Day: Jun 3, 2015

Theme: Evolution – 1985 Nissan Maxima 4DSC

Today the blogosphere is alive with comments about Nissan’s new Maxima, the one with the iffy decoration on the C-pillar.

1985 Nissan Maxima 4DSC: tomsforeign.com
1985 Nissan Maxima 4DSC: tomsforeign.com

Nissan has chosen to associate this new Maxima with the 4DSC tag, which means 4 Door Sports Car, a name which originated in 1985 with the Nissan Maxima 4DSC. What’s this got to do with evolution? It is more a case of a lack of evolution, at least in stylistic terms. It is not that the Maxima hasn’t changed but that it has had revolution not evolution. This lack of continuity from one generation to the next troubled me 25 years ago. I noticed Renault tended to Continue reading “Theme: Evolution – 1985 Nissan Maxima 4DSC”

The CX Line

A micropost on the reverberations of certain design themes across decades and between brands and a reflection on their meaning.

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One of our readers has asked for further clarification on the meaning of the “CX line” with respect to the 2008 Renault Laguna. The first photo shows the 1976 Citroen CX, designed by Robert Opron. The second photo shows a Series 1 Renault Laguna from 2009. The CX line is partially obscured by the cut-out of the headlamps and, of course, is set within a more complex environment than the corresponding line on the 1976 car.

Continue reading “The CX Line”

Brand or Banned

Is DS going to be blackballed?

Ceci n'est pas une Citroën #1
Ceci n’est pas une Citroën #1

Although I’ve never been a club sort of person, for various reasons I’ve been an on-off member of the British “Citroën Car Club” for many years. It’s a long-established and still apparently healthy club, with a well-produced magazine. When I first received ‘The Citroënian’ they were coming to terms with the aftermath of the Peugeot takeover and were introducing a column for the newly released Visa, a car not without merits and character but, like the stop gap LN/A before it, based on the Peugeot 104.

Since then, a host of PSA derived models have joined to Continue reading “Brand or Banned”