A lot of expense can go a long way to making an uninteresting dashboard design seem acceptable. Soft touch plastics, chrome trim, lots of accessories: throw all that at some shapes and maybe the customer won´t notice how boring their car interior really is. [Images courtesy of this excellent blog minimally minimal]
The 2011 Nissan Moco is a kei-car and that means it’s small and cheap. The designers couldn´t use costly tricks and so did it the hard way: careful and creative styling.
It really is something of a small pity that the Japanese keep much of their best work to themselves and send us mediocrities like the Corolla, Spacestar, Auris and Note. The 2011 Moca (which I gather is also sold as a Suzuki MR Wagon) is one small car I would really like to own. In
fact, if I think about it, the only new cars that get me excited and make me feel uplifted are small and Japanese. The interface on this car is a thing of simple elegance. And though it’s devoid of flicks and flourishes, it is a cheerful object to behold. It is worth comparing this to the new Renault Twingo which uses some of the same industrial design form language of carefully managed fillets and simple geometry but, in comparison, seems very much more jokey.
The price is approximately €6800 in Japan.
That really is a fine interior. Makes one wonder why Nissan’s European interiors are so disappointing.
I particularly like the 2001 ‘vibe’, which appears almost unintentional. Quite a nice contrast to all those self-aware small car cabins.
It’s very product design-y. The inventiveness of Japanese cars can be impressive.
Only thing no one can possibly approve of is the use of touch-sensitive surfaces instead of buttons to operate the stereo. Or are we just assuming there are wheel-mounted controls and that’s all the driver should be touching while on the move?
Other than, I like it and it works very well for this kind of car.
Well spotted. Maybe there are small surface bumps to help fingertips feel the buttons. Also, it’s a kei car. They almost never move any faster than the rate of a Tokyo traffic jam.
Even if the ergonomics are a bit weak, I love the cheery simplicity of this kind of thing. In a world of misery and annoyance, it’s a pleasure to see something uplifting and to see such good-spirited industrial design. Much ID is awful and without any joie de vivre. Think of all the pain endured to make a Ford or BMW interior and look how little happiness they embody.