Tokyo: Audi misses the mark
Posted by Paul Horrell at 11:40AM on Thursday 25 October, 2007 4 Comments
I bumped into Wolfgang Egger at the Audi stand, by the Metroproject Quattro concept.
He's the company's chief designer and I didn't tell him what I think of the car. Anyway, he's not to blame.
See, he's only been at Audi seven months so the car predates his arrival. Instead I told him about what a happy day it had been to drive his latest production car, the Alfa 8C Competizione, which he designed in a previous life four years ago.
So the Audi Metrothingy, then. If you remove the hybrid system, give it full B-posts instead of the pillarless glass of the show car, and paint those steel side arcs in body colour, you've got the 2009 A1.
Though I spared Wolfgang, I'll tell you what I think. It's not very pretty.
In profile the proportions are very off. The nose is too long and high, and the tail doesn't know whether it's a coupe or a supermini. Ah well, it's an Audi so at least the cabin is nice.
Advertiser links
4 Comments for "Tokyo: Audi misses the mark"
POST A COMMENT USING THE FORM BELOW
Comments are now closed for the blog archives.
in my opinion the grill is far too large for a small car, as if someone who planned driving this car suffered from a small part of his body and wanted to compensate that, whereas headlights are rather small for my taste.
I think Trabant 601s were far better proportioned small cars and that's where Audi designers should have looked for inspiration
I like it, I think too many manufacturers are sticking with the norm. At least this has a bit of a difference when compared to other smaller cars. I think instead of being conservative and building something you know will sell (cough, Toyota) you need to be out there and design something that will evoke some sort of emotion from the buyer.
It's not going to be everyones cup of tea at the end of the day but at least some people will feel proud to own one because they like the look of it (unlike anyone who owns a Toyota).
No, it's not very pretty is it? Looks like an Audi version of the Allegro.
I think it's better than the old A2... but the overall familiar design cues of the Audi generally doesn't fit too well with small cars and super car shapes, hence why the R8 is sort of off too!