When I reviewed the current Chevrolet Malibu, I was generally impressed with GM’s effort in a highly competitive segment, but I had a few complaints. One of those complaints had to do with the ‘bu’s back bench, which prompted me to note

the rear seats seem like almost an afterthought compared to the well-appointed front row. Low seat height, a relatively narrow bench and unsupportive seating make for a poor combination

With images of an updated Malibu making the rounds of the blogosphere, and the Detroit News reporting that its production has been pulled ahead by six months by the order of Dan Akerson, you might think GM had taken the opportunity to improve the Malibu’s second-row shortcomings. But, according to Automotive News [sub]’s product editor, Rick Kranz, it seems that GM has done the opposite of improve rear-seat interior space… because of yet another of the ‘bu’s shortcomings.

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Lexus’s GS-series of sports sedans has been a perennial sales dog for years now, winning Toyota’s luxury brand few converts from its 5-Series, E-Class and A6 competition. In fact, it’s a testament to Lexus’s successes in building unconventional luxury niches with the RX and ES lines that it’s been able to become a major US market luxury brand without a popular full-sized luxury sedan. But with luxury sales competition heating up under pressure from BMW and Audi, it’s clear that Lexus isn’t willing to let the GS’s underachievement continue unaddressed.

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We recently asked our Best And Brightest to help Chevrolet look back through its past and find the designs that should inform the brand’s future design direction, an assignment that touched off a number of fascinating conversations. Now, with news of Alfa’s US launch being delayed at least in part due to problems with the design of its all-important D-segment sedan, we reckon it’s time to help Alfa navigate its current design crossroads. Only this time, it’s even more important. Though once-famous for its crackling V6s and flat-fours, Alfa’s have become increasingly dependent on their non-mechanical attributes: style, flair, and Italian-ness. And unlike Chevrolet, the brand has more recent design heritage to draw on as it approaches a US launch just as automotive designs are becoming increasingly emotive. But whereas Chevrolet lacks design identity, Alfa suffers from too much identity: though the 8C is a gorgeous car and a sublime halo, its design cues are becoming something of a crutch for Alfa’s designers.

And so we ask: if Alfa is looking for a new design direction to help launch it as a global premium/sporty brand, what past designs should it turn to? My personal top choice, the Alfetta GTV6, may not be the most beloved design amongst true Alfisti, but it’s a distinctive design at the crossroads between old- and new-school Italian brio. If Alfa is to succeed, it needs designs that reference both heritage and modernity, and to my eyes, the GTV does just that. But that still leaves nine more choices…

Audi’s upcoming A3 may represent a certain amount of a break from recent Audi strategy, but as new sketches of the compact luxury car emerge, it’s clear that Audi isn’t taking any steps into the unknown with its design. Park this sketch next to a new A6, and the only difference appears to be some extra nose and rear deck. I suppose that if the fashion gods are smiling upon you, as they seem to be smiling upon Audi these days, you keep your designs consistent and conservative. But with Mercedes-Benz breaking out of the “one sausage, different lengths” mold and throwing funky, expressive hatches into the A3’s competitive space, shouldn’t Audi be trying a little harder to beat off the oldest trap in German luxury sedan styling?

TTAC’s resident Volvo freak ALex Dykes points us to some first images of Volvo’s updated V70, which boasts a new interior and an updated exterior. There will be new engines for Europe, as well as a few new features like rear-seat entertainment and the City Safety system, but it’s a mild change. Is it enough to get the V70 off of Volvo’s North American kill list? Hit the jump for more pictures, and a graph of Volvo’s March US sales for a look at the challenge Volvo is facing in this country.

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This isn’t the first time Mercedes has rolled out a front-drive design, but for the first time it’s creating a flood of transverse-engined cars that won’t be limited to Europe, but are intended to conquer the whole world. And this, the concept version of the forthcoming Mercedes A Class, previews one of the most important bodystyles of Benz’s front-drive offensive, the “family hatch.” But as important as this funky Audi A3-fighting hatch is to the global fight for front-drive luxury acceptance, it does not appear to be headed stateside.

Thanks to Mercedes’ exquisite sensitivity to “American tastes” (pronounced with a slight shudder in the original German), we’ll only be getting sedan, “sporty coupe” and (sigh) crossover versions of this platform. Two liter engines (think 150-200 HP), and dual clutch transmissions should motivate US versions when they launch next year, and eventually a turbocharged 320 HP AWD “STI by AMG” version should become available. Just try to stop using the phrase “wrong wheel drive” in front of the local Mercedes dealer.

The evolution of Subaru’s design (if, indeed evolution is the right word) is one of those topics that never ceases to draw the interest of the auto-obsessed. Unlike most mainstream car brands, Subaru created a hard-core fanbase on the strength of its unique greasy bits, specifically its distinctive commitment to boxer engines and AWD. In Subaru’s formative years on the market, wacky and ever-changing designs were something the fans learned to live with.

Now, however, with Subaru breaking into the mass market’s consciousness, its design is gradually becoming more consistent and more mainstream, a trend that this first shot of the 2012 Impreza seems unlikely to roll back. And with 36 highway MPG reportedly on tap for the next Impreza, Subaru is reeling in its fuel economy disadvantage as well. The only question: does each evolution towards consistency and mass appeal continue to alienate that fanbase? And if so, does it matter?

In celebration of Chevrolet’s approaching 100th birthday, GM’s global design boss Ed Welburn took a look back at the history of the brand’s design and picked ten models that he found to be the most significant and influential. His list has quite a few of the usual suspects (’55 Bel Air, ’63 Stingray) and a few curveballs (1989 C/K Pickup?) and, in my mind anyway, some significant omissions. Welburn’s list captures the scope of Chevy’s design history well, but I’m not convinced it’s the list that I would use to define Chevy’s design direction as it enters its second century. Hit the jump for his list, and then let us know what ten Chevy designs from the last hundred years you would look to as you guided the brand into its 21st Century future.
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According to Lexus

The LF-Gh, which stands for Lexus Future Grand Touring Hybrid, sets out to redefine the premium grand touring sedan. Through this exercise, the definition of L-Finesse, the marque’s design philosophy since 2001, has been refined and evolved to include a bolder, more distinct projection of what a luxury car could become in a modern world. The result is the LF-Gh concept, which conveys original thoughts and ideas that may migrate to future Lexus vehicles on a global scale.

From these teasers, it’s hard to tell what Lexus’s “spindle grille” actually looks like, but the brand says it “hints at the new face of Lexus vehicles.” If nothing else, Lexus seems to be diverging from its arch-conservative stylistic roots, a move that will be interesting to watch given Toyota’s history of success with a substance-over-style strategy.

I’d like to think that it’s time the global car industry moved past its old fixation on national characteristics, but apparently the “national question” is still relevant, at least to Peter Schreyer, Kia’s German-born chief designer. Previewing his latest design concept, the Naimo EV, Schreyer tells Automotive News [sub]

A lot of people ask what is the K-factor, what is the Koreaness, in the cars, which is hard to answer because there isn’t any really. To be honest, we don’t want the cars to look Korea.

This one we did with the inspiration of using Koreaness. So it will have some clues in it coming from Korean crafts and art

How so?

Its pale green jade color is derived from that used in Korean Celadon-style pottery. The headliner is made from hand-crafted hanji paper. Korean oak is used to trim the doors and cover the floor, as it is in traditional Korean architecture.

And the rest of the design? Is that supposed to reflect Schreyer’s “Germaness,” or is it a product of his German-based perception of what “Koreaness” is supposed to be? Meanwhile perhaps the most interesting question for Schreyer would be: how do you keep production Kias from “looking Korean”? The national question is one huge can of worms, and it inevitably leads to some awkward conversations. And, in this case anyway, it seems to have even led to an awkward design.

When March sales come out tomorrow, the Chevrolet Malibu will likely find itself in a tough position again. Last month the car that was once hailed as Chevy’s Lutzian turning point had fallen to fifth place in the midsized segment, having sold only slightly better than the Impala which has never been hailed as anything other than a large, inexpensive and unsexy sedan. But Chevy has learned from Ford that the right amount of mid-cycle styling freshening can go a long way: the Fusion never quite lived up to its hype until an update that was more than just a facelift improved its aesthetics, sending it soaring to the number two sales spot in the segment. Chevy is clearly hoping that a fresh look, featuring Camaro-style taillights (a move that echoes the new Charger’s retro-taillamp graft from the Challenger) will juice up the ‘bu… and with no Impala replacement coming for at least a few years, most of Chevy’s midsized-segment chickens are in this retro-look basket.

Like much of the automotive media, we were under the impression that Nissan was replacing its Versa/Tiida with the new Nissan Sunny model that recently debuted in China. The first cracks in that theory started to appear when we saw an updated Versa with a 1.6 DIG Turbo badge on its intact rear hatch. Now, thanks to Burlappcars.com, we have our first look at the rest of the new Versa. The new model keeps the Versa’s big-box appeal, while updating the look for a more sleek, modern aesthetic. It’s a restrained, conservative look, but then the current Versa dominates its segment despite its downright dowdy styling. As long as this new model keeps the Versa’s giant interior space (it’s a B-Segment car with EPA midsize-rated interior volume), its updated styling (and the option of the Juke’s delightful little direct-injected turbo engine) should keep the Versa at the top of its segment.

No sooner had production of Chevy’s aging Colorado compact pickup ground to a halt due to parts supply disruption in Japan then GM brought out the concept version of its forthcoming replacement, the Global Colorado. This concept specifically previews the Thai-built version of GM’s compact-midsized pickup, and offers 4 Wheel Drive, as well as an all-new 2.8 liter turbodiesel engine. Brad Merkel, GM’s Global Vehicle Line Executive explains

Although this is a show vehicle, the basic proportions and form convey the vision for the next-generation Colorado that we will bring to market. It reflects a stylized version of the new truck, one that takes into account rugged dependable truck capabilities for commercial use as well as sophisticated refinement for personal-use needs.

The Thai-built version of the Global olorado willl begin production this October, but a version of this truck intended for the US market is still a ways off. It’s unlikely that a US version will offer GM’s new diesel engine, but GM is still keeping details about its new oil-burning engine under wraps for now. Given the lack of investment in the US Market’s mid-compact truck offerings, however, any new trucks entering this space are worth watching.

“Fine. You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain”

-Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight

What is it about human nature that forces us to destroy the things we love the most? Jaguar’s E-Type died long ago, shuffling off this imperfect mortal coil to take its place in automotive Valhalla. And, if we really loved the XKE, that’s where we’d let it stay, swathed in the immortality of the glorious yet out-of-reach past. Instead the E-Type is being destroyed in the name of love… and on the 50th anniversary of its birth, no less. For between €500k and €1m (depending on the number of takers) Switzerland’s Robert Palm will modify a new Jaguar XKR into this hollow mockery of the E-Type’s epic proportions and classic design cues. Called the Growler E 2011, this 600 HP beast is neither a high-quality, faithful resto-mod like the Eagle E-Type, nor a truly modern interpretation of the classic. Instead, what we have here is a wire-wheeled lesson in learning to let go.

Even in the limited-traction wonderland of some Nordic cold-weather test facility, BMW’s 2013 i8 diesel-hybrid supercar keeps things nice and calm dynamically-speaking, barely hinting at the “rear end squirm” that Automobile noted in its drive of the prototype. Which is not to say that this video is without its noteworthy moments…
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