RUESSELSHEIM, Germany (dpa) – Car designers are like cooks – they are always trying to liven up their creations with new ingredients.
After using up all the usual spices in the rack though they are looking these these days for fresh ideas, mixing the traditional and the sophisticated, the utilitarian and the offbeat.Crossover is the name given to a mix and match of styles that seems to combine elements that used not to fit together at all.The first tentative steps in this direction were taken a few years ago. Cars like the Mercedes SLK may appear ordinary but this sportster with a press button-operated hardtop combines the advantages of a ragtop and a coupe. The large number of microvans on the market also bear witness to a popular new blend of limousine and bus.More extreme mixes are in the pipeline and a look at current design studies indicates the way things are set to go. U.S. giant General Motors (GM) recently presented a series of crossover design studies and experts believe that one of them, the Cadillac Vizon, has a realistic chance of entering production.According to GM’s spokesman in Europe, Uwe Mertin, this contemporary amalgam of chunky offroader and luxury car is a testbed for innovation across the board. “I think we will be seeing a lot of these elements on production cars in the future,” said Mertin. Industry experts believe the Vizon could roll into the showrooms by 2005.More striking and therefore less likely to hit the streets soon are two further ideas from the GM think-tank. Take the Sabia whose front half corresponds to a regular compact with seating for four people. Behind the cut-off rear window though is not a boot but a pickup loading bay.The Terracross from GM’s truck division GMC is a pickup and a five-seat convertible at the same time. The 4.4-metre is designed to show how a rugged, functional vehicle can look sleek too. A sports utility for young urban professionals is how GMC describes this one. No production date has been set for the Terracross but Chevrolet’s SSR, a pickup-sportscar in 1950s retro attire, will probably go on sale within a few years.In Europe car companies have been trying to find their own crossover design language too. German carmaker BMW came up with the rather awkward-looking design study X. A coupe with a diesel engine, generous ground clearance and all-wheel drive is an unusual combination yet many admirers of the marque’s usually elegant products were distinctly underwhelmed. “This study just shows what can be done,” said BMW spokesman Jochen Frey in Munich.Frey points out that modern diesel engines can no longer be ruled out as sportscar motive power, adding that extra ground clearance and sporting ambitions by no means cancel each other out. BMW believes there are customers who derive satisfaction from knowing their car can cut it off road even if they do not plan venture away from the tarmac. The X coupe is unlikely to ever come off the production line but a smaller version of the existing X5 sporting offroader is conceivable.Volvo has been thinking along similar lines and the ACC study shows an all-terrain vehicle with limousine comfort and an array of safety features. The Swedes are not saying how many of these inventions will crop up elsewhere in the range but what is certain is that Volvo wants to get away from its image as a maker of limousines and estate cars only. “We don’t regard the trendy offroaders as competition as much as cars like the M-class and BMW X5,” said Volvo’s man in Cologne, Thomas Hanel.
