Chinese car design maturing fast
This is the Roewe 550, it was caught while on a shoot for the manufacturer.
There is scant detail of the car’s specifications apart from the fact that it uses the same engines available on the old Rover 75 (re designated Roewe750 for the China market) .
It seems that Chinese car designers have done very well to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of styling.
This car still has some quirky detailing that plagues many designs from countries that have just joined the automotive world like the over fussy grille and the oddly shaped headlamps but I am sure that many people will say that they give the car a unique character.
This side view shows that the designers got the proportions spot on, everything looks cohesive and neat.
The flank is bare and unadorned but thanks to the good play with convex and concave surface near the bottom of the doors, they have successfully prevented from looking too boring and slab sided.
The upward kink towards the rear of the window base adds tension to the overall design and helps to move the eyes from front to rear.
Many low-end car makers make the mistake of fitting wheels that are too small, giving their cars an anaemic look but Roewe has judges their wheel size and design just right.
I have some issues with the wheel design because I think it has a few too many spokes but that is just nit picking.
The rear is equally neat and pleasing and they have even ventured to try interesting surface detailing with the mild twin scallops on the boot. The tail lamp shape gives the car character but the lens is, again unnecessarily complex without adding to the overall effect (just like our own Gen.2) .
The custom siamesed twin tail pipe is a nice tough, I think.
The dramatically sloping roofline looks good on the car but it probably will result in some rear headroom issue but then again the thick sides may have solved the problem, giving the roof extra height.
Whatever it is, I think that the Chinese are certainly not that far behind of the Koreans.
I think it is a matter of time before their cars will start to actually look good and have genuine aesthetic appeal.
What do you guys think of it?
The front headlights & grille is way too odd to match the whole car’s neat lines and sturdy-looking body. The rear is OK, despite a bit Elantra-ish. The side profile is not so bad, but I think the wheel arch can be designed to be bigger to accomodate 17-inch profile wheels. From the picture, the wheels look quite small compared to the body. Just my opinion.
I certainly will not buy, because most of the chinese supplier are beyond the par of quality assurance.
I am going for greener products manufactured from Korea, Japan, Germany and other 1st world car manufacturer…. Chinese products NO WAY! I am supporting greener product which China is lack of conciousness in.
if you refer to the write up of ” The car that could have saved Rover “on the AutoCar Uk published on April 2005, you can see many of the initial conceptual design proposals of this ROEWE was done by the new china owner – Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, then you will understand more on their design philosophy…..
Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.
Interesting… I might try some of this on my blog, too. It’s quite interesting how you sometimes stop being innovative and just go for an accepted solution without actually trying to improve it… you make a couple of good points.