Quote:
Originally Posted by motorhead
It looks more like the kia then the car it's inspired by. I know what all you "trained" eyes are saying about the differences, but they are certainly more alike then a camaro, caddy or other very obviously different cars to all of us "untrained" eyes. I really thing its just a way for you to be smartasses without coming right out and saying it. This happens with damn near every car debut shown on here. If you don't see what all of us untrained eyes see, then maybe your vision is too narrowed by your training.
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I'll describe what I see when I look at the Kia next to the Cruze so that you can see it for yourself. The first thing is to look at the details of the car instead of its body shape or the most basic things that indicate that, yes indeed ... this thing is a car.
- The upper grill on the Cruze is thin & linear, vs a thick 'bowtie' shape on the Kia.
- The lower grill resembles a tall inverted trapezoid (but not quite) that is canted forward, vs being a thin trapezoid pushed back.
- the grill pattern is a tight mesh on the Kia vs a open grid on the Cruze
- I can't pick the proper words to describe the differences in the headlights. The best I can do is say that on the Kia, the headlights look like small, individual elements set deep in the housing while on the Cruze the lights 'fill' the entire space & seem to sit more forward
- the overall design of the front fascia is smooth & rounded on the Kia while the Cruze has a much sharper, more angular look (including a central crease)
- There is a feature above the front fender (an eyebrow?) on the Cruze that is completely non existant on the Kia.
- The body line running below the window is far sharper on the Cruze and angles up before curving down, vs a practically straight line
- the door handles on the Cruze sit out from the body, while the Kia has them nearly flush mounted with round pockets behind them
- on the lower door area, the Kia has body line that dips down before rising and nearly blending into the wheel arch. It appears to be a chunk 'removed' from the body. The Cruze has a 'bulge' defined by a line angling up along the top, horizontal for most of the bottom then a short rise at the rear
- the Cruze looks to have a fairly rounded door shape (from top to bottom) while the Kia appears to be somewhat slab sided
- The Cruze has an extra ground effects 'thing' running below the door-sills that the Kia lacks.
When I look at the two cars, its those things that I see. I don't have to look for them, its just 'there' staring me right in the face. And I don't have a trained eye for automotive design. If I did, I could probably write a small book on the differences & give proper names to each styling element. I simply see the differences, and by virtue of seeing those differences I cannot possibly agree that one is a copy of the other. Its pretty much the same whenever I see a car. I identify the details & that becomes my reference for what that car looks like. Similarities can exist, but just because two things share a couple similarities does not make them the same. Furthermore, with something like the profile shape its created mostly in the wind tunnel. Similarities there are as a result of design convergence: there is only 1 ideal solution to optimize aero & interior space. To say that Chevy is copying from Kia because of that is akin to saying that two people who got the same right answer on a math test copied off each other. No ... it just means that they both know what they're doing.