Did you know these cars were actually automotive design fails?

The process of ideating, designing, manufacturing, and distributing automobiles is a serious business. Sometimes it takes a decade for a model to make it from thought to tarmac and in that time, they are worked upon by hundreds, if not thousands, of designers, engineers and workers; and very large sums of money are spent as well.

The inherent complexity of this process means that there are things that are often ignored, sidelined or the worst of them all… over-designed. Because of which we end up with vehicles that have quirks and chinks in their armour. This week we highlight some of the automotive design and technology fails that have left us scratching our heads!

Name is the game

Shakespeare wrote: “What’s in a name?” To which we say, “A lot!”. It is important to call a spade a spade, simply because it gives the potential buyer clarity about the vehicle he or she is purchasing. But here is an instance where Porsche boffins thought otherwise. The German automaker chose to go with the ‘turbo’ badge for the highest-spec Taycan. This was done to keep it consistent with the rest of the top trim models of the other ranges, namely the 911, Cayenne and Panamera, etc. But it certainly has left the Internet dumbfounded, because the Taycan is an EV (electric vehicle) and certainly one that does not require a turbocharged engine. See the confusion!

And speaking of names, what’s up with Infiniti’s naming protocol? Not too long ago, it was an alpha-numeric system, where the mid-size sedans had the ‘G’ prefix, the compact SUV had the ‘FX’, the full-size SUV had the ‘QX’ and so on and so forth. It was simple and elegant. Now they use the ‘Q’ prefix for everything… coupes, sedans, crossovers and SUVs. And you can imagine how this could baffle an individual! Maybe, the big boss forced his hand and the team ran with it or maybe they ran out of letters or maybe they have a bigger agenda! Who knows?

If it isn’t their names as such, it’s got to do with segment or class. For example, there are more than a handful of vehicles with the SUV tag these days, but don’t really do justice to the class. Some of them have the ground clearance of a sedan and some don’t come with the option of a 4x4 drivetrain. The fact that they may be good or even great urban family vehicles matters less. What does matter is whether they can do what SUVs were built to do i.e. going offroad… or at least to the beach. And this is where most of them fail. The 2016 Chevrolet Captiva we test drove comes to mind — you could get its chin i.e. front bumper scraped even at the wheel stoppers at mall parking lots.

Accommodation Inaccuracies

Then there are manufacturers that dare to place some of their vehicles in the “2+2” segment. The style of a 2-door vehicle combined with the 4-seater arrangement sounds like a good idea. If done right you end up with something like a Mercedes-Benz E-Class coupe, but otherwise you can end up with a vehicle that has a rear quarters fit for hobbits or a similar species, like the Porsche 911.

You see, while the 911 is amongst the best sports cars out there and there isn’t anything more satisfying than being in the driver’s seat of one, its rear cabin is an unfriendly place to be in. In fact, cars like the 911, the Lexus IS convertible, and Audi TT are all in the same boat in this regard. You really need to contort your body to get in and stay in those back seats.

wknd@khaleejtimes.com