IAA 2013 | Smart FourJoy

Staying in the Daimler group, the city car arm of the German company showed the Smart FourJoy Concept which is a preview of what the next generation Forfour will be in 2014. With just 3.49m to carry four people, the FourJoy shares its platform with the next generation Renault Twingo. The FourJoy has electric drive, like most concepts on the floor…The evolution of the style is significant versus the current model, but not so much if you compare with the For-US and FourStars concepts…

IAA 2013 | Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupé Concept

The Mercedes S-Class Coupe shown on Tuesday demonstrates what the Mercedes design direction will be in the near future. With this concept, Mercedes wanted to be in between emotion and tradition. The silhouette is elegant, fluid and muscular, with the latter somewhat emphasized by the extra width in the rear… The interior reeks of luxury, featuring white leather and aluminum. There is no doubt that when Mercedes uses the right materials and color combinations (and we have seen some terrible examples of when they did not…) it is THE luxury brand.

IAA 2013 | Mercedes-Benz GLA Class

The excellent concept introduced in Shanghai is now transformed onto the production car. Let’s say it is not what we were expecting from the press pictures and the concept preview. The concept car presented last April was massive (almost 2m wide and 1.58m height), but the production car looks quite different.It is more like a very low SUV or a raised A-Class, but the design is still very well structured and appealing. Very glamorous too…On the side view, the horizontal kind of V-shape gives a dynamic stance to the body. The front is not aggressive, but serious. If we compare with the A-Class,the wheel arches have been redesigned using a flat surface at the top. This small detail is quite important and gives a better stance to the car. The trunk seems bigger than the A-Class thanks to the redesign of the rear section. The disappointment comes from the interior, where aluminum parts are now made of.…plastic… If you are going to use plastic, just show it…especially if you are Mercedes…

IAA 2013

M001Every two years, the automotive world meets at the Frankfurt auto show and every time we are always surprised by the magnitude of the event.The photo of the Mercedes hall should convince you and give you a good idea ofthe ambiance…In this report, as usual, we are trying to give you a good overview of the autoshowwe have visited. We are only going to review some of the cars debuting in Frankfurt, as this year there were so many cars revealed. This shows that the automotive industry, even if it things are not going well, tries to put its head above the water…

As you will read in the coming articles, this 65th edition of the IAA was once again very impressive, let’s say “Kolossal” — especially in terms of how big the halls are. But, it was also colossal in terms of design when you consider the number of new cars and concept vehicles that we have seen. In fact, there were so many new cars this year that we had to make a selection of those on which to comment. This is a good sign. The automotive industry is “up and running” again. And Design is the starter…

IAA 2013 – Preview

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The IAA press-days start tomorrow morning, here is a (short) preview of what is expected.
The DS Wild Rubis, introduced in Shangai few months ago, will do its European debut. This 4.70m SUV will compete with the Audi Q5 and BMW X3. Let’s wee this aggressive design tomorrow…
The KIA NIRO Concept is a three doors urban crossover. Once again after the Provo and Club studies, the preview photos looks appealing…
Mini should renew its star at the IAA. Will it be the VISION Concept or the production version ?
Opel plays at home and will unveil a shooting break called MONZA Concept.
Peugeot introduce its new 308 to compete the Golf. Looking at the style it could be a « sacré numéro » and knowing that the mechanics and handling are always good with Sochaux Engineers, the competition is going to be interesting…
The replacement of the Smart Forfour is about to happen with this FourJoy Concept. The next generation Forfour will share its chassis with the new Twingo. Both will be rear wheel drive…
Volvo, with the Volvo Concept Coupe gives us some information about the styling direction of the next years…
Porsche, Audi, Range Rover, Mercedes, BMW, etc…There will be more surprises, starting tomorrow…