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0 pointsultimafan1y ago0 comments

Wow, the lack of a hood is baffling, was that actually a conscious design decision or an urban legend?

Because in the case of the former I find it unbelievable that no one on the team, or even at Volvo that dropped by to see how the project is coming along (I assume they weren't shipped off to some isolated island to complete their work in complete secrecy) didn't say something. The first question at least 80% of people I know would have when looking over a car to buy for the first time is, "Can you pop the hood?" Not to mention getting at the engine to adjust or replace consumables like belts, fluids, plugs or even minor repairs.

I'm far more willing to believe this is just a small detail that simplified the production process for a one off prototype than that anyone thought this was actually a good idea.

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throwaway484761y ago

The idea was that self service would be unneeded because you would take it to the service center when it told you to.

The BMW i8 also had a hood that could only be removed by 4 service techs and it went into production.

ultimafanOP1y ago

If the i8 suffers from a similar problem (I'm not familiar with the design of that car) that's equally baffling to me on BMW's part.

A car telling someone not willing to maintain it itself that it's time to take it to a service center is fine and all and probably would avoid a lot of headaches for people that aren't mechanically inclined. But a design that encourages tacking on labor charges or being unable to give your car a quick look over yourself seems awful.

Aloisius1y ago

Right because the BMW i8's engine is mounted in front of the rear axle. You access it through the trunk, not the hood.

That said, this is a concept car. It doesn't have to be practical.

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