As many of you know, I'm a fan of industrial design. And cars have been one place where design really follows culture. After reading Brad's latest in revolving political about the feminization of man, and seeing THIS CONCEPT CAR I have to smile.

And this is actually GOOD design. But it's withering when it comes to what this good design represents for future culture. In fact, I wonder if this isn't just another way to slice off mens' nuts. Lookit what a car has become. It's the antithesis of the muscle car. It's the antithesis of what many chicks used to call a penismobile.

What we have here is a beautifully, tastefully designed: WUSMOBILE. It's cute, quaint, almost like a little harmless toy car. It's supposed to be green, and its emissions would probably treated with a knowing smile, like the fart from a puppy.

I really like some of the materials choices, green though they may be. the Linen interior and dash is actually quite handsome. And I think after seeing all the overdesigned wheels and rims, the less-is-more wheels are spectacular. Thought I think Star Trek could sue them for some kind of copyright violation on the logo in the middle.

Japanese design normally does suffer from terminal cute... but this takes cute in an interesting direction. Not one I agree with, but one which I find fascinating in that it brings up all sorts of interesting issues like: is what we're doing here, rending the automobile HARMLESS? Where the current car designs are now showing lots of aggressive grills and lines, while having pretty much pussy performance and power... this one goes in the complete opposite direction. It EMBRACES that it's a pussy mobile. It's truthful in that you take one look at it and you KNOW it's going to have zero power, that it's basically a little putt-putt for going to fetch groceries or toodle around town.

The lines are clean and beautiful. I friggin' love the almost 2-D wheel wells, the door handles are gorgeous. The tolerances of the door are razor-tight. The placement of the little red reflectors on the front sides is brilliant, like the eye of some little cute toy-creature. The minimalist integral bumpers are great. I even like the color. It's subliminally green. But holy crap, it makes me ask what the hell is happening.

You might as well castrate yourself before getting behind the wheel, if you're a guy. In some ways, it strikes me as an arrested development kind of vehicle. Like what a car would look like if ten year olds were allowed to get their drivers licenses. It's got that sort of fisher-price vibe where you could picture a plastic mommy and a daddy with peach-colored round plastic heads on peg bodies that fit into holes in the seats... with a little plastic dog in the back.

So I have to ask, why does energy efficiency, and this sort of green thing, have to go hand-in-hand with an almost JUVENILE aspect? What is it about going green, that also makes us want to go TOY? Maybe it's the idea of a fischer price utopian world. The kind we imagined when we were children. Maybe that it's only in a nanny state where we'd ever GET this kind of future vision, and it naturally makes us regress.

This made me think about what friggin' GUN design might be like, in a world where gun control nanny statism took hold. Where you'd try to make the weapon look as harmless and innocuous as possible. Soften the edges, toy it up, girlify it.

What surprises me about the Daihatsu, is how successfully the design does these things. As much as I think the aims behind the design are stupid, the actual realization of what the designer was trying to do is superior. It's a very successful effort. I love to hate it. Or rather, I love the design but hate what it says about the current state of the culture. And it's THROUGH the great design that I SEE what's going wrong in the culture. That's the power of industrial design.

It's so brilliant, it's actually frightening.

My first reaction to the car -- before reading your stuff -- is that it looks like a car Lego would make. It's got that (Europeans, please avert your gaze) cheep, boxy, save-the-world-by-making-men-live-like-beggars Euro look that we Americans have always considered a deathtrap kind of car. My impression is that the styling on that would get old real fast. There's not much personality. Okay, let's see what you have to say and see if there's going to be a big aesthetic argument over this...

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In fact, I wonder if this isn't just another way to slice off mens' nuts. Lookit what a car has become. It's the antithesis of the muscle car....What we have here is a beautifully, tastefully designed: WUSMOBILE. It's cute, quaint, almost like a little harmless toy car.

Okay. LMAO. I think we're on the same page here. Very funny. And true.

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Where the current car designs are now showing lots of aggressive grills and lines, while having pretty much pussy performance and power... this one goes in the complete opposite direction. It EMBRACES that it's a pussy mobile. It's truthful in that you take one look at it and you KNOW it's going to have zero power, that it's basically a little putt-putt for going to fetch groceries or toodle around town.

That's an interesting take on it. And it fits in perfectly with the wussification of men. It really pains me when I see a grown man actually proud of their emasculated Eurostyled box-of-wuss car. But I've seen that. Some people are so proud that they are doing something to "save the planet" that the embarrassment factor of driving around in a car Fred Flintstone wouldn't have peddled around in doesn't reach them. It's like they take pride in the ugly. And I do think the ugly works for them in two ways: One, it shows that they're a hip, modern, non-threatening wuss male. (And, it pains me to admit, there are now advantages to this in regards to the ladies.) Two, it shows that they're willing to suffer some pain. As you well know, any cult, religion, or club generally has initiation rites. Membership is worth nothing if it comes easy and free. So to be a member of the "save the world" wuss club you have to drive around in an ugly, under-powered car. And you can be proud of your sacrifice.

Is the gigantic eyeroll implied or do I have to specifically state it at this point?

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In some ways, it strikes me as an arrested development kind of vehicle. Like what a car would look like if ten year olds were allowed to get their drivers licenses. It's got that sort of fisher-price vibe where you could picture a plastic mommy and a daddy with peach-colored round plastic heads on peg bodies that fit into holes in the seats... with a little plastic dog in the back.

That's absolutely gold-medal worthy.

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So I have to ask, why does energy efficiency, and this sort of green thing, have to go hand-in-hand with an almost JUVENILE aspect? What is it about going green, that also makes us want to go TOY? Maybe it's the idea of a fischer price utopian world. The kind we imagined when we were children. Maybe that it's only in a nanny state where we'd ever GET this kind of future vision, and it naturally makes us regress.

I think there's something to that. Good insight. How often have we heard said of some old guy buying some muscle car that he's trying to recapture his youth? Well, better youth than trying to stay forever in your childhood.

I've always thought of muscle cars as what you buy if you want to get LAID. It's not so much going back to childhood, as going back to your later teenage years where you had a constant boner.

To me, the seriously cool super-high performance rides are the sexiest. I'm talking those ultra-expensive, almost concept-looking beasts where there isn't a speed limit on the planet they couldn't break. The ones that are pretty much the ground version of a jet fighter. Everything about them says not pussy, not cheap. No corner has been cut.

The extremely interesting thing about the design of the basket is that the pussiness and cheapness have been EMBRACED. And the cheapness comes off as intended, almost artistic. I mean the car LOOKS economical. It has that almost stamped-tin look of a toy car. It has an egalitarian, almost mass-produced look. On a concept car, that's so mind blowing to me. That's radical. That turns design on its ear.

Again, I find it both brilliant and totally chilling. On the one hand my brain goes: man, the japs are arrested development nuts... and on the other, I marvel at the total command they have to capture an audience's imagination using industrial design. It's like being forced to admire the marketing that elected Barack Obama. It WORKED, it was successful, there's no denying that. But you kinda wish it hadn't worked, and it wasn't so effective.

Because I easily see cars going this way. It could be the next VW Bug, and it should be noted the political situation when THAT masterpiece was designed was... bingo, fascist totalitarian Reich. A nanny-state, where "the masses" were thought of as just that. OK, so maybe they were master-race masses rather than masses of chimps like now, but the state was definitely into that whole "doing things for their own good" mode. With an elite ruling class. And what do you know, an economic, egalitarian, cute car with a brilliant design came of it. Hitler didn't drive a bug, as far as I know, he drove a big land-boat limo.

We could probably go nuts trying to analyze what industrial design says about cultural and social class systems. There is a kind of point where something like a CHEAP, AFFORDABLE CAR for everyone could take over the world. If the Basket was a thousand bucks, say, and got 60 MPG... you wouldn't be able to stop it from becoming super popular.

By contrast, we had design like the 128k mac. Which to this day we see as cute and friendly, warm and cuddly. And it was for everyman (and woman)... but it wasn't cheap, not by any stretch. And it had personal liberation as a sort of overarching theme.

I wonder how a designer might handle a car which was truly egalitarian, and had personal (and economic) freedom as its core theme. Would it be all about style and skin, or would it be about good tools, great performance for a great price? What would cars look like if they weren't about a nanny state telling you how green to be... but instead about the best possible transportation for the real power-base in this country: the American people? Would it be CUTE? Minimal? A minivan? An SUV? I honestly don't know. I think the free market makes cars and styles popular... and everyone wants one.

But I think it'd all go topsy turvy if the quality came with a low price. Reliable, economical, safe transportation, in a package that would be tough to kill, easy to fix... design that, and you re-set the bar in the auto industry in this country. The new VW Bug has great design, but it costs a friggin' FORTUNE. But who knows, make a car body out of glass reinforced polymer, cheap and stronger than steel, waterproof, no paint... give it a hybrid engine that runs on anything from Kerosene to ethanol to LPG to gasoline... manufactures and stores its own electricity... you'd create something everyone would want. If a car stopped being as expensive as a house, cheap, mass-produced, but still ran great, lasted over 100,000 miles and had high quality... I mean what do you think such a car would look like? If I were Detroit, I'd run a competition to design the best and cheapest car using available technologies.

What I do know, is that if the design works, it lasts for frikkin' EVER. Take the single action colt peacemaker. The gun that tamed the West. People still use that design. And it hasn't changed significantly in design since 1873. The fact that you can still buy a gun that looks and works almost exactly like the original, today, in 2009, in a caliber that you can buy bullets for in virtually any Wal-Mart (.45 colt), is mind blowing.

I'm going to generally agree with you that the car is good design and has a lot of nice elements to it. And I think I would agree with you if you were to say that the car is a good representation of a certain point-of-view or artistic expression. It's not a kludge. This isn't gradeschool stuff even if the car ends up looking Fisher-Price. Anyone who set out to faithfully emulate that Fisher-Price look might find it far more difficult than they would have thought. It's certainly not a lack of design talent that we're talking about. And concept cars are supposed to be a bit "out there." They're not necessarily meant to be practical. It's a method of showing off and just playing with design. It's therefore not very intelligent to criticize such designs for not "staying within the lines."

That said, what I think you said here goes to the heart of the matter for me:

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I've always thought of muscle cars as what you buy if you want to get LAID. It's not so much going back to childhood, as going back to your later teenage years where you had a constant boner.

Do you remember that Firebird III (obviously made before GM was taken over by the fascists in the Obama administration) that I posted from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair? (Another view of it.) The theme of that 1962 fair was "Century 21." It was a look into the future. And at the time, rocketry and space were all the craze. That's why the centerpiece of that fair was the Seattle Space Needle. We imagined the future would be more of what we were seeing then. That's how I look at the Fisher-Price Wussmobile. If masculinity and individualism are under such assault right now (and they are), why not imagine a complete wuss future where we are all somewhat asexual children who desire and are attracted to milquetoast non-threatening things? Really, if you read Aldous Huxley's excellent novel "Brave New World," the Wussmobile is the kind of low-threat, low-testosterone, low-heart-rate car that would have fit into that world perfectly.

One of the psychological traits of humans is the renowned Stockholm Syndrome. Once we become trapped by our situation, we begin to make friends with it, to idealize it, to basically roll over and accept it. Pelosi and her ilk cunningly know this and this is why these dystopic Democrats are trying to ram down their central plank of "1984" down our throats in the guise of "health care." And it's embarrassing to see the girly-men apologists for it, but that's precisely what you would expect. And this car, at least for me, fits in perfectly with that mindset. Rather than bucking a trend, this car is a complete belly-roll of acceptance and glorification of that trend. I can almost guarantee you that this car was designed by a socialist, by "neutered man."

But certainly this car has less-is-more going for it. That's an interesting quandary. I like less-is-more. So, I ask myself, why would I like Shaker furniture, which is perhaps the epitome of less-is-more, and not like this car? Again, I think what you see in the finished product of any design are the intentions and beliefs of the designers (along with their skill, of course), which, in the case of the furniture, is that of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing (aka "Shakers"). And it's perhaps not enough to just say that they were being frugal and/or trying to give glory to god. I don’t really know all their motivations and aesthetical sensibilities and it would be interesting to learn about them. But the Shaker's minimalist look is pleasing and timeless while this car already looks dated to me. The Shakers may have been inspired by high feeling and spiritual emotion. But that concept Lego car just leaves me feeling that the designers were barren, dull, and lacking any full feelings or noble emotions. All they could think to do was to take away the things that traditionally make cars so fascinating (fins, balls, guts, rocketry, testosterone, etc). And perhaps that's what the Wussmobile is. It's not less-is-more in the usual sense. This Lego concept car takes away but doesn't put much back in. It tries, in its own way, to glorify sterility, docility, and compliance. It's the perfect socialist automobile.

That's exactly what's going on here. Cars and car design really are visions of the future... the perceived, pop-culture future. And the Basket is definitely a picture of the future where cap-and-tax, climate change science, and feminized low-threat men drive their wives and kids around feeling feelings and caring about everything.

You describe the quandary perfectly. The vehicle IS less-is-more, which is why I love the design. At the same time, I don't want to love it, because what it's illustrating PERFECTLY is exactly the stuff I don't really WANT to happen to the culture. So while I can recognize a brilliant designer at work, it's like Oh, shit, this SHOULDN'T be so perfect in how it communicates what it does.

It was the same with the original VW Bug. That was an actual nazi-mobile. A product of a total nanny state. It had that "so ugly it's cute" thing going on, and it captured the hearts of America. We totally forgot that the design was basically approved by Adolf himself. German designers were, er, clicking on all cylinders. It was brilliant. But the design shone in a culture that none of us would want to have been a part of, for almost all the wrong reasons.

Shaker furniture is another great analogy. One I used to use all the time trying to get people to understand why OS X sucked and the legacy Mac interface was better. But neither you or I would last five minutes in Shaker culture. The furniture is beautiful, stark, minimal, perfectionist... but thank Christ Jesus that we don't have to BE Shakers and celibate to appreciate the damn chairs.

I think the designers of the basket were far from having zero feelings or noble emotions. I think the design shows passion, quality, expertise, a total command of design principles. WE WANT the inspiration to be lacking, because we hate the message... but I think the beating heart of the quandary is that this design is so damn excellent, that we're actually SCARED. Because it could take off. And watch, I bet it does.

It's like when I just KNEW the Democrats would win it all in 08. You remember how I said it was a mortal lock. I didn't want that to happen, but I could see the trend everywhere. This is a similar thing. I see THIS design trend becoming a done deal. A foregone conclusion. There's going to be an enviro-friendly cute cuddly jap arrested development school and it's going to coincide with cars and gizmos and I bet architecture.

If I put on my swami thalo hat, I'd say start looking for buildings that are going to make you think of giant happy preschool play-houses. Office buildings that are places that look like places to go for day care rather than work. Lord knows computer interfaces have already become crib toys.

We may very well be heading into a fisher price or lego WORLD, instead of the ocean-liner postmodern theme, it's probably going to have that more juvenile arrested development slant. One big pack-n-play (vocabulary alert: you can't even say 'playpen' in PC culture now) for everyone. Look for the nanny state to really hammer home the idea of the adult world being day care. With the state filling the role of parent.

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feminized low-threat men drive their wives and kids around feeling feelings and caring about everything.

Very funny. And something tells me it's possible to get very good mileage out of a car that has style and muscle. Hell, even the cuteness of the original VW Beetle was more than okay. It said "low cost and friendly" rather than "had my nuts chopped off back at the factory."

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I think the designers of the basket were far from having zero feelings or noble emotions. I think the design shows passion, quality, expertise, a total command of design principles. WE WANT the inspiration to be lacking, because we hate the message... but I think the beating heart of the quandary is that this design is so damn excellent, that we're actually SCARED. Because it could take off. And watch, I bet it does.

I'm going to play a vocabulary game with you because I don't think "passion" describes the kind of wuss-a-thon thinking that goes into a lot of things these days. It's carefully channeled, Jindaled, politically correct "passion" and thus nothing I recognize as passion anymore. Let's call is "pussion."

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I see THIS design trend becoming a done deal. A foregone conclusion. There's going to be an enviro-friendly cute cuddly jap arrested development school and it's going to coincide with cars and gizmos and I bet architecture.

That makes me – again – think back to Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" where everyone wanted to just be pleasantly anesthetized. That's where we're heading now. I've definitely fallen more in your camp regarding life being a necessary struggle. Without the struggle we become eunuchs, cows, or jellyfish. People more and more don't want freedom. They want freedom from struggle. The House passed their version of the health care takeover bill. It's scary to be able to see the road ahead. The same rubes who voted for Obama and had no idea what that vote entailed also have no idea what it means if the dystopic Democrats get their health care bill passed. No idea.

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We may very well be heading into a fisher price or lego WORLD, instead of the ocean-liner postmodern theme, it's probably going to have that more juvenile arrested development slant. One big pack-n-play (vocabulary alert: you can't even say 'playpen' in PC culture now) for everyone. Look for the nanny state to really hammer home the idea of the adult world being day care. With the state filling the role of parent.

Yep. Big ditto.

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"low cost and friendly" rather than "had my nuts chopped off back at the factory."

I think we're looking at the same phenomenon. The basket looks low cost and friendly. It's just that you and I see the change in charge of those terms, and we've made assessments as to the reasons for the designs, i.e. the intentions.

But remember, the VW Bug was a nazi nanny state car. A cute little coupe that was almost like a gift from a big government that told people where they stood in the grand scheme of things.

The basket, likewise, does the same thing. The designer is telling us what we should be concerned with culturally. How environmentally "friendly", not just how friendly. This car is not built to tear up the road, win races, or rocket us to the moon. You don't have AC/DC's highway to hell blaring out of the radio, the ashtray (if there is one) isn't full of butts, there are no empty budweiser cans on the floor.

It's trying to promote "good behavior", rather than bad. And you'd think at first blush, that'd be a good thing. What I'm fascinated by, is why something that's supposed to be a car for responsible, "socially conscious" adults, ends up looking anything but ADULT. It goes past friendly, to juvenile. And yet cars where we are more likely to act out self-destructive, juvenile behavior, like making noise and driving too fast... those cars look cool and grown up.

I think it's the difference between the design DICTATING behavior to you, or not. I don't think the design of muscle cars necessarily were preaching or encouraging a sex, drugs, and rock lifestyle, they weren't trying to FORCE you to be cool, they simply offered coolness up. So why is it that the basket seems to be doing more than offering a lifestyle. It seems in fact to be reflecting a cultural bias.

Meanwhile, it designs OUT speed and power and probably any urban-tank like aspect (i.e. you'd never be going fast enough to get into a wreck that would squash you in this one). You look at the Daihatsu and think, if flipped, you'd probably die... but it wouldn't be YOUR FAULT. It would be some CO2 belching gas-guzzler, or a diesel powered behemoth... something against which the cute little basket would be hopelessly powerless against. This is a car that wouldn't ever get into a pissing contest. It's not the kind of thing you'd pull up to a stop light and fantasize about drag-racing with the guy next to you in. Wusmobiles win by not fighting, not being competitive. It's more a world of sharing and mutual respect and multiculturalism and tolerance. Except maybe for polluters, lol.

I think this is what you get when you try to design "social justice" or political correctness into an automobile. As successful as this design is, some of us balk because it does feel like it's not really about freedom anymore. It's about toeing the line, being mild mannered clark kent rather than superman.

Here is a world where you back down from a fight rather than stand up. Where everything is nurturing and protective and ooh, bullies are bad but we're not going to go down to their level.

South Park's episode on hybrid cars, which emitted lethal amounts of "SMUG" rather than smog, and whose owners developed an unsettling affinity for the smell of their own farts, was terrific satire... because it hit so close to home. What I'm most curious about the basket, is whether if it hits the market, if people are going to pay a PREMIUM for this cuteness. That'll be the con. If it's a $1000 car, fuck it man, that's economical transportation. If it's a $40,000 car, and is more about fashion than fighting pollution or being cheap and reliable, then we'll have another story, and more to rip on. Like with Apple computer.

Apple is supposed to be all enviro now, but their computers are more than twice the price of other PCs. So we're paying for that jive shit. If you have to pay through the nose for the arrested development design, and you end up not really saving on gas OR helping the environment, then we'll all know that it's really bullshit that sells. That style is going to win over substance yet again.

I think less-is-more is wonderful. And this car really looks the part. And yet, I think this vehicle, if it's going to retain its design chops in the marketplace, HAS to be revolutionary in its cheapitude. Otherwise it won't be being TRUE to that design.

Women are the driving force behind today's socialism. Men -- much as they are doing now -- will take that force and steer it toward fascism. But before getting into this more, first let me answer some viewer mail:

Brad, it's obvious by the way you go on and on demonizing women and the "wussification" of America that you are a misogynist homophobe. Your kind are almost extinct and I'll be laughing and dancing all over your grave when that happens." - Eric Townsend, Milquetown, Maine.

Eric, one of these days you'll learn to think for yourself (like a man, I dare say) and not be led around by your demonatrix, Nancy Pelosi. The vile and fiendish "politically correct" Democrats and the left want us all to view everything through their raw emotion-based and simplistic meme. Well, that meme is totally for wussies. But to get to your point, homosexual men can be among the most masculine of men. It's only been the perverted "gay rights" radical lobby that has tilted the opinion the other way. We must remember that Alexander the Great murdered and pillaged his way across half the known world. He was hardly a wuss. "Wuss" is about succumbing to the weak wuss characteristic of trading freedom for security. "Live Free or Die" is a noble American emotion. "Go green or else all the polar bears will die" is the wuss garbage the demonatrix Nancy Pelosi and her ilk have drummed into your heads so that they could control you and thereby destroy the thing that they really hate: America as a free, individual-oriented capitalistic country.

As for women, they do need a good scolding. We are being driven to a "friendly fascism" by them. The next years will get even uglier than the last few as the Democratic dystopia accelerates. If you go to school or work for the government (or for any large PC company), you no longer own your mind as it is right now. With "health care reform," you will no longer even own your body. And while Rome is burning, we have these wuss car designers helping it along, although I sort of agree with thalo that these designers are a bit like visionaries who are showing us in clear, unambiguous detail exactly where we are heading.

And, Eric, I admire (perhaps most of all) strong, independent women such as Margaret Thatcher or Sarah Palin, although the latter has much work to do to be put in the same league as the former. What I don't admire is the female attitude that conflict must be avoided at all costs, so let's just sit around at the table and hash out our differences. Neville Chamberlain tried this and it didn't work. A man (or forthright woman) must stand up for what is right. But the politically correct female vibe of today is that confrontation is a sign of pig-headedness. We should all therefore instead "reconcile" and "mediate" and all the words which simply mean splitting the difference with the squeaky wheels and tyrants instead of facing them down with integrity, honesty, and courage. So, fuck you, Eric Townsend of Milquetown Maine. Grow a pair or else one day you will wake up and find (as they are doing in England) Federal officials going through your refrigerator seeing what kinds of food you eat.

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But remember, the VW Bug was a nazi nanny state car. A cute little coupe that was almost like a gift from a big government that told people where they stood in the grand scheme of things.

That is strange that such a cute automobile could be the product of Nazis. Most of the "toys" made by the Nazis were really cool looking. Their tanks, their planes, their uniforms, and even the "SS" double-lighting bolt insignia were cool. For the Eric Townsends of the world, I suppose one must explicitly say something like "I don't admire what the Nazis did, any more than I admire what today's Democrats are doing. But you can admire some of their toys just like you can admire the grand words coming out of Obama's teleprompter." I guess if the VW Beetle didn't look harmless that it would have died an instant death. The mystery is why the Nazis would have gone for a design that looks more like it was made by the Swiss or the belly-rolling Swedes.

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What I'm fascinated by, is why something that's supposed to be a car for responsible, "socially conscious" adults, ends up looking anything but ADULT. It goes past friendly, to juvenile. And yet cars where we are more likely to act out self-destructive, juvenile behavior, like making noise and driving too fast... those cars look cool and grown up.

You already know the answer to that, of course. We're living in an age where the driving force is to keep people dumb, compliant, and in arrested development. You've seen how religions can do this to people. A religion is more powerful if it can keep people in a dependent child-like state. A religion does well if it can get a person to relate to it as they would relate to a mother or father. This isn't rocket surgery. There's one religion where the priests are commonly called "father" and the church is "mother church." And that church is by no means unique. When this happens on an individual non-governmental level, that's just called life and following one's faith. It's the messy, disorganized -- but free -- aspect of reality. When done on the governmental level, it always and forever leads to unhealthy Big Brother totalitarianism.

"Socially conscious" means to shut up and do what you're told by Nancy Pelosi and your betters. They know best and you couldn't possibly do so for yourself because (this is where the Marxist dogma comes in), whatever you believe (if not taught to you by your socialist betters) is the product of "false consciousness." You won't hear them often use that term in public political discussions, but that idea is behind everything the left believes and does. It's the very justification they have for treating anyone and everyone like cattle to be herded and molded. And because their motives are mostly about power and control, the desire to herd translates into doing whatever will keep people in a state of fear and therefore of dependency. You can't possibly succeed without their help, they will implicitly (or explicitly) tell you. The whole vibe therefore is to dump on the individual, to keep them under- or mal-educated, and this can't help but lead to juvenile-like dependency. The designers of the car have captured that exquisitely. And although I rank on the designer, I might actually hire that person or persons because they are obviously good at encapsulating a certain point of view and translating that into industrial design -- assuming they haven't drunk so deep of the kool-aid that it's still possible for them to have other points of view. For many people, it's not possible.

In our day and age, the cars were designed to have balls because kids were interested in growing up, of having the rights and privileges of being adults. For them, being a child was something to escape. There's something to be said for keeping the playful nature of a child, but there's very little to be said for remaining dependent, irresponsible, and weak. But that's where all of society is headed today. That's both a cause of the socialist governments many people (including us) are living under and have voted for, and an effect. But it's real.

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I think it's the difference between the design DICTATING behavior to you, or not. I don't think the design of muscle cars necessarily were preaching or encouraging a sex, drugs, and rock lifestyle, they weren't trying to FORCE you to be cool, they simply offered coolness up. So why is it that the basket seems to be doing more than offering a lifestyle. It seems in fact to be reflecting a cultural bias.

Design reflects cultural attitudes. Or it can reflect the unique creative vision of the designer. I think (I presume) that you and I admire the designer who really presses the envelope, who, instead of just encapsulating and reflecting existing cultural attitudes and stamping them out in condensed ass-kissing brown-nosing form, really does something new. But there's no escaping cultural influences, and there's not necessarily a need to do so. As goofy as that Firebird III may look in retrospect, it was a new and creative vision from the age of space for what a car might soon look like, or could look like. It was a unique vision for a car, even if it did indeed borrow from what was going on in the culture at the time. It's good to tie stuff in. That's connecting art to our lives. But the boxy look of the Basket case is not new. I've seen this box before. It's just another box with that Euro-sterile look. It's a clean, heartless design. Now, if they would have shown me something else, even it it was of the same small deathtrap "save the planet" general theme, it could have been something truly new and unique. But I just have the distinct feeling that the designers caught the current cultural meme a bit too literally. And that makes the Basket case something interesting. In a culture of non-confrontation, where "Just do it" doesn't really mean individuality but means adhering to a careful pre-established and pre-approved script of what it means to be an individual, the Basket case captures that. It seems as if the designer or designers were afraid to be confrontational in their design. They didn't want to ruffle any feathers by challenging us with something more daring. The way to please the wuss heart of today's feminized culture is to not dare to fan any emotions in the general vicinity of masculinity, or what we might call "balls." Then, like good members of the dystopia toward which we are all goose-stepping, we back-slap each other and call our lack of taste and professed affinity for drab, ugly heartlessness by some other word that, by previous agreement, we denote as noble.

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Wusmobiles win by not fighting, not being competitive. It's more a world of sharing and mutual respect and multiculturalism and tolerance.

Bingo. Well said. Perfect. I mean, this car ain't named the "Testarossa." It's called the "Basket." They might as well have named it the "Purse."

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Here is a world where you back down from a fight rather than stand up. Where everything is nurturing and protective and ooh, bullies are bad but we're not going to go down to their level.

Exactly. I didn't read this before writing what I said above, but we're saying the exact same thing.

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Apple is supposed to be all enviro now, but their computers are more than twice the price of other PCs. So we're paying for that jive shit.

That reminds me in the Photography thread where I commented on some dillwad manufacturer of slide scanners who said that their scanner was environmentally friendly. Soon dildos, cheeseburgers, farts, facials, forget-me-nots, and spaghetti-with-meatballs will be sold as "environmentally friendly." How loony and stupid have we all become? The idea of environmentalism loses all meaning when it can mean anything.

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I think less-is-more is wonderful. And this car really looks the part. And yet, I think this vehicle, if it's going to retain its design chops in the marketplace, HAS to be revolutionary in its cheapitude. Otherwise it won't be being TRUE to that design.

Men have proven that they will chop off their testicles and hand them to Nancy Pelosi. This rot goes very deep. But men still desire their symbols of masculinity even if they are in virtual S&M bondage to the left (perhaps especially so). I think men (even the wuss ones) will still want a car that looks like it has balls. If you look at the tons of sports car designs over the years (ironically, most of the good ones are from Europe, especially Italy), you know that small doesn't have to look like feckless. Unless and until the fascists gain further control over car companies (and they are trying and often succeeding), the market (the free market...if it remains free) will support cars that look like they have muscle, even if it's actually a putt-putt engine running on farthanol underneath.

If I could afford one, I'd get an SUV. I live in New England, so I need something that does well in the snow and ice. I also fish a lot, and need something that can travel for long distances on dirt roads in 4WD. I've tried to take the Buick on some of those roads, and it's always a disaster. It does pretty well in the snow, though.

But an SUV is the A#1 politically incorrect vehicle now. Which makes me want one all the more. I'm not sure I'd ever get anything like a HUMMER, though I think they're cool. I do, however like Land Rovers. The macho Safari kind. With the gas cans and the winch. That's the vehicle I'd buy if I was made of money. The new GMC pussy SUVs are kind of less-is-more. They're boxy like the basket, but not as cute. There's some interesting lines on the Terrain. And GM is pushing hard, product placing it all over TV shows. It kind of reminds me of a camera body. I like the fenders... it's maybe a LITTLE "transformery", with the "face" looking a little jap robotty... but it works in black, I must say. Quite handsome. I do like the rear vision cameras. Those are neat.

Well, put this in the category of "everyone's got an opinion," but I really hate the grill on that GMC truck. Hate it. I could design better than that, and I ain't a car designer. It's like you took what is normally a ballsy thing such as an SUV and put a cheesy grin on it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. I also hate that stupid Ram design on the front of Dodge Ram pickups. Don't hate that quite as much though. But I don't think you could go wrong with a Land Rover (the Range Rover, of course). As far as I know, those aren't toys. That's actually how people cruise about in the Outback or on the rough plains of the Serengeti getting work done. The styling is no-nonsense but tasteful. The Range Rover is a vehicle (if you call it an "SUV" you're more interested in posing than practical) that gets the job done...and is elegant enough to drive you to the opera. (I sound like a commercial.) According to this Wiki page, Tata Motors now makes them. But what I like about the Range Rover is that taste of British understatement. This vehicle isn't caught trying too hard to look like more than it is. It doesn't have to. And that's quite unlike the Hummer which just screams play-acting. I'm sure it's a good vehicle for the military, but I guess if I was rich enough I drive an Abram's tank down the highway if I could get away with it.

I'm sorry, did I mention how much I hated that GMC truck? And it has nothing to do with this being a fascist company, although that certainly doesn't help.

The Ford Escape is priced right. The Hybrid is 10 grand more.

Again, put this in the category of "everyone has an opinion," but I find the Ford to be a bit too rounded...like a soft, cushy girl. I think it needs to be a bit more angular. That Escape looks like a Range Rover that has been inflated with air. Here's the 2009 Range Rover Sport HSE that, while having rounded corners (I would hate it if it was too boxy) still doesn't have that "just inflated by a bicycle tire pump" look. And look at the sensible front grill. Actually, look at the cool dashboard with the LCD navigation system (one of the lower photos). That's not an Aqua interface, that's for sure.

Yes, the grill on the Terrain is my least favorite part. Grinning Jap robot-face.

I love the Range Rover. But I really don't need the luxury aspect. If I had the dollars to plunk down on a land rover, I'd get the classic serious mother fucking TRUE 1 HT series Land Rover Daktari, baby.

That, to me, is a vehicle. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

The Ford Escape isn't too bad for the money. But the Expedition is the Ford I'd get. 14 miles a gallon, V-8.

I actually like the Jeep Patriot For the money.

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Grinning Jap robot-face.

Okay, that's an ever better analogy. I haven't seen Transformers 2, but I hear that Megan Fox is in fine form. Put her face on the grill and I'd be happy. Or maybe use her naked form as sort of a nautical-style figurehead.

Oh, yeah. The CSMF HT Land Rover is indeed a classic design. You know that could take a few hits from a rhino horn on the side and still survive. That vehicle is made to just beat the living shit out of it and still get you to the water hole on time. The fun would be to lay your hands on one of those old ones and then deck it out in all sorts of snazzy electronic stuff...but sort of keep it hidden under panels to not spoil the classic look.

Okay, the Jeep Patriot (I not sure yet about the burnt orange though) is a clean looking vehicle. Nice. No nonsense and yet is distinctive. That's a tough balance but I think they found it. I'd be happier if it was even more primitive looking and yet they did get a bit of that in there with the fenders. I'm not sure which color I'd pick from the shown samples (very cool how that works). There's something to be said for Light Sandstone Metallic. But, god, the Surf Blue Pearl is awful. The Deep Water Blue Pearl works better, and perhaps the Jeep Green Metallic is a natural (although I really don't like that either). But I'd take it in probably the Light Sandstone Metallic. Black would be okay too.

My cousins ex-husband restored one of these 1949 Willys Jeep Station Wagons several years ago.

That thing was built like a brick shit house too.

Oh, geez, that is really sweet, Rico. An old Woody. Or is that one simply painted to resemble wood? That high gloss doesn't look like wood but it's cool. And a car made out of wood would be --- wait for it...you know what I'm going to say --- very green. But that's a tough equation to figure out exactly what "green" is. You'd have to chop down a tree to create a Woody. But on the other hand you'd have to dig a hole in Mother Earth in order to mine the minerals for a metal body. You make the call. I'm not quite sure which is greener, digging up dirt or chopping down trees. Perhaps they could make a Bottley and make the sides out of recycled water bottles. I probably shouldn't give them any ideas.

Okay, I like the green for the Jeep. I was just down filling my Schwarzeneggeresque Ford Focus Wagon and the guy next to me had a '92 Jeep Cherokee 4x4. I asked him about it and he said he was very satisfied. The only problem he's had is the differential which he think his wife screwed up a little by jamming it too hard into 4 x 4 going up a hill or something. But it looked really good. I don't think the styling has changed much at all in the past few years. And the green, looking at it in person, was fine.

I'm torn on the Woody and the Willys Jeep Wagon. I mean they are obviously classics, but I never got the wood. I mean, I get wood... er, I mean... you know what I mean. But as a materials choice for an auto body, I dunno. I picture somebody finding me in a side impact wreck with a stake through my heart like Dracula.

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I'd be happier if it was even more primitive looking and yet they did get a bit of that in there with the fenders.

My thoughts exactly. What I want to know is how they can sell those so cheap. Thats among the best price/value/design vehicles for anything remotely SUV like that I've ever seen.

I just found a picture of Mama thalo as a child, sitting on the running board of an old Ford convertible coupe... I think it must be a Model A. It's got the rumble seat, but I didn't know that came in a ragtop. It's a sweet car. Grandpa thalo had a model T, then that coupe, and after that I think he had something like a Ford Panel truck. Delivery van, which he used for his plumbing business. Now THAT was a frikkin' beautiful car. Like a woody but no wood, and a cooler front. Looked kind of like this.

He always had cars about 5-10 years after their model year. So the Model A he had in the 40's, the 1940 van he had in the 50's. When I was a kid, he had a 64 Chevy Van, which was a funny looking one, in the most horrible shade of aqua... and a total rust bucket.

That isn't wood on the Willys Jeep Station Wagaon.

All metal. It mimics those old Woody packards but it is just for aesthetics on the Willy.