Like Now That’s What I Call Music, this has become a series. I find myself peering closely at window trim as I walk about.
The Peugeot 308 has better window trim than the Bentley Continental, which you wouldn’t expect. Only a brightwork obsessive would note that. Here is an example of the difference colour and trim make to a car. It’s a 2014-onward Peugeot 208. Small black cars aren’t that common, are they? Twenty years ago they were almost entirely unavailable which is why that Citroen Madame (?) we showed here was so unusual.
Sheet metal pressing has got better since 1991 and that’s why it’s easier to paint small cars black. The parts are formed with sufficiently high quality to show good reflections when finished with a dark, shiny coating. Here’s a car with the “upside down” bright metal window frame:
And here’s another:
Driven To Write 
I like the upside-down bright metal window frame on the X-Type, but I really hate the chrome on the bumpers. X-Type bumpers must be dechromed, for our eyes’ sake.
It’s great we can nurture a diversity of opinion here!
The 508’s C-pillar is atrocious.
Yes – there’s not much to like about it. I saw this in Ireland where it was not unusual.
The 508’s C-Pillar is better handled than that of the 208. I am quite a fan of the “new” 208 (effectively a reskin of the old 208); in a strong colour the new GTI for example is a lovely thing to behold. But in being a three door, the GTI does not feature the one detail that irks me about the 208, namely the treatment for the rear doors. Let me count the ways the five door is wrong:
1). A fake quarter window (one of my most common grievances with many recent cars);
2). Glass that does not meet the body at the trailing edge of the door, creating an odd step between both;
3). Chrome or black trim that does not follow the shape of the door shut, instead describing its own arc across the face of the C-Pillar.
No doubt the intention here was to create a harmonious set of shapes where there were non. Instead, to my eyes at least, the combined effect is distinctly unsettling, cheapening what is otherwise a vastly improved car.
“…effectively a reskin of the old 207”, I should’ve said.
I’ve made myself angry now. It’s the mark 2 Lexus GS and the Rover 75 all over again, but worse. Excuse me while I find a paper bag to breathe into.
What with my obsession with C-pillars, brightwork and shutlines I feel I can say that designers have explored all the good ideas involving congruent graphics and apertures. The minute you decide that DLOs and door apertures should be the congruent you decide alot about how the C-pillar/DLO/shutline will fall out. Evidently designers decided it was a bigger risk to stay within that framework than to depart from it. I can see how they got there. The results are not often good, affirming the wisdom of orderly graphics and shutlines but also the limitations.
Yesterday evening, while enjoying our extra hour of light, something called a Citroën C4 Picasso passed by. It was black and of the new type, and the side window chrome was either half-hearted or some sort of artistic statement, way above my head.
I’m not well up on matters of fine art, but the thing just looked…unfinished. Have I missed something?
That rail is very confused. It’s a detail that will give the car period charm in 2035. At the moment its purpose is unclear.