A couple days ago, I was getting into my car after being forced to spend money on groceries and there was a Toyota Avalon parked next to me. I'm very troubled by what's going on by the rear doors. I'm down with the chrome (or whatever it is) trim around the door windows which seem to be all the rage in cars that are striving for being upper-middle class as seen here and here. Personally, I like the borderless look, but I might be biased. However, observe how the edge of lower half of the door doesn't line up with the chrome strip. Unlike the VW Passat from above, you can see how the chrome strip surrounds the door as opposed to being a part of the door. I don't like it. It doesn't line up.
The whole situation is made even worse by this bizarre plastic spacer. They seem to be going for one of three things or possibly all three. The cheap plastic spacer could be an attempt at making the gap from the door line to the chrome edge large enough such that the discontinuity is no longer a distraction and is instead an attempt to give more visual length to the windows. That in turn leads to making the C-pillar look smaller which would help driver visibility if it actually made the C-pillar smaller. And finally, it lends a more trapezoidal shape to the rear quarter window which seems like something one would see in an up-market sedan, or the VW Phaeton. The problem with all those things is that none of them actually improve the car. They merely look like they improve the car.
While I'm ripping meaningless automobile styling, it can't hurt to lay into this Mercury that I always park next to at my apartment building. What on earth is that glued on plastic piece for? Hey, look at my car again. It's got some plastic trim to break up the height of the car, but it ties in nicely with the front and rear bumpers. This Mercury trim is the same color as the rest of the car except for the chrome at the top. Why not just lay a narrow chrome strip all the way across instead. It's even worse at the front where there's some sort of confused, unresolved corner. Bah.
3 comments:
Shoddy quality. One less piece of material, one less step in assembly process, one less tooling changed. Cost cutting, cost cutting, cost cutting.
It is easy to rip meaningless automobile styling, for so much of it is done poorly. This is why great styling is lauded -- it is rare.
Your analysis on the plastic bordered window aspiring-to-be-upper-mid-class chrome middle class cars is hilarious. I really should check blogs more often than I do. Hope you're continuing to enjoy life out there, Doc- and take care.
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