocks....

that is just one more piece of proof that america makes hideously ugly cars

Not always

Indeed, there have been some beautiful American cars. The old Mustangs are very nice, and I have always dreamed of a late 50's early 60's Corvette.

From the 70's on it sort of went downhill....

This is also a Mustang...

Henrik wrote:da Silva, I think you may have a point about cars "over there". I had erased from my mind the Pontiac Aztec....

One of the worst. I always thought some bad designer on crack was given the directive to get a pontiac SUV on the market ASAP by an exec who was equally cracked out. So they took an existing platform and made it taller with a bunch of plastic on the sides. There was a small pontiac hatch-back that looked more like this...



So the message here is if you take something not-too-good-to-begin-with and then blow the proportions all out of whack it is not likely to be even remotely an improvement.

eso

Sort of: "If we make the turd bigger, it'll fit our robotic polishers better...?"