Wishful Thought: Bring Back Three Door SUVs

The BMW X6, an idea that still baffles on paper but every time you see one on the road it has enough design presence to make it work. BMW has sold over 250,000 all over the world since its introduction, enough to warrant a second generation in the near future, an X4 sibling and a few competitors. The ZDX was an almost immediate response from Acura that never caught on, but Mercedes has the MLC almost ready and the rumors always persist about Audi following suite. With automakers willing to take some risks in the SUV category it seems more reasonable than ever to bring back the 1990s trend of three door SUVs. Back in the day it seemed like you can order your favorite SUV in a three door version starting with the "short bus" RAV4 all the way to the full size Tahoe. The three door SUV was the 1990s equivalent of the five door coupe of today. Take your best selling product and sacrifice some practicality and reason for some extra style. The Range Rover Evoque is currently the best example of how dropping a door per side can add to an SUV's design. Judging by purely anecdotal evidence the three door Evoque has single digit take rate, but with more and more automakers implementing modular platforms it should be more cost effective than ever to produce a unique three door SUV. Not saying it's a trend that is bound to happen but I wouldn't mind if it did.

The Range Rover Evoque offers a three door option

 

Even full size SUVs had the three door option

Everyone's favorite Audi Steppenwolf Concept

Design Analysis: An Emerging Roof Design Trend

The Nissan GT-R, Kia Soul, Range Rover Evoque, Mini Paceman. A super car, a compact, a CUV and an even smaller CUV, in other words four cars with seemingly nothing in common. However, a case can be made that all four feature particularly striking design. Further observation reveals that all four share one particular design element that plays a vital role in setting up their look, the way the roof slopes right after the A-Pillar. The GT-R was one of the first cars to start the trend of having the highest point of the car being right at the A-pillar and then having the roof drop down towards the rear in a straight line. While some might criticize it for giving the GT-R a bulky appearance it certainly works to create a menacing design that is the GT-R. The design element works even better when applied to a wagon shape creating a sportier than typical profile. The Soul was a breakout star for Kia, easily outselling the second generation Scion xB and the Nissan Cube. Aside from its pricing and practicality the Soul's fresh design certainly set it apart from the boxy competition that feature a level roof design. Deciding to not mess with success the second generation Soul features a very similar general profile. Struggling to make a big impact with the traditionally shaped Freelander and LR2, Land Rover went with a more daring design for the Evoque creating a highly desirable product. Once again, the sharply sloped roof gives the Evoque sporty proportions missing from the Freelander and LR2 and sets it apart from its competition as well.. The Mini Paceman as well uses a similar roof design to convert the already fairly well designed Countryman into a stylish coupe CUV. Expect to see more wagons adopting this roof design in the near future, perhaps even filtering down to other segments. The short lived Saab 9-5 actually applied this design element to a four door sedan shape to create a very unique look that unfortunately never had a chance to make an impact as the brand closed shop.

 

Best of the Paris Motorshow

The biannual Paris Motorshow is always filled with lots of interesting concept and important production debutes, and this year was no different with many exciting and wild concepts taking stage. To make sense of all of the excitement here are the best concept, best Lotus concept, most significant production debut, most outrageous concept and least likely to make it to production technology.

Best Concept

Certainly the toughest category with lots of amazing concepts to pick from including the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, Audi Quattro Concept, and Jaguar C-X75. However the honor of best concept goes to the Renault Dezir Concept and its Hot Wheels inspired design.



Best Lotus Concept

Lotus deserves and gets its own category for its prodigious output of five concept cars. While all of the sports car concepts featured a very similar design the Elan concept had the crispest and most appealing design with the Espirit concept coming in a close second.



Most Significant Production Debut

This year continued the trend of manufacturers releasing production car debut photos and specifications in advance of the show and thus taking some of the excitement out of the production category. One of the most anticipated production debuts before the show was the Land Rover Evoque. After the dust settled and all of the production cars made their debuts the Evoque was still tops in the category. Featuring fresh modern styling the Evoque brings a new direction for the brand necessary to survive in the future.



Most Outrageous Concept

The Paris motorshow is always good for a few wacky concepts and this year was no different with a handful of four wheeled creations masquerading as cars. However, the Citroen Lacoste Concept takes the win with this collaboration with the famed French clothes brand. Citroen even says they have hopes of making this concept go to production, but it's unknown if they are actually serious.



Least Likely To Make It To Production Technology

A decade or even as recent as a few years ago electric cars were often labeled as pure auto show fantasy land, but with the prospect of actual mainstream battery powered vehicles going on sale this is no longer the case. Thus to make a big splash automakers need to create concepts that use even more innovative and further out technology than battery power. The best example this year was the Jaguar C-X75 concept that featured electric motors at every corner and a pair of micro-turbines for range extension. Jaguar promises exceptional performance and fuel economy that sounds too good to be true, as we can only hope that someday we will finally get our long promised jet powered cars.