hotwheels:

1999 Ford 021C

This. From Ford. In 1999. Tell me this car isn’t exactly right for our 2K9 sensibilities. Compact. Practical. Instead we were given two options- lame or large. Bright-side: We have 3-5 different models in 7 categories from which to choose.

Looking at this Ford concept car, I can’t help thinking about Jonathan Ive. The story goes that Ive spent five years at Apple helping design parts of beige cases. A Performa fascia here. A PowerMac hinge there and so on. His own designs were considered “neat” but neither practical or realistic (see eMate). I mean, computers are beige, right?

Steve Jobs comes along and sees Ive’s sketches of an aqua-puter or Gumdrop 3300. It’s weird. It’s like, all 90s teal but cool(?), looks like a bubble and SJ thinks it’s perfect. So it happened- or as they say on the Internet- So that happened.

Ford doesn’t have a Steve Jobs. Instead they have much of the same management structure and a bunch of excuses why this car, the 021C, can’t be built.

Let’s pretend though, that the team of designers behind this hauto* are still at Ford designing a mag-lev roadster for 2019. Let’s also pretend that this economic collapse is the Steve Jobs they needed, and that Ford, GM and that other one have at least one design ready to go.

Did I mention that the trunk slides out like a drawer? What about the suicide doors and swivel seats? Just slap a hybrid motor in this puppy and USAuto pays Barack back with interest.

Yes, concept cars are for the future but we are living in the future.

DISCLOSURE: I think Ford sucks. They make dull, crappy cars. Prove me wrong.

* hauto - yeah, I said it. hot+auto or haut+o or shut up.