Tesla’s been innovating since day one–beyond the revolutionary performance and efficiency of their plug-in Model S, the company has left no stone unturned on their mission to revolutionize the car driving experience.  The company is pushing the limits of battery charging power and efficiency, is developing next-level cruise control (more aptly described as auto pilot), and, oh by the way, is seeking to revolutionize the car buying experience by letting customers experience its products through company-owned outlets instead of parking them on the endless lots of your local “Bob’s Motors”.

This new innovation, though not on such a grand scale, is the one that places us squarely in the realm of the future.

Pull into your garage, and your friend the giant metal arm will snake its way to the charging portal of your new Model S. Sounds pretty cool! No need to be wary of this!  It definitely won’t eventually learn your habits and personality, process this information and use it to turn on you, eventually stealing and destroying everything you love, and potentially destroying the entire city of New York in the process.  There’s just no way anything like that could happen…

When the Nissan Juke was introduced in 2011, the sentiment from the automotive community and the public alike went sort of like “uhh, did they mean to do that?”  Turns out the joke’s on us, as the Juke turned out to be a strong handling, brisk little car that has seen brisk sales of 2-4k units per month since open.  It’s worth noting that the strong sales numbers have most likely been helped by the Juke’s timing more than anything–in 2011, the “subcompact-SUV” wave hadn’t quite taken hold in America, and the Juke was one of the pioneers of the segment that now includes entries from nearly every major automaker–the Buick Encore, Chevy Trax, Honda HR-V, Jeep Renegade, Kia Soul, and the soon to be introduced and sure to be compelling Mazda CX-3.

Did the Nissan Juke succeed despite its “angry gerbil” styling cues?  That’s a tough question–the front-heavy design and odd shape may not have been the deciding factors for the 100,000+ Juke buyers, but the design did spawn an interesting styling cue: the whole idea of the dual level front headlights.  The large circular lamps serve as the primary source of illumination, while the more traditional headlights sit almost on the roof and provide more character than anything else. Polarizing, yes, but also trend-setting–and successful enough to go virtually unchanged in the new Juke concept that was revealed at the 2014 Geneva Auto Show.  Credit to Nissan’s designers for doubling down on an out-of-the-box idea.

To the left is Jeep’s Cherokee, a vehicle that employs a similar headlight design as the Juke, albeit a little toned down.  This look was polarizing as well upon its introduction in 2013, but quickly quited critics after it moved almost 115k units in the first 8 months of sales.

The newest iteration of the design feature won’t be seen in the states but, in my opinion, represents coolest iteration considering the whole package. The Citroen C4 Picasso was developed to be an upscale city car, a subgenre that still has a lot of opportunity for growth in the US–currently only the Mini Cooper, and (loosely) the Acura ILX and BMW 2-Series fill this space.   The “city car” idea is brought to life in the Citroen’s compact size, flexible interior, and the plastic body panels that will repel day-to-day scratches. Well executed style, compact size, a diesel, and a heaping helping of quirkiness?  I’m in.

I apologize. I know I’ve hung my swarms of dedicated readers out to dry in my months/years since my last post.  But hey–silver linings–in my absence, automakers have given me a ton of awesome material–in both the “Wow, they did that!” and the “I can’t believe they did that” varieties.  From the “Wow!” files, I bring you the coolest new trend in automotive design that’s just starting to hit our shores–the concept of the “floating roof.”  It’s exciting as it sounds (seriously).  

It began in the US with cars like the Mini Cooper and the Ford Flex (which basically went for the 4:3 scale Mini Cooper look to a questionable degree of success) The floating roof gave these cars a distinguishing feature and allowed the automakers to differentiate the roof with contrast colors.  Next, enter the Opel/Vauxhall Adam, Chevrolet’s European Mini Cooper ripoffs that steals the floating roof but adds even more character by draping the contrast color of the roof down the A and C pillars.

America’s next iterations of this design feature have come mostly from the Japanese.  The newest Nissan Murano and Maxima (top, left to right) as well as the newest Lexus RX (bottom) both sport small creases behind the C pillar, a small but noticeable design detail that gives the cars feelings of motion and fluidity.

It is interesting to see these carmakers taking their bread-and-butter models and slashing through the sheetmetal.  The results so far to be positive–these cars all went to the barber with an untidy mane and came out with a nice side part. However, like any auto design trend, including the one I’ll detail tomorrow, there is always a point of diminishing returns. I can see the breaking point of this trend coinciding with Chevy’s decision apply it to the the Silverado.