Renault New Alpine Wallpapers

Car designed by Marcello Felipe Maggioni - student of the course Design of Mobility - Transportation Design, from Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP - São Paulo, Brazil). With the primary objective of homage the car that inspired the study and pursue his career in car design, propose the stylization of Renault Alpine GTA V6 Turbo 1987.

Even adjusting the current and future lines of the Renault´s brand, maintained the consistency with the original characteristics of the vehicle, as its traditional and significant volume of sports car, with its central rear engine and the large front flashlights near the ground.

In this new proposal, the distributions of the xenon headlamps of the front flashlights remind the tradition of the Alpine´s brand, where in the 60´s, the "Alpines of Rally" had four headlamps, two originals and two assistants near the center of the car.

  Renault New Alpine Best Car Wallpapers

Renault New Alpine

Renault New Alpine

Renault New Alpine

Renault New Alpine

Renault New Alpine

Renault New Alpine

Renault New Alpine

Renault New Alpine

Renault Latitude vs. VW Passat CC

Today I read one of the French magazine called Le Point. As I don't know French, I didn't understand anything! But suddenly I noticed the picture of Renault Latitude. There was an article about the car, probably a review of test drive by Emily Ryzat.

The interesting thing was the picture. Latitude was not something really different in terms of design. Especially, it reminded me another car! Such as, Volkswagen Passat CC. Just ignore the Renault logo from the front grille and you end up with Passat CC. The grille looks the same. This is really something unexpected from Renault. They always have a unique design concept.

I don't like Renault cars but they always had a unique design concept which is mostly relies on their concept vehicle. But Latitude was a great shock for me, it was something similar to a competitor’s car. I know the Renault is trying to change it brand image and willing to be perceived as a premium, there is no problem with that.  Renault should not change its design concept. The main problem is, their production quality and reliability. They should transfer these two things from their competitors, instead of design concept.

Pictures' Copyrights
Renault and Volkswagen

Renault's Hip Hop Bag

Pushing the limits of design, in terms of creativity sometimes cause terrible products. In terms of design, Renault is one of the very well respect company for concept cars and terrible at transferring to production. I don’t know how they manage to destroy a concept car in manufacturing process but it should be thought in operations management lecture as a case.

Renault Wind Roadster is a very good example for ugly Renault design. Actually the concept car version was also ugly. Anyway, I never noticed this car on advertisements. There were many in everywhere but the car was looking so weird and it never caught my attention. However it reminded me something very similar to this, Louis Vuitton Géronimos hip bag. This hip bag has the same characteristics as the Wind Roadster, looks weird and don’t know what to do with it. I have no idea how to use this bag for in men fashion, this product is present under “men” section not “women”.

Wind Roadster shares one more interesting with Ferrari 575 Superamerica. They both share the 180 degree turnable hard top. You just push a button and top of the car moves to top of the boot. In Ferrari, there was not cover and when you want to close your top, you will have the bird poo inside your side. Hopefully Renault did place a cover to prevent this unpleasant experience. Still Wind Roadster is ugly and probably it will disappear after end of its life-cycle.

Love Story; Mercedes & Renault

A new love story started! Mercedes and Renault. Two big car companies in different segments. Renault and Mercedes nearly do not have competitor vehicles. Yes, Mercedes A and B Class can be considered for some of the Renault cars but their marketing strategies are not targeting each other. So they are doing in the same business but in different universes.

Mercedes is very good at doing big car like S Class, E Class, GL Class and many more and rubbish at small ones! A and B Class are very good examples. I am not criticizing Mercedes for this failure because their experience is on different types of cars and that's normal to fail in small cars. The story is same for Renault also. Renault is very good at small cars for long years; Clio, Megane, Twingo but rubbish at big ones VelSatis, Safrane! So, it is pointless for Renault to compete in luxury segments because nobody will buy one. Actually some people are buying but they might be owning Renault dealer. However, Mercedes wants to increase make A Class and Smart more competitive. In current condition, they are not!

In 2013, we will see half Renault half Mercedes cars like Smart and A Class and as usual, Mercedes will expand its Smart range with the help of Renault. I really wonder how Mercedes is doing to develop cars with Renault which is still cannot manage to manufacture a car without vibrating gear lever! Yes, every French cars unsolved problem, vibrating gear lever. I am pretty sure that, this problem with persist in Mercedes-Renault cars.

Pictures are taken from;
Mercedes and Renault Websites

French Cars vs. French Fashion

Last one decade French cars' reputation disappeared as the Deutsch Mark disappeared from the economy. Twenty years ago, French cars were both providing exquisite design with high quality. Chanel No.5 was the completing figure of a French car.

As the competition increased on world and French car could not offer new technologies like Germans do it, they started to lose their competition power. People did not wish to buy French cars for that price and they a bit lowered their prices and lowered their quality. However, lowering quality is an addiction! Once you do, you will always do it and they did it. From hydraulic suspensions in Citroën to torsion bar suspensions. Torsion bar suspension is a cheap alternative for conventional suspension system, it does not handle well, does not ride in comfort and sometimes one of your rear tires might be on air. Because, torsion bar suspensions do not let tire to travel and touch the ground. You can see this in many French cars and in some Toyotas. However Germans do not offer any technology like this.

Renault, Peugeot, Citroën went down and down in 2000s, except Peugeot 206 they could not offer any eye catching or exciting car. Also their production quality serious went down, many French cars are became a synonym for bad quality. I don't think that they deserve this but they did not show any effort to clear this image.

Actually there is one more French car brand, Bugatti. But it has a complicated history. When the Bugatti was first found in in Molsheim, it was a part of Germany after WWI, it became a part of France. Now Bugatti is owned by VW and it has the most powerful car ever produced. So, French cars brands still have chance.

Hopefully, French fashion industry is not as bad as their car industry. Every year, French fashion brands introduce better designs and never face a decline like car brands. I am not a fashion expert but French car companies can learn from fashion brands.

Pictures are from;

Renault Website

Vouge Website Paris Fashion Show