Random thoughts: The Frankenstein car ageBY the mid 90’s, MPV’s and SUV’s had taken the world by surprise, forcing even moderate companies such as Mercedes and Porsche to succumb in the temptation of presenting a proposal to meet their car lusting consumers needs.
So what if an MPV owner used his car’s seven seats less frequent than a pig takes a bath. Who cares if the most difficult obstacle that a 21’’ rim SUV will pass is the pavement of its owner’s front yard. All that matters is the feeling of uniqueness that these vehicles give to their owners. However, fashion brings sales and sales, saturation.
So now, people think: “Is it worth giving up good road manners and mild consumption for, limited or even worse, zero, exploitation of my SUV’s or MPV’s capabilities? From the moment that sales eliminated the image factor, the answer is NO.
The automobile world has taken the message and its getting ready for the future with a new bread of models. Following the example of geneticists, car industries found the answer in mixing various car-DNA characteristics in order to create myriads of subcategories that promise to satisfy consumers most boldest dreams with the least possible compromises.
The latest example of this category-mixing up philosophy is the European Ford S-MAX with DNA from MPV and hot hatchbacks. Ooh and don’t forget the American Jeep Patriot and Compass models that supplement the Cherokee in Jeep’s triad (!) of compact SUV’s. One is more stylish, one is more capable off road and the other is … well, I believe even they don’t know what the heck it is.
As this is just the dawn of the Frankenstein car age, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I saw BMW for example, bringing its Z18 concept to life, adding a pint of MPV versatility and a electric folding metal roof top, thus creating the worlds first coupe-cabrio -MPV –SUV called the ZXM 4…But wait, didn’t Chevrolet sort of beat them to that with the "highly succesful" SSR...?
Don’t know about you, but seems to me that car manufactures are trying to make something like a horseradish flavoured, pink coloured, square watermelon…
