Pininfarina Plagiarism

I started a “Guess That Car” thread over at the Car & Driver Backfires forums – basically a car picture is posted and the users have to guess the make and model. Every time one of these quadruplets appears I never know which one of the Pininfarina designs I’m looking at. Sure they’re pretty, but talk about milking something for all it’s worth.  At least the Alfa Romeo 1900 has a little variation up front. The Peugeot 404 convertible and Fiat 1600 convertible are near clones of each other, especially the later models with the grille mounted driving lights.  They even share chrome bodyside detailling that ends midway through the doors.

2005 Peugeot Moovie Concept

Most people interested in automotive design are familiar with the fact that Peugeot has annual competitions for designing a show car, which they'll actually create and show the coming year. I thought this was very cool when I heard of it, and although I haven't submitted anything I know of people who have.

Sadly, I have no idea who picks the winner - but whoever they are, they have to lay off the drugs. In the 3 (I think?) years they've had this competition, I have to say I was not impressed with their choice of winner. The first year they choose a weird chrome plane/moon buggy called the Moonster (to be featured later), and this year their choice is this monstosity.

I'm not even sure how it works. They have no pictures of it in motion. It basically looks like a hampster ball, for humans. I also don't get the name - Moovie. I can see putting emphasis on the word "move", but why "movie"? And why ad the extra "o"? It baffles the mind...

2000 Peugeot City Toz E-Doll

At the 2000 Mondial de l’Automobile Paris motor show, Peugeot showed a whole range of concept cars, with the "City Toyz" providing one of the main highlights of the show. These 4 tiny cars were "designed with the future in mind". If the future looks like this I might as well take my life now. And don't get my started on the how they replaced the letter "s" with "z". They're tres cool.

The "City Toyz" are based on a study theme - urban mobility for the 21st century. For some reason, Peugeot wanted to show "that it was still possible to dream in the year 2000". Whether or not these dreams were had during acid trips is yet to be known.

The E-Doll is the most "unique" of the bunch. Basically an orange bubble, the concept actually contains two vehicles. The main piece is obvious - the central dome that seats 3 abroad with the driver in the centre. The second is a supermarket trolley with handles and castors, which can be disassembled (yet I'm not sure where in the tiny car this vehicle is located). It’s powered by 2 electric engines, by each rear wheel (in the grey housing).

However, it’s most fugly feature was it’s clear plastic trunk, inexplicably filled with multicoloured balls. Are future products stored in multicoloured balls? Also - why do you want your trunk see through? For ease of burglary? When I first laid eyes on this car, the first thing that came to mind was a childhood plaything - the Fisher Price pop-corn popper / lawn mower / push toy. Not exactly when I'm looking for in a car.