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Designed at Hyundai's Japanese studio, the i-Blue is a large crossover SUV concept not dissimilar to the German-designed Hyundai HED-2 Genus SUV shown in Geneva last year.
The most distinctive elements of the exterior design are the pointy DLO (with broken base line) and the way the side feature creases work with this, successfully giving the car a dynamism and reducing its apparent height. Other unusual features include the spine that grows rearward along the top of the roof to a peak at the top of the tailgate and the deep set rear lights that have an intriguing 3D effect.
Open the front door and a large part of the sweeping IP opens with the door to reveal a surprisingly high-floored interior, dominated by a display laden IP that swoops into the doors.
Overall, the i-Blue is handsomely sleek, well-resolved design, but given its true concept car status it lacks originality. The Veloster, first shown in Seoul this year, and the Qarmaq or Hellion concept cars that have come from Hyundai in the last twelve months are aesthetically and conceptually far more original.
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Hyundai HED-2 Genus SUV - Geneva 2006
Hyundai Veloster - Seoul 2007
New Cars: Hyundai i-Blue concept
With a new European Honda Accord due to be announced soon, the Accord Tourer Concept presented at Frankfurt demonstrates in core theme and form the exterior design of the production estate car. Unusually, the production design that the concept is closely based on was designed in Japan by Toshinobu Minami, whilst the concept model itself was created in Honda's German design studio.
The overall proportions of the car are quite conventional, with a more raked tailgate than on the current production car. The most notable aspect of the design is the very broad DRG that wraps all the way around the side of the car to the center point of the front wheelarch. Polished and satin finish alloy wheels and pronounced wheelarches - in place of its predecessor's sheer flanks - are other notable features.
When this design debuts in final production form at the Geneva Motor Show next year it will be the eighth generation European market Accord, following its predecessors in being larger than the car it replaces. Unfortunately, it also looks like Honda is replacing a distinctive design with a more generic one, which seems nonsensical given the success of the current car, the trend in the market for more distinctive design, and the more radical design strategy the company initiated with the latest Civic.
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Honda Civic - Frankfurt 2005
Although quite conventionally proportioned, the new Laguna has some interesting and unique design features: a full width lower grille with floating bar; a front bumper that lifts up at the sides to then create a shut line that slopes downwards into the wheelarch; door handles set on the flowing side feature crease, and a side rub-strip recessed into a section on the doors. But all of the many designers that we spoke to about the new Laguna at the show were disappointed by its exterior design. Most cited the way the lights - front or rear - and front bumper were oddly executed and several felt that the flowing side feature line visually weakened the design too.
Inside, the design is less contentious and appears to have the high quality that Renault is touting. A graceful wave form IP, the wooden applique on up-scale models and the delicate "islands" of secondary controls - running down through the centre console - are attractive and well-resolved. They are also made from materials that elevate the Laguna above any other mainstream upper medium European car in perceived quality, matching those of the leading German premium brands.
It seems odd that Renault's senior management now want Renault cars to appeal to a wider potential customer base when this new design is both less conventional and widely perceived to be less attractive than the two previous generations of the model - cars which were arguably some of the best upper-medium European market designs in their day. Time will tell if the new Laguna does improve on its predecessor's sales figures as Renault intends. We have our doubts.
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New Cars: Renault Laguna
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