Yup, awesome. I saw one at the motor show around Britain in 1972 and it was shocking. Several British cars had similar curved rear windows, but that Riv was perverse gigantic excess, back when it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Another MAT project on page 3:

@Daga and @smokyburnout go RTFA:

The hybrid picks up the improvements. The 4WD hybrid is the highest mileage 4WD car available in the USA, if I read this right the 4WD might increase from current 29 city/27 hwy.

Why did minivan get associated with kids in the USA? It's a great way to travel with more than four in comfort and style.

That's "donned", not "doned his comedian hat". Use Firefox with the spell checker for text areas!

I think it's cool. It spreads the battery packs out under the floor like the GM Hywire Skateboard concept.

@my favorite car is a motorcycle: You seriously misremember the Cadillac design heritage prior to the 90s. Cadillacs are all about rectangles and planes! The deVille, Seville, Eldorado I remember are all boxy cars with sharp creases.

Everybody Changfeng tonight,

It looks hella aerodynamic unlike the Volt. If made real with a simpler rear greenhouse it would be a significant competitor for the Prius, unlike all the SUVs with batteries dumped somewhere that Detroit keeps showing.

Most ShitUVs look the same, except for a handful like the Murano/FX35. The only design decision at the rear is whether the hip creases up (BMW and a hundred others) or the side window curves down (CR-V and dozens of others). They're all awful stylistic dead-ends and non-petrolheads can't tell any of them apart. …

@DanWarner: So you talk people out of spending their OWN money to buy a car that pollutes less? You infect them with the meme that of all the $$$ options on a car, the hybrid powertrain is the one that demands a cost-benefit analysis?

car magazine's GBU (The good, the bad, & the ugly) nailed this car. "For: Massive presence. Against: Massive presence. Verdict: Out of my way, little man."

"nought to 62" and £17,995, so presumably the 45.6 MPG is in imperial gallons, which are 1.201 bigger than US gallons, so it's 45.6 is actually 38 USA mpg.

@elwood: I'm playing through the latest, GTA: Vice City Stories. It's ported from the PSP, and so far it's the weakest of the lot; at least Liberty City Stories had hysterical radio patter. Nevertheless to honor Evel Knievel I spent an hour driving an Infernus at 170 mph up a ramp and into a nearby palm tree for…

The Princess and the Rover SD1 were good futuristic car designs for the time — 1980 cars in 1976. The Wolseley variant (go go BL brand engineering) is particularly attractive, it looked like a 1980s Lancia. The vinyl roof though, argghh!

@oneswellfoop B)++++! I call up Audi USA every 6 months and bitch about their missing model. You and I and many more want an A3 2.0T DSG quattro!

Not much style, but it's available 4WD!

Neat, shame it's a relatively heavy SUV with poor aerodynamics.

Peter Stevens' look of the car isn't that beautiful, but the design is incredible, unassailable, and unequalled. That tiny rear overhang, the central driving position, the air ducts, the great forward visibility (listen to Jay Leno rave about it) are all design points that drive the shape.