Automobile Body Styles and Design

Automobile Body Styles

Truck

https://pixabay.com/en/truck-farm-chevy-agriculture-2746716/
Trucks were designed with a flat, open bed for hauling a variety of desired cargo. Regular cab trucks provide single row seating while an extended cab adds rear seat room for additional passengers. Most double row seated trucks have four doors, while single rowers typically have two. There is a variety of different options and truck types that offer different features like two-wheel drive, four-wheel drive,  full-sized trucks, half-ton and mid-size trucks, as well as a large range of engine choices. 

Van

https://pixabay.com/en/house-parked-pavement-road-street-1834826/
Having the ability to with hold a large amount of passengers and cargo, vans were designed for practicality. Depending on the type of van, it can be larger or smaller than the average car, SUV, or truck. The average amount of seats available in most vans is 7, but in larger vans there can be up to 15 seats or more. Vans typically have two doors on each side, one regularly sized one giving access to the two front seats, and one large sliding door giving access to the rest of the seats in the back. Typically, the back seats of a van can fold down or be removed giving access to a very large space in the back of the vehicle.     

Coupe

https://pixabay.com/en/audi-a5-quattro-coup%C3%A9-fsi-car-new-884243/
A coupe is a long-running body style in automobile circles. Interiors of coupes receive specific design focus around reinforcing the performance feel for driver and front seat passengers and typically only seat two. However, there have been alterations and now there are a range of 4 seat (4 door) and 2 seat designs. If you are looking for a sporty, comfortable car for a budget, the coupe style is for you. 

Sedan 

https://pixabay.com/en/automobile-automotive-bmw-car-1846298/
Being one of the most popular automobiles on the market, the Sedan seats typically four people with four doors. It adapts nicely to almost any automotive lifestyle, and are unofficially classified under the category family sedan, sports sedan or luxury sedan. This type of car can be referred to as the basic starter car. 

SUV

https://pixabay.com/en/wilderness-rock-nature-landscape-2828035/
A Sports Utility Vehicle is designed for on and off-road drives and is usually offered as  a four-wheel drive, classified as  mid-sized or full-sized. SUV's are similar to an estate, but bigger and higher off the ground. Some have the towing ability of a truck, and others the seat capacity of a minivan or large sedan. Most Canadians favor SUV's in the winter because they offer the freedom of not having to worry about getting stuck during/after snowstorms.   

Automobile Design. 

From the video, some things that I found surprising were how much effort and how many steps go into the process of car designing. Also, I found it surprising that they used clay to make a 3-D full sized model of the car. In the article, some things that designers have to consider is the year that the car will make it's appearance in the showroom. When the design is finalized, there is a time lag of three to five years. So, the designer most make sure the model doesn't look too out of style, futuristic, or old-fashioned. The automobile manufacturer General Motors was the first to come up with the clay modeling technique. Clay modeling is still used today as  great advantages come with it; it is easy to add or remove small amounts of clay to make detail adjustments to the model. Some advantages of the computer model method are being able to view the car from any angle on screen and  making it any color. Once satisfied the designer can send information to a milling machine that will cut out the design in 3-D which is a lot quicker and more efficient than drawing by hand and clay modeling. 

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