Hypersonic

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I really like this Citroën C-AirPlay concept so much - it has the aesthetics of an iPod. I think this concept is absolutely up-to-the-minute in terms of design / fashion.

donau

Wow. I think I need time to have this pod grow on me. This may become a hit though, it somehow makes me think of a Nike, Reebok or Adidas sneaker, and those are certainly popular. And no doubt it would sell in France, and possibly in the rest of Europe too since small cars are handy there in the city and town traffic.
But you are absolutely right about the design being up-to-the minute regarding fashion. The question is: will this be like a piece of fashion clothing on a Paris fashion runway or catwalk or whatever they call them, and you'll never see it in real life, or will it catch on in real life too like the sports sneakers that it reminds me of.
Thanks for the post by the way, it is positively great to see what may be coming up soon, and this one is really refreshing.

Hypersonic

Ah yes donau, it is really a fashion accessory more than a "serious auto-lover's" car - for the Prada wearing, five-lattes-a-day set, I'm sure it would be a must-have acquisition.

shonguiz

This is a very beautiful concept shown this year at tokyo: The Mazda Senku



It reminds me maserati boomerang

Hypersonic

I like that one shonguiz, very elegant. Why don't the manufacturers put these bold designs into production and make auto-design exciting and full of passion - like the Americans did in the 1950's,

There are some very brilliant designers doing a great deal of innovative and beautiful work, I wish more made it to production without having all of the spontaneity and passion extracted from the design first. Why on earth do Mazda produce such dull production-vehicles when they obviously have excellent designers working for them creating extraordinary concepts?

MikeJ

Two words: price and practicality.

That Citroën is really cool. I also like how they've created a somewhat 'believable' futuristic feel in those pictures by creative use of backdrops and clothing. In many cases these themes are taken too far, but this time they're spot on.

Snake Vargas

I thought they echoed the Rinspeed ZaZen themes a bit, or Rinspeed echoed these themes - the white and red (orange in Rinspeed's case) retro-futurism of sorts. Never mind. I second what Robert said about the Prada-and-latte set - and especially the females. They must have paid the male model a heck of a lot of money..

I prefer concepts to be more about near-future styling, as well as functional design. As with that Mazda, the instruments in the steering wheel is a nice idea; integrating everything there neatly. On the other hand, it removes them more from the line of sight than usual, so I'm not convinced. However, it must only be a matter of time like instruments are mainly on LCDs, like the W221 S-class's info screen in the instruments, or the Saab Aero-X concept.

Anyhow, I don't really have a favourite concept this year, really. Not that I can remember right now, at least.

Hypersonic

Well, yes...I kind of already knew that is the reason ..but I still can not see why production vehicles can't be more adventurous ...especially at the higher end of the market. If the Maybach 57/62 had been more radical and distinctive then I'm sure it would be much more loved and desired than it is. I realize that the manufacturers are reluctant to be too radical because of the risk of the public not "understanding" the design - I'm always amazed at how conservative the vast majority of consumers actually are.

The Renault Avantime failed miserably to attract buyers - I think it's a great looking vehicle - quite unconventional, but still quite appealing in it's own way.

MikeJ

Yes, I know I have made a habit out of stating the obvious.

This time you answered your own question.
I think the Avantime is great, too, but I fear we might be the only two in this forum to feel that way. Apparently the Avantime was too adventurous for the Finnish importer, they never even tried to sell the car here... and the same goes for the Vel Satis.

Hypersonic

- Well I guess it was a dumb question for me to ask in the first place Mike.

You know, I think, in some ways, people are more conservative today than in the past. I think back to the artists and designers of the first 2-3 decades of the twentieth century and the radical new ideas that were being generated at that time - Mike, you will be very familiar with the genius of Alvar Aalto and his revolutionary ideas in architecture and design along with others like Gropius and Breuer, or the music of Sibelius, Prokofiev, Berg, and Stravinsky; paintings and sculpture by Miró, Picasso, Malevich, and Brancusi.

Today the true Avant-garde is virtually non-existent.