Maybe with the current push toward downsizing, a premium hatch could have a market. It has, after all, been a decade and a half since the ill-fated 318ti.
@smalleyxb122:
Don't knock the 318ti! I know of one driving around Toronto with an LS2 under the bonnet, but otherwise looks stock... quite a good sleeper combo.
@Hate Personified: They weren't bad cars at all, but they had the old rear semi-trailing arm suspension as opposed to the regular E36 3-series. They also had a simpler and less luxurious dash and interior. The real killer, though, was the fact that for the price of the 318ti, you could get a loaded, very nice off-lease regular 3, which people perceived as the "real thing" and not a stunted "pretender". Mercedes had the same problem in the US with the C-class hatchback.
Why do I get the feeling that it's going to look and feel disturbingly like an overpriced Matrix, and for the first year will be called *random pairing of letters* By Lexus, to try and distance the brand from this Cimarron-redux.
@Canuck Chinaman: Lexus could have had a contender against the Saab 9-2X, but when they added the IS 250AWD in 2006 they dropped the IS SportCross model. The alleged HS250h/Camry hybrid powertrain is not AWD. So the Audi A3 quattro continues to have no competitors except limited-availability VW Golf R3x models.
This rendering looks more like a Scion ("hC"?) except for the ugly rear pillar from the RX.
@div.by.zero: A3 and R32 are more upscale, like the Saaburu 9-2X wanted to be. Leather seats are or were hard to get on Impreza models (mine are aftermarket) and the winter options (until the WRX Premium) limited.
It kind of makes the Venza look good. Maybe that's their aim. The Venza should be a higher profit vehicle for Toyota anyways, right? Introduce an ugly vehicle, but augment it with more less-profitable vehicles that exaggerate the high-profit vehicle's styling to such an extreme degree as to make the original (high-profit) vehicle suddenly seem less jarring to the eye. Genius really. But I still contend that it may be easier just to design attractive vehicles from the onset...
I'm going to go ahead and suggest that outward visibility may be just slightly compromised in the name of 'style'.
The above concept looks like the ugly mistake of a drunken three-way hookup of a Civic, an RX400h
, and a Pontiac Vibe.
I'll pass.
If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face was starred
If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face was unstarred
Within the next few years, we will have the technology to make the headlights stretch all the way around to the back, and be united with the taillights. Toyota and GM designers are at the forefront of this important engineering challenge.
@optional flavor: I keep suggesting a JFTOTD (Jalopnik Field Trip of the Day), "What car has the longest headlights?" You must stretch a string from one corner of the headlght to far corner, take a picture, then hold the string up next to a reference and take another picture.
I suspect a Euro Peugeot 607SW will win at 93 centimeters.
08/17/09
Let's hope they do a better job than Italdesign's Buick-alicious Landau.
08/17/09
08/17/09
Maybe with the current push toward downsizing, a premium hatch could have a market. It has, after all, been a decade and a half since the ill-fated 318ti.
08/17/09
Don't knock the 318ti! I know of one driving around Toronto with an LS2 under the bonnet, but otherwise looks stock... quite a good sleeper combo.
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08/06/09
A hybird Lexus Impreza wagon!?!?!?
I'll take a used Saab 9-2x areo thanks.
08/06/09
This rendering looks more like a Scion ("hC"?) except for the ugly rear pillar from the RX.
08/07/09
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yawn
08/06/09
The above concept looks like the ugly mistake of a drunken three-way hookup of a Civic, an RX400h
, and a Pontiac Vibe.
I'll pass.
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That was a wagon? But I thought it was a SportCross!
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I suspect a Euro Peugeot 607SW will win at 93 centimeters.