The Chevrolet Trax is one of three Chevrolet minicar global concepts that will be unveiled at the New York International Auto Show next week. They were designed by GM’s South Korean Design Studio. These cars are aimed at Smart and other minicars.

Their goal is to appeal to young car buyers in urban markets, while demonstrating “the flexibility, creativity and innovative focus of design in GM’s Asia Pacific region.”

This is a bit surprising. I didn’t see this coming from GM. I am really interested in seeing the other 2 designs. The Trax is pretty cool and I dig the gloss/matte finishes.

Here is were things have the potential to go horribly wrong. Although you might not admit it, you are probably an avid watcher of American Idol. If you don’t watch you deffinitley hear about it enough to have an idea of what is going on. Sanjaya Malakar is one of the worst singers ever, but is still making it through every week. Through the support of Howard Stern and a website supporting the worst singer, they are trying to over throw the whole voting system making the Idol show a joke.

Chevy is alowing the public to vote for their favorite design once they are unvieled next week. I can only hope that every option is a homerun; which rarely happens. Lets hope for the best that their are no groups getting wind of this to screw the General.

Jeff Sanders, Car Designer, Ford Motor Company, RIP
By Sajeev Mehta
March 23, 2007

From The Truth About Cars

“How many of us sketched cars in the margins of our grade school notebooks? For a small minority, that’s the beginning of their life’s work. Those with the gift go on to enroll in design colleges to pursue a career in Transportation Design. Once there, the budding designers’ personal expressions are run through the meat grinder of de-constructive criticism. While the process is daunting, it is nothing compared to the “real world” of car design. Read more

Here is a hot little crossover that could take shape in the next decade. This is based off of the Hakaze Concept from the Geneva show. Mazda would be targeting the Toyota Rav4, Nissan Rogue, Honda CRV and all those other SUV wanna-be’s.

The aesthetic of this vehicle is great with energetic details and taught surfaces Lets just hope the rumors are true and we can see this on our streets in a few years.

Thanks to autoexpress for the info.

Word is out that a version of the Ford Fairlane concept from 2005 is about to be production ready. Named the Ford Flex (keeping with the “F” theme) this new crossover will be marketed towards minivan hatin’ moms. Supposedly this will be a fresh alternative to other suv’s and crossover’s. I guess we will wait and see. Some sort of news will come out at the New York Auto Show in a couple of weeks. Ford hasn’t said if they will unveil the vehicle or just keep talking about it.

Design wise, I am not too excited about it. I was interested in seeing the new Ford Edge on the road and for me it has been kind of disappointing. For Ford, it is a great proportion and clean aesthetic to “start with”, but there is a lack of detail in the exterior trim. This vehicle is looking to be in the same direction. I am hoping this new Flex will dig a little deeper in the design details.

Lets hope for the best, Ford needs it.

No, this isn’t the start of a new reality show. I just left an all day brainstorming session talking about the next big idea. Brainstorms can bring up some pretty radical, unrealistic, off the wall ideas. These ideas bring some much needed humor and yet usually contain the seed of a great idea.

Afterwards a colleague of mine and I were discussing how all products are owned by only a handful of companies compared to the possibly hundreds of companies that started out making the same product. As the companies die out so does the freshness that the competition brings.

This brought up the next question, what is the next big product to excite consumers. Computers are old, cell phones are whatever, mp3 players have dwindled, and even new music has kind of stalled. Can anyone predict or offer some ideas as to what the next big thing will be? It doesn’t have to be automotive, just something that effects our everyday lives.

What do you want to see out there? Comment below…..

Since someone close to my heart has time and time again called me a “potty mouth” on this forum, I will refrain from typing bad words with my fingers, rather I will use telepathy to tell Riley ( Click Here to observe absolutely horrid hybrid design) to hire some Transportation design help.

Why oh why in the name of sciences are there still people trying to produce cars without design help???????????????? I can not fault the idea, because of course green is good, but the design is truly bad 90’s design at best.

In the past when I have seen these horrid designs I have personally contacted the company, and very kindly offered my design services for free. Not because I love making other people money, but because these guys give great ideas a bad name.

If anyone reading this blog could actually see yourself cruising about in something this ugly, please leave and never come back.

The ever opinioned Scott Digital.

Here are some images from a very talented Female design student.

Her name is Krysti Scheider, and while not 100% transportation design focused, I think you can still see her passion for beautiful form and great design skill.

Quite often design is thought of as a Male dominated field. Well it is, but with talent like this coming from Women, I can only hope that it inspires more women to enter the Industrial Design Industry.

Sexy Bimmer shoes……….

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Ahh, Saturn. You red-headed step child of our loving GM family. You have your mother’s eyes and the German milkman’s cladding.

Saturn has come a long way, with GM finally admitting that they should have brought over Opel much sooner. In one simple generational leap Saturn has gone from Ion laughing-stock to Aura and Astra world-conquerors, that even the Spartans of 300 couldn’t take down.

And now, GM has improved on an already great-looking vehicle by introducing the Aura Green Line.

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Below is a custom OS shell that a Bimmerforums.com member loaded on his custom Carputer.

I see first hand how hard it is to design a multimedia system for a vehicle that works well. I.E. BMW’s iDrive, Mercedes iDrive rip-off, DCX’s soon to be released My Gig, and Audi’s Nav System. I have demo’d, and seen the development of a few of these systems (friends).

This post is more of a few statements, and a few questions, and we would like to hear your responses.
Statements……
1. OEM’s will never be able to keep up with emerging technology with 5 year platform development schedules.
2. OEM’s are crippled by federal government requirements
3. Copyright laws, and digital information security is a growing concern among all OEM’s
4. Aftermarket can do it faster and cheaper, without all the OEM headaches and Federal mandates.
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Just a little comedy that was sent my way VIA Email.

> For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.
> At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

> “If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”

> In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

> If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

> 1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash……..Twice a day.

> 2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

> 3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
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