Zak attack: New head of GM's European exterior design team
Saturn PreVue
American designer Phillip A. Zak has just been appointed to head the design team for General Motors Europe, where he'll be taking the reigns of the Opel, Vauxhall and Saab brands. The man behind the Chevy Cobalt, Pontiac G6 and the "Excitement" division's GXP line, will also have a hand in designing "certain Saturn products for North America."In addition to the aforementioned production models, Zak has also stuffed his portfolio with several concept cars including the Pontiac REV and the Saturn Prevue, two designs that have had a direct influence on the styling direction of both brands.
We're interested to see what will come out of the GM's European studio with Zak at the helm, especially considering the recent propagation of Euro designs in the Saturn lineup.
[Source: InsideLine]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Eric 10:46AM (8/02/2007)
He's responsible for the Cobalt? I doubt he'll go far.
Unless you can actually win an award for "Most ridiculous looking car in it's class"
Maybe if he learns to keep the bug eyes on spiders and not on cars he might do something interesting.
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B-NOIT 10:38AM (8/02/2007)
I definitely hope Zak has moved on from his Cobalt-G6 phase. Their overly simplistic designs, despite the G6's strong stance and elegant-ish profile, are sadly not up to par - especially for Opel and Saab.
Crossing my fingers that this is a good move, and that GM's turnaround will only be aided by it.
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JC3 11:02AM (8/02/2007)
That illustration looks so cool.Sort of like a personal luxury, SUV style.Nice graceful coupe lines.
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Mmmhmmm 11:08AM (8/02/2007)
The Cobalt doesn't look "ridiculous", but it's definitely not a looker. I think the G6 is very attractive, though, despite being built and designed so poorly. (I own one.)
So, in short, hopefully the new cars will look as good as he does. *eyebrows*
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jg 11:24AM (8/02/2007)
I'll take that Prevue. Preferably as a GMC Jimmy but whatever. 2 door SUVs rock.
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scappy 1:44PM (8/02/2007)
Well the way I see it the Saabs look great and so do the Saturns over here. I don't know how much body work is shared by Saturn and opel / Vauxhall, but I hope not much. I figure those brands can really only go down in looks. I hope whoever was penning the Saab's comes state side.
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AlexP 3:12PM (8/02/2007)
I'd love to know how the existence of Vauxhall can be justified by GM, personally. :V
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zamafir 4:57PM (8/02/2007)
I believe the justification is previous utterly devistating models such as the vx220
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Ric Kaysen 5:12PM (8/02/2007)
The Antara was exactly what I'm looking for in my next vehicle and I would have bought it without a test drive the minute it hit the showroom floor. It's a shame what happened to it on its' way to Saturn. You couldn't pay me to drive the thing it turned into.
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