Friday, September 26, 2008

Cayenne and Touareg

Sorry if this post is a little 'top gear'

Re the discussion in the morning class, about detailing large surfaces.
I find the Touareg more attractive because it gives you something to
look at - the cayenne to me looks like a big lump.

Mind you, they're both SUVs and therefore a pretty flawed concept to
begin with, right?

There two cars share much mechanically, but the difference in detailing
sets them apart. Especially the grille material change on the Touareg.

Comments? Anyone disagree?

Image credits:

http://www.cardata.com/images/2008_new_cars/Porsche/2008_Porsche_Cayenne_Turbo_side.jpg
http://gallery.carreview.com/data/car/570/medium/vw_touareg2_01.jpg

-Robbie

6 comments:

Student Contributor said...

hey robbie,

i think you are right, the details do set both cars apart.
especially since the touareg is in my opinion, much better looking.

however, i think they took the detailing on the touareg too far, the front is a bit too busy and i find myself almost ignoring the rest of the car.

both audi and vw are guilty of this, although the touareg is not the worst of them, the vw passat and audi a4 are very busy up front. Given that they are both four doors, the lack of detail on the sides of the car visually elongates it. this increases the gap between coupe styling and sedan styling.
sedans (to me) have always looked a little stretched and out of proportion to allow for the rear passengers.

as vw owns audi, im not surprise that they share some styling cues, especially in the intake grilles on the front, which are very dominant, allowing little room for surfacing.

not to say that both these cars don't look good, they just look awkward when seen from a three quarter view

http://www.ridelust.com/wp-content/uploads/vw_passat.jpg

http://www.autospectator.com/cars/files/images/Audi-A4-S.Image.jpg

kai

Student Contributor said...

hey,

i do a bit of work for VW head office, and i've met some of the guys who designed these cars... i should invite them to partake in this little blog... i'm sure they'd love to hear it! The Touraeg is a little favorite of mine, and if you compare it to the previous models (05), which were simpler, and they looked rubbish...

Dan

Student Contributor said...

Hey Robbie,

Thanks for posting this! These examples are very useful to me. I can see what you mean about it breaking up the form. The long, thin horizontal lines also gives the suggestion of forward movement.

Thanks, Laura.

Student Contributor said...

the chrome is coming back!! maybe we'll be seeing chrome wheels on new cars again soon. not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing styling wise, but from a safety point of view i think putting a large chrome finish on the front of a car is not the smartest thing to do cause i imagining there will be situations where the chrome will cause extra glare to other drivers. the human eye is better at reading and judging matte surfaces anyway. apart from the chrome though, i do like the touareg more (don't think i have ever heard anything positive about the look of the cayenne, but you do see more of them around so i guess people don't buy them for their looks... maybe it's the badge?...). anyways, what was the discussion in the morning class?

wei-pai

Student Contributor said...

I dont see the point in buying a cayenne unless you live offroad, and like to drive to places really, really fast whilst in a luxury car. And with the chrome I think there is an extent to how much of a car can be chromed before it becomes illegal. and now im off topic...

-Marco

Robbie said...

Wei-Pai, the discussion was about breaking up large surfaces with a bit of detailing.

Kai, I agree with you about the mix of detailing - the Touareg is overcooked at the front compared to the rest eh. Personally, I usually thing wagon variants (Liberty, A4, Mz6) look better than their sedan counterparts. Maybe because they look more like buses??? Ha!

Dan, good to hear you're already in with the designers, ask them for an internship over the summer!

Thanks for getting involved everyone!

Robbie