Little more to say other than, as usual, you’re bang on.

I was astonished when I looked at Ed’s review comparing the Astra and the Megane and saw the graphic similarities.

In any case, you and I both know what will happen to the companies that continue to be so complacent. Thank god there’s a new Ford language on the way. It’ll give them a chance to blow the complacency out of the water and leave their awkward pan-Atlantic transition period behind.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. It’s interesting that you think that kinetic peaked with the Fiesta as I’ve been told that the new Focus is basically the last iteration of Martin Smith’s kinetic design language. Post-Focus, Ford is said to be introducing a new global design language that will be collaborated on across the US, European and Asian studios. How this works out in practice remains to be seen. I guess if people take the view that the new Focus is confused, it’s because it’s had to embody two different Ford design languages, Kinetic (Europe) and Bold (North America).

You can see the same level of confusion in the current Aussie Falcon. As US exports were on the cards for that, it has Bold proportions about it but a lot of the surface treatments and graphics are an unsuccessful (in my eyes at least) take on Kinetic.

With any luck, Ford’s global car program will lead to a much more cohesive design direction. J Mays has said that we’ll start seeing the first concepts previewing the new language in 2012.

how people try to be kind; start saying:
-it’s step forward;
-it’s challeging;
-it’s unusual (if compare to Golf and etc.);

-that we need to adjust our eyes (the americans apperently have 4 eyes; or maybe, we back in europe have only 1; and how about the asian?);

-that we need to adjust our taste;
and
-that is always easier doing something else rather than the right thing…

This car doesn’t have head neither tail; or as Drew put it has it too much; maybe it’s not what you call ULTIMATE Ugly; nevertheless is a mess. I can say that by the time it goes in production they better change bumpers, lamps and etc.

And the interior as previously said in other posts above is ultra-complicated, and other are doing it better.

I would like to stop then on some copycat elements that are simply out of place (are they [ford] missing creativity, are the ford designers staying too much on facebook looking what the others are doing?).

I mean in the all studio nobody stopped a second and say: “Hey guys we have the lamps like a megane, or the c-pillar like the astra”, BUT of course the most irrelevant element in a car design the fuel filler flap is new. GREAT, BIG DEAL!!

Is it naivety, is it arrogance; is it selfishness; or is it simply that who was designing the Megane finished its contract and then was employed by Ford (and by now is at PSA or FIAT).

I keep wondering how this industry is keeping doing what it does, in such unawareness.

So what Ford did then, was not a car for Europeans, and neither a car for Americans; what Ford did then is a car the afloat (i didn’t say sink)…

Afloat in the big Ocean the divides the 2 side of the Atlantic.

Good to finally read a proper review; and I’m glad there’s others out there that can see what a mess the exterior is.

I feel Ford’s “Kinetic Design” theme hit it’s peak with the latest Fiesta, which had a very cohesive aesthetic… seems like it’s all downhill from here.

It seems as if the new models Ford is producing are uniquely Ford. While Kias are looking more like VWs (which are looking more like Audis) and Hyundais are enjoying a few pints with the Mercedes design team, these new Fords really stand out.

Consider me smitten with the new Fords. The Fiesta, this Focus, the Taurus and even the Raptor all speak to me. Not as a designer, because I’m not, but as a gearhead. It’s been years since I decided that there’s no point in buying a brand new car if you know how to maintain them yourself, but Ford sure is making it hard to stick to those guns.

They must be doing something right.

What I also find interesting is the tapered window around the c-piller and how it is becoming more prevalent over the trend to cut the glass back in.

Whether that is Oliver Stefan or Gorden Wagener’s influence or not I don’t know.

Nothing wrong with a well-thought out proliferation of buttons, but this seems to have a multi-function wheel under the big screen, surrounded by what I’m guessing are the capacitive touch buttons, then the HVAC controls lower down.

In the end I’m going from a 400px wide pic, so what do I know?

Oh! I know this: Most people will be coming to this from a car at least a few years older, probably two models back, and so, sitting in the showroom, they’ll be impressed.

I agree with you on the proliferation of buttons but Audi, BMW and Mercedes are the only manufacturers that I know of that have come up with anything like a satisfactory solution to the issue, and those solutions are not cheap to implement well.

The Opel Insignia and any of the Renault navigation systems, which all use cut-price, home-brand variations on proper MMI systems, are so woefully underbaked that I’d rather have a well-resolved, if chaotic-looking set of buttons than be stuck twiddling crap multi-function knobs.