: How car designers continue to lure buyers into their showrooms
Words Manny N. de los Reyes
A glint of chrome from a front grille. Coke-bottle curves that stretch from bumper
to bumper. Huge gleaming alloy wheels and wide tires bulging from under the fenders.
Every car has its own way of beckoning to the pairs of eyes that stare at them through
a showroom window or on a print ad.
What exactly goes on in the black art of car design, perhaps the most critical aspect in
the gestation of a new car? Even a spacious and feature-laden passenger cabin and a
powerful yet fuel-efficient motor may fail to draw buyers if these are paired with a car
whose looks fail to ignite even a smidgeon of desire.
Just look at the fortunes of the Toyota Corolla, a paragon of quality, reliability and
value-for-money, here in the country - a best-seller since time immemorial. Yet, when
the sleek and sporty Honda Civic ESi came out in 1993 - and despite Honda's absence of
a local track record and no-discount premium pricing policy - the Civic managed to wrest
the title of best-selling car from the bland-looking Corolla. And repeated the deed with the
equally sleek next-generation model; again and again for the better part of a decade, in fact.
But when the latest Corolla Altis came out in 2002 - with its chunky high-beltline body
style (that would also be seen in newer BMWs), its large evocative headlamps and Lexus-like
taillamps, Toyota suddenly had the proverbial hotcake, outstripping its rivals, month after
month.
Which underscores the importance of sculpting a car's exterior perfectly right. One awkward
fenderline, headlamps that are too squinty, a rear end that's too stubby, and a car company has
to suffer four (or at the very least, two, given the mid-cycle facelift) years of lacklustre sales. Which,
again, is why we take a look here at some of the more notable exercises in automotive design.
How to Make a Poor Man's SUV
Toyota may have started a trend in taking the humble AUV upmarket but Isuzu certainly
perfected the art with its Crosswind XUV. All the requisite SUV cues are present in the XUV:
taller-than-average ride height, big wheels and all-terrain tires (which make those of its counterpart
Revo and Adventure models look downright skinny); gray-tone plastic fender flares and side body
cladding; rear-mounted spare tire (which the current Revo and Adventure cannot emulate due to their
upward-swinging tailgates); even a faux front bull-bar. Add eye-catching colors like yellow and metallic
orange (even the Crosswind's standard colors are more distinctive than its rivals) and you've got a
hands-down winner in the looks department. Crosswind sales, needless to say, are stronger than ever.
The range-topping Toyota Revo SR/VX200 and the Mitsubishi Adventure Super Sport/Grand Sport have
most of these SUV cues; however, the execution in those models is less effective than in the XUV,
particularly in the "just right" bulge of the XUV's fender flares and body cladding. Big tires, of course,
help deliver the "I'm-a-brute" message, as do the widest-in-class body width of even the basic Crosswind.
