Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Altima Coupe, Town Car, CLS Cote d'Azur & ES350C

Continuing the Parade of Early Chops

Revised Nissan Altima Hybrid Coupe would be lower, wider, pillarless, and lower in weight than the current version. Standard AWD and a V6 hybrid drivetrain, this elegant and rapid coupe would be priced evenly with the flagship Maxima.

 
Photoshopped several years ago, this Town Car Classic would have been the ultimate facelift of the Panther bodied Lincoln sedan. A return to "suicide" rear doors and a formal rear backlight are clues to this extended wheelbase luxury car's role at the top of the Lincoln lineup.

Color-shifting paint is just one aspect of the Mercedes Benz CLS Cote d'Azur. a true flagship 2-door coupe. Wraparound glass and an exclusive V8 hybrid AWD drivetrain would ensure exclusivity and elegance, even in the most rarified of Europe's playgrounds for their 1%.

Lexus's FWD mid sized range would be extended with this 2-door ES 350C. The sedan's flowing roofline works just as well with fewer doors and larger wheels and uprated suspension would guarantee that the twists and turns on the way to the jewelry store in town would be as fun as possible.

6 comments:

  1. These are very cool -- my favorite is the Town Car!! I love it!! If only they had done something like this. In real estate we talk about "good bones" and the Panther platform, particularly after the 98 refreshing, had great bones. It wouldn't have taken a huge investment to bring the platform into the 21st century. I'd like to see what you'd do with the front of this chop -- the rear is terrific -- puts me in mind of the first Chrysler LHS (94-97). Very elegant.

    Paul, NYC

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Paul! I agree about the Town Car. I still don't see why they stopped updating it. The platform had to be virtually free by the time the 2000s rolled along! They could have given it an independent rear suspension and so many other updates. The body had been around for more than a decade too and they must have gotten every penny of investment back on that, too, and then some. And now they don't even have a large car in their lineup. I hope they know what their doing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I hope so too. I know that Mulally has done a lot of things right, but I still question the wisdom of discontinuing the Panther platform particularly for fleet sales -- livery drivers will really miss the Town Car and the police will miss the Crown Victoria. And they could have made a couple years more worth of Crown Vic taxis before New York City outlaws them in favor of the supremely hideous Nissan truck. Once the NYC market is gone, it probably wouldn't be worth Ford's while to continue a taxi version since most taxis outside of NYC are not Crown Vics -- Dodge Caravans and Toyota Siennas are the taxis of choice in San Francisco!

    Paul, NYC

    ReplyDelete
  4. Maybe a long wheelbase version of the all new Fusion might make up for the town car and Crown Vic, eh?

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's what they have to work with right now! Unless they extend the Volvo-based Taurus/MKT platform.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love it... maybe take it to the next retro leve and add the oval opera window just for fun!

    ReplyDelete