13 April 2008

Chrysler Hates Nice Door Cut Outs





Surely I'm not the only who has noticed this, but the next time you're on the road, pay close attention to the Chrysler vehicles around you. It's dawned on me that they have a curious design element that I see on basically no other competitor vehicles on the market- a rear door cut line that goes straight down into the rear fender.

What's the reason for such an odd touch? Is it cheaper? Is it easier to set up the manufacturing facility? I have no idea. What I do know is that it looks very cheap. Very very cheap. It looks as though the designers have put function, or ease of manufacturing, over style- and for all their faults, that's not something I've come to expect from Chrysler over the years. In contrast, most vehicles on the road have a rear door cut line that looks like this:


And I didn't put another Chrysler up there by accident. Coincidentally, the 300/Charger were designed and built during the Daimler era, and probably not so coincidentally, they're one of the few continued bright spots in the Chrysler lineup to this day.

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