Mazda Shinari Concept

  • Thread starter Thread starter Omnis
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The problem with Nagare is that they took much of the surface gloss and missed the fine details that made it a great language. And they just had to pare it with that strange corporate grille.

The Mazda6 was great, but it could have used wind-sculpting on the side. Instead, the Mazda5 got it. The MX-5 is great (except for the corporate grille), the Mazda2 and Mazda3, likewise (the Mazda3 got it worst with the grille)... and the RX7 would have been nice.

Too bad. A case of marketing and brand recognition getting the best of a good design strategy.
 
I just saw the car in Netcarshow.com, is this real? Is it a Mazda or a Maserati? It looks a mix of Maserati GT/Jaguar XF but I realized something happened. Did Citroen/Renault/Mazda nailed their car designs ? I always hated them due to bad car design but when Citroen DS3, Renault Megane RS and this came out ..... I'm speechless, however, I hope Toyota do the same thing too.

Edit: I forgot Peugeot is following the road too!
 
Woo.. Hands down. This concept really looks great! It just looks great in anyway honestly...
 
I honestly don't like it. I don't see anything that stands out from the cars they make now. The Nagare theme was probably the most unique language of any car maker, ever. Even an idiot would immediately recognize it as oriental, it was very Japanese and artistic. The concept cars' sculpting reminded me of koi fish swimming through a pond. All the concepts designed under it were absolutely stunning, but it seems they refused to transfer the most important aspects of the language to production cars. The 6 for example looks nothing like it. Hell, the 6 hardly looks like the 3 what with its ridiculous grille and whatnot. The grille worked for me though because the whole car, mostly the 5-door, is the closest they came to Nagare and they still didn't manage it by a long shot. The concept cars held one language, and the production cars an entirely different, entirely pedestrian (relatively) language. What a waste.

The only thing I see unique about this Shinari are the aluminum sword thingies streaking across the car on the front and sides. That's it. The rest of it looks like it could come from any company who happens to make smooth, curvy sedans. It looks good, it's just nowhere near unique and "Japanese" enough to walk in the shoes of the Nagare designs.

EDIT: I do like the stingray-esque fender peaks though; it's rare to see such an aggressive fender on a sedan. If they can manage to make at least one rear-drive sedan and then apply that stingray look to it and the RX8 and maybe a future RX7, then they'd have some properly mean looking performance cars. Maybe they could infuse a bit of Samurai into the lineup, no Suzuki pun intended. Overall though I'm less interested in this whole language and more interested in the designs on the next Miata and 3. Those seem to be the only cars that really matter.
 
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Another Mazda concept car, looks great in some respects (shape is really iffy), promises a lot, but very few ideas are actually implemented in their actual lineup. It's a real shame too, because that thing kicks the 5 Series' ass to Berlin and back...
 
niky
The problem with Nagare is that they took much of the surface gloss and missed the fine details that made it a great language. And they just had to pare it with that strange corporate grille.

The Mazda6 was great, but it could have used wind-sculpting on the side. Instead, the Mazda5 got it
Click to expand...
I've just now seen a picture of this freshened 5 you speak of in my new Automobile - at first I had no idea what you were on about and assumed you mis typed, frankly.

And I have to say, it looks good! I like the wavy things. But why has it taken them 5+ years to get around to it when they've introduced 1..2...3...like 5 entirely new designs or facelifts since we got the first whiff of the Nagare theme? It seems they had an idea with this, the 2005 Senku...

2005_Mazda_SenkuConcept1.jpg


and then really became a solid theme with 2006's Nagare...

2006_Mazda_NagareConcept3.jpg


...but they never applied it properly to any of their cars until now, and they chose the 5! It's not time yet to quite on this language because they haven't even applied it to their production cars. They could have put wavies on the new 3, 6, RX8, CX9, and now the 5 that they've done up. Ugh, what a terrible waste of such stunning design concepts. Every single one of them was stunningly good. Honestly, I have to say Kia has my favorite new design theme and the best part is they're brave enough to produce it.
 

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