Innehållsförteckning för No. 193 från AUTO & DESIGN

“We decided to name this concept after the town that hosts our main offices”, explains Chairman Paolo Pininfarina, “because 2012 marks a two-fold anniversary: the 30th of our Style Centre which was set up in Cambiano in 1982 as “Pininfarina Studi e Ricerche”, and the 10th of the Engineering Centre which was inaugurated in 2002 adding third-party engineering to styling competencies and niche design/production and bringing together advanced technological instruments and a team of top level specialists”. “The Cambiano”, Managing Director Silvio Pietro Angori adds, “is the most comprehensive expression of what Pininfarina is today and what it will be in the years to come: styling research aimed at defining timeless trend lines in the very best traditions of Italian styling and Pininfarina design; technological innovation of the highest degree…

General Motors was back to being the world’s largest automobile manufacturer as the year began, not so much because of its rising sales as of Toyota’s tsunami-related problems. The firm is quite successful in Asia, the world’s largest market now, its Buick brand selling more cars in China than in the US. We talked with Bob Boniface, head of Cadillac design, Mary Barra, chief of product development, and Mark Reuss, head of GM North America, and all three were more modest and realistic than the bombastic GM executives of pre-bankruptcy times when objective reality never intruded into their thought processes. Cadillac The new Cadillac ATS is an entry-luxury model aimed directly at the BMW 3-Series line, although it exists in only one body configuration, a four-door sedan. It’s a decent-looking…

While at first glance nothing seems to have changed, just a slightly closer look reveals a number of significant evolutions that enhance the elegance, character, comfort and efficiency of the new Avensis – the fourth generation of Toyota’s range-topping model launched in 1997, which is offered as sedan and station wagon variants. The car was designed at the ED2 Advanced Design centre in Sophia Antipolis in the south of France, which was inaugurated by Toyota in 2000 and currently has a staff of around forty, twenty of whom designers. The latest Avensis is Toyota’s first model to adopt the brand’s new styling language based on the principles of “Under Priority” and “Keen Look”, which both fuse expressive strength with elegance. The former has been applied to emphasise the character of…

The Giulietta has turned up trumps and is making a major contribution to the growth of Alfa Romeo, whose market share in Europe has now reached 1%. In 2011 the car clocked up 80 thousand registrations, 45% of them in Italy. No secret, just a mix of qualities: the sporty, elegant styling and performance that have always been the banner of the brand. Add the ingredients of driveability, comfort, safety, low operating costs and versatility and it is easy to understand why for the first time in Alfa Romeo history families account for a good half of buyers. There is also an evolution in colour terms with ice white covering 35% of decisions. There has been great interest for the most powerful engines with the 1.4 TB Multiair 170 bhp…

From January 25 to 28, the futuristic setting of the Doha Exhibition Center hosted the Qatar Motor Show 2012, where once again, the most prestigious names in Italian car design showed off their capabilities to great effect. Following up on the success of the first edition in 2011, this year’s Concept Car Area organised by the Italian Coachbuilders Association ANFIA was again a crowd pleaser. The area hosted four Italian design houses: I.DE.A. Institute, Pininfarina, Touring Superleggera and Up Design. The press conference held by the association was dedicated to presenting the concept cars exhibited: the Futura by IDEA, the 2uettotanta by Pininfarina, the Gumpert Tornante by Touring Superleggera and, lastly, the Vittoria, a brand new creation by Up Design making its world premiere at the show. The Vittoria is…

Will automotive Europe manage to put on a more relaxed atmosphere, like the one we breathed among the Naias stands at Detroit? All the omens are good, considering the number of debuts already scheduled a few weeks before the opening of the Geneva Show, to which as always will be added the novelties kept secret till the last minute. Once again, the Swiss show ranges from the near future, with production models ready for the market, to the less immediate horizons explored by the research prototypes. The novelties cover every segment of the market but particular attention is being paid this year to compact, practical models that can be enjoyed by the public at large. Fiat, the specialists in this sector, is presenting the 500L, a completely fresh interpretation of…

After a long period of difficulty, uncertainty and unwanted — but highly necessary — government interference, the American automobile industry is apparently well on the path to revival and renewal. The government actions, seen as a “bail out” by many, actually preserved millions of American jobs by preventing the total collapse of the supplier industry. The Ford Motor company had fortuitously indebted itself just previous to the general financial catastrophes at the end of the Bush administration in 2008, and was thus able to avoid bankruptcy or use of emergency government funds. Had GM and Chrysler been allowed to fail, the loss of their suppliers would have condemned Ford as well. The TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) loans that kept GM and Chrysler afloat have been repaid, but other government…

The most important event for the Ford Motor Company was the public introduction of the vitally important mid-range Fusion (which will also be the Mondeo in Europe next fall). Offered only as a coupe-like fastback four-door in America, it will have additional station wagon and four-door sedan variants in the rest of the world. For the US market this is the quintessential family car, spacious enough for five adults in comfort and sleek enough to convey a bit of prestige. Indeed, with its trapezoidal grille strongly reminiscent of Aston-Martin and well-finished interior it seems far more up-market than previous Fords of this size, which tends to give credence to rumors at the show that this design was first intended to be a Lincoln, Ford’s sole remaining luxury nameplate. Whatever its…

Call it affectionately ‘the little terror’! Or the kid with the cheeky face. But the strong personality, appealing forms and attractive ‘glance’ of the Renault Twingo in its 2012 restyling make it stand out as a worthy rival for the new Panda and up! We tried it out on the streets of Bilbao, the Spanish city that combines deep-rooted Basque traditions and futuristic architecture like that of Frank O’Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum. Welcoming us was the ‘Cabinet of curiosities’, four creative workshops that interpreted the car according to the tastes of Italian chef Davide Scabin with “Pasta Twingo”; French stylist Jean-Charles de Castelbajac with “Twingo 55 FBG”; the British singer Nicola Roberts with “Twingo Goes Pop” and German designer Nils Holger Moormann with his “Twingo Wagon-Lire”. Examples of stylistic contamination that…

When a car has a story to tell, its forms and details become all the more fascinating. And the Cambiano concept created by Pininfarina for the Geneva Motor Show has many different stories to tell on many different levels, although at first glance, the aspect that impresses most is the clean and elegant form of this sleekly aerodynamic sports saloon. The name of the car has been chosen to mark two different anniversaries: the town of Cambiano near Turin is the home of both the style centre inaugurated in 1982 (as “Pininfarina Studi e Ricerche”) and the engineering centre open since 2002, which respectively celebrate their thirtieth and tenth anniversaries this year. “We wanted to combine the history and future of Pininfarina in this car” says Fabio Filippini, director of…

“Arather exotic compact”, is how Ralph Gilles defines it. The exoticism is understandable enough. The new Dodge Dart presented at the Detroit Show, originated with the Alfa Romeo Giulietta whose duly modified floorpan it has adopted (the same, it is said, that will be used for the Giulia). Gilles, head of design for the Chrysler group, had a delicate responsibility: that of preparing, in the shortest possible time, Dodge’s new small car (in American terms), the first USA car to be born out of synergies with Fiat. From Turin it has taken not only the floorpan, but the 1.4 MultiAir engine too (one of the three offered on the vehicle) which served the purpose of meeting the 40 miles a gallon fuel consumption barrier that the Turin group had committed…

To design cars was a passion that emerged loud and clear in the letter which the young Antonio Sassi sent the editor of Auto & Design in 1989 asking for advice about how he could move his design abilities forward. Since that time, the young student has come a long way, first specialising in ceramic design before later taking the path that would lead him to fulfil his wildest dream, to design cars. A basic stage in his growth curve, as the designer from Reggio Emilia tells it, was the period he spent as part of the Minardi F1 Team as advertising graphic designer working in close contact with the engineer Aldo Costa, and his later decision to attend the Bodywork Architecture course at the IAAD of Turin. This experience…

Developments across the board for Fiat. The Punto 2012 and Freemont in AWD version hit the market at practically the same time as the launch of the new Panda. The Punto 2012 is the new iteration – the sixth – of an authentic best-seller: launched in 1993 8.5 million units were produced, 4.5 of them sold in Italy; it topped the sales charts in Europe five times and at the time of writing has won 62 international awards. This new generation replaces the Grande Punto and Punto Evo and is offered with 3-5 door bodies in six trim levels: Pop, Easy, Lounge, Racing, Sport and Twin Air: the latter is applied to the 0.9, 85 bhp two-cylinder turbo petrol engine (172 km/h, 4.2 l/100 km, 98 g/km of CO2 and…

The new Audi A1 Sportback Five-door, which joins the three-door version in the premium portion of the B-segment, is dynamic and versatile, carefree and efficient. While overall length, width and wheelbase are the same at 3954, 1746 and 2469 mm, the roof has been stretched by 10 centimetres and slightly raised (total height is 1422 mm), offering 11 mm more headroom for rear occupants. Meanwhile, the B-pillar has been brought forward by 23 centimetres, while the side daylight opening consists of three elements. These differences give shape to a new language in the flank view, with flowing lines (Cd is 0.32) leading into the deeply raked C-pillar. This new image is further emphasised by contrasting colour paintwork (available in gloss black, pearl effect Daytona grey or metallic Ice silver) for…