Did the Ugly Duckling grow into a beautiful swan?

On the Gen II I had the folowing:

License Plate Relocate over the grill
Flush hub caps
flat flush grill fill over the portion of the grill where fog lights would go
Year Round top grill block
Volt Bump on the rear edge of the rear spoiler
Tubulators on the top edge of the external rear-view mirrors.
Tubulator on the upper 1/3 of the A pilar

On the Gen III I have done the following so far:

License Plate relocate to over the grill (good bump in mileage, but not in high speed coast down - probably due to getting the engine to warm up faster)

Flush lumpy hub caps ( no apparent change, unlike the Gen II which putting these on result in a noticable quieting of air noise from the wheel wells)

Grill Dams (to prevent air flow sideways into grill opening from blocked off portion of Grill) - in prepartion for flush covers of the blocked grill. I think these helped a little. But its too soon to tell for sure.


Gen III Aero Comments:

On the Gen III I am getting much more A-pilar wind noise. I have tried the turbulators there, and the noise got worse. The lower front rake angle of the front of the Gen III seems to be causing a problem.

The rear view mirro design of the Gen III appears to be supperior (bullet shaped with step down along rear edge) to the Gen II ( 50 degree wedge shaped) , and application of turbulators to it is not advantagous in my opinion. Extending the length of the step-down in the rear of the mirror housings may help.

 

I remember it being in the car catalog as a gas saving feature cd 0.25. Did I think it was true? Not really but it was funny how Chevy described its efficency.
How about this Model T attempt.

 

To this day, even though it nearly put the company out of business, it's still amazing how far ahead of its time the 1934 Chrysler Airflow was, not only for its aerodynamic styling but its many other innovations:



I wonder if anyone would consider it the Prius of its day?

 

I think inanimate objects can have sex-appeal. Not that it makes me think of sex; it's just really attractive, and it's just how people describe such an emotional response. First thing that comes to mind is Apple. Audi routinely does a good job although I'm not a fan of its new nose. The new Camaro is definitely All-American sexy. Leica is visually appealing in an old-world way. Focal/JM Lab and B+W makes some gorgeous looking speakers.

 

I have thought about this and I think the term that links car style sexy to that lady is sexy is the term Desire!...Auto stylists since the 20's have worked to make the vehicles desirable / attractive / covet, whatever...Cars are anthropomorphic (two eyes/nose/thighs etc.) Any one remember the Nash kiss mouth?

Jaguar tried to make the car look feline. Long...low...curvy....Yes 100 years of attempting to make a car desirable AND given that they are UNDERPINNED by anthropomorphic cues will certainly result in them being perceived as sexy as well.

Remeber guys are more visusal than gals when it comes to desire cues...Until cars can carry on a deep conversation they are always going to have more visceral appeal to males than females.

 

Hence, their cat name.

As a longtime Jag owner, some of Jag's early design cues may have stemmed from their racing heritage with powerful, aerodynamic and well handling cars. The XJS, with it's 12-cylinder engine, required a longer bonnet.

 

You've got a jaaaaaaaaaaag?

Anyways, you're all wrong. The Gen IV will be superior in every way. Now we can stop bickering!

 

Funny video. Thanks.

For all it's faults, the Jag seems to enjoy a greater "wow" factor than anything else I've ever owned, including BMW and porsche.

 

I think Jags look nice...

But the kind of "wow" I always think of is my boss' Jag that always needed work. We were always saying "WOW, his car is in the shop AGAIN?!"

But they ARE a classic!

 

Older Jags had their reliability issues. Not true of newer Jags. Quite reliable. Actually, when Ford owned them, I believe they helped to improve that facet of their manufacturing and engineering.

 

Although I do notice some other new cars looking similarly aerodynamic, the Prius still stands out. Where I notice that most is in parking lots when I'm looking for my car. I scan the rows, and all of a sudden it appears, standing out because the lines are so different from the cars around it. When I consider it from an aesthetic viewpoint, I would say that it's neither more nor less attractive than a number of other cars, but that since it's uniqueness stems from a design that intentionally maximizes its fuel economy, I appreciate it more. It's as if it's saying, "Look at me--I'm the best at what I do, and I like looking funny!"

 

You know its bad when Ford improves quality

TaTa owns them now right? We'll see how that goes. The body style has already improved IMHO.

 

I think what hurt Jag towards the end of its Ford tenure was its insistince on Tradition rather than expression. Jags were always known for pushing both technology and design...but you cant really let people know you are pushing technology when you insist on pushing traditional design cues...hence the all aluminum chassis of the last big Jag coupled with the retro styling...just did not sell the full package or idea...Jag's new styling direction does the marque proud...

 

I like the new design, but there are long time Jag owners who do not like the design changes. The owner of a local independent Jag repair shop that I go to, is one such old school Jag traditionalists.

Ford never knew what to do with Jag. They never introduced any truely new models. Models like the X-type, which sold very well, never were marketed or updated/expanded, and then discontinued. Much like GM with SAAB.

 

I agree that some technological gems are built outright gorgeous, as in the sense of beauty of their design (like my Prius, hehe). I guess I grew up in a totally different culture of the far east so I can never relate any of these beautiful attributes of materialistic objects as "sexy".

Whatever you described, to me you still fall victim to the marketing industries taking advantage of the common man's biggest weakness - sex appeal. Yes, they know man thinks with their penis so they even promotes their new cars with scantily clad supermodels. They're actually "pimping" their cars to mindless sex-starved apes, us men.

SIGH!

 

I think the gen 3 is a beautiful car, the sculpted sides and dagger-cut lights add a degree of sportiness it needed too appeal to more customers! And I can't really see the Volt copying any of it's lines, it looks more like an old Saturn to me!

 

I really loved the sportier wedge shape and the console was an awesome addition. My son, daughter and their friends actually want one since it doesn't look like an older persons grocery getter. They really like the design of the GenIII and say it has more testosterone than the GII. I'll have to agree with them.

 

When I was looking at the Gen II in 2007 I have to say that the looks of the car was not its best feature. In fact, it took a while for the looks of the car to finally grow on me, which it did.

When I first saw the 2010 Gen III there was no question to me as far as purchasing the Gen II versus the Gen III. The Gen III was just a much better looking car than the Gen II. My kids were not too excited about me getting the Gen II but they all liked the Gen III styling much better.

I really liked the flying bridge console and the way they integrated the Nav in to the dash.

 

The Gen II has nothing on the Gen III.........Soon as I seen the Prius V......I bought it......never did care for the Gen II