>
>
> If all designers listened to the likes of automobile engineers with
> similar
> dispositions regarding these �imagination masturbation� exercises than
> nothing of true design impact would ever be created. You would get square
> box cars with, hard uncomfortable interiors,  no curves, no innovation and
> zero design sensibility.
> The industrial designers job is see that it can be done within the
> parameters the auto manufactures provide them, and in some cases they
> succeed.

Granted, but there's a difference between a design that pushes the
boundaries of modern manufacturing capabilities, and a design that simply
cannot be made without the aid of faerie godmothers and pixie dust. The
verdier concept westy looks neat, but the designer's grasp of mechanical
engineering is practically nil. It is firmly and completely within the pixie
dust realm. Maybe I'm just too much of an engineer at heart, but I'm just
not intrigued by a design that (to me) might as well have a magic door
leading to a 40 room italian villa under the rear seat, for all its
plausibility.

--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"