I think the Europeans have always been ahead of everybody in designing cars. Be it the Germans or Italians, European cars have class. For the past few years the european junta has generated a need for more practical cars. Cars designed such that their appeal is not just visual. They were the first to latch on the compact cars. I always thought that the 'fiat' (Premier Padmini) we had in India in the old days.. rocked in one aspect ... namely that it did'nt discriminate betn the front and back seats. Both held 3 people easily. More practical ... no? None of the newer cars had this facility. The advent of bucket seats reduced the car capacity to just 5 .. 2 in front, 3 in the back. Why restrict seat space to just 5? Some said its because of the floor gear-shift. Rubbish. As if that can't be worked around.
Now, Fiat .. the Italian car lord, has come out with the new Multipla - a car with 2 rows of seating with 3 seats each. Finally .. people will be happier.
Posted by anya at November 30, 2004 11:03 AM | TrackBackItalian designers are the best! What a unique way to put the manual shift and still accomodate 3!! Wowie!!!
Posted by: pseudofreud at November 30, 2004 12:17 PMThe middle passenger on the front seat sure is gonna feel weird. The stick shift looks almost as if it's to be operated by the middle seat passenger.
Posted by: ajitomatix at November 30, 2004 05:46 PMThe stick shift is not to the passenger's side any more than in any ordinary car with 2 frint seats.
Posted by: anya at November 30, 2004 06:20 PMWhy not just buy something bigger like a SUMO/JEEP/TRAX instead of cramping so many people into that small piece of crap ...or build a car that is wider and can seat 3 people in one row comfortably...or better yet buy a matador or a bus, maybe then you could possibly even make money out of your investment...my $0.02
Posted by: bluntneedle at December 1, 2004 01:14 PMGuess only a lame chap can fit in there (the center of the front row i meant).
Posted by: Anil at December 1, 2004 01:58 PMLooks like an elegant auto rickshaw with 2 passenger front seats.
And yes nothing can beat german engineering. Love my german car.
Posted by: Nihar at December 1, 2004 04:36 PMSeriously! We have a fiat and its so convienent for 6 people. however, its rather crude a vehicle, but for capacity and sturdyness, it beats the new cars (eg the frail Maruti 800) anyday,.
The indica was designed by an intalian BTW :-D
Posted by: Nupur at December 2, 2004 10:52 AMFull points to Nupur. True .. the TATAs .. wisely decided to let the italians do the car design. The Indica was designed the Milan based design house - I.D.E.A.
Posted by: anya at December 2, 2004 11:58 AMFYI,
Tata Indica was designed by the company's designers at its Engineering Research Centre (ERC)these designs were refined and finalised in association with the famous Milan-based design house, I.D.E.A.
For the Indica, ERC’s designers and engineers had done their work entirely using computer aided design (CAD) stations and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). Tata Engineering has invested over Rs 120 crore on 225 CAD stations for its 340-odd engineers to work on.
google IS god .. huh samrat?
http://www.tata.com/tata_engg/articles/20001031indica_story_a.htm
No google IS not god but it probably IS god like all knowing, all powerful ... ..i personally feel it should be www.google.edu ..and u think i knew all that crap abt indica ...haha... next time if there is one...i will reference google maybe that will save u some effort.
Posted by: samrat patil at December 3, 2004 02:42 PMi particularly liked the google.edu touch. also, you are too kind. thank you. ;-)
samrat u r as creative as bluntneedle in thinking up email addresses i must say.
Try these search engines, they are worth a look
http://www.teoma.com
http://www.a9.com
Seems an interesting design but won't the driver feel wayyy to cramped to the side?
Posted by: Whirlwings at December 4, 2004 10:55 PMWow.. The site looks awesome.. never mind the car looks.. The Multipla looks kinda funny.. similar to our Zen/!!
Posted by: prabz at December 5, 2004 05:58 PMBuick Le Sabre always had tht...........I am sure there are other cars too
Posted by: at December 17, 2004 01:11 PM