Our brains are wired to process what our eyes see in far more ways than we usually realise. We’ve evolved to expect things to look certain ways, and when things deviate too much from what’s expected in some key criteria, it leaves us feeling unsettled, like the famous ‘double face’ illusion. I think something similar is going on with the Farizon FX, a sort-of pickup truck version of the Geely Boyue Pro SUV. I mean, just look at it. It’s a little disturbing, right?
Conceptually, I get it, and I kind of love it. It’s got seating for four or five and an enclosed cargo area and a short but usable rear bed? What’s not to like? Plus, it seems to have a mid-gate as well, which of course is an avalanche of utility.
But the look. Somehow, it actually hurts.
First, all of the design of the D-pillar there and the roofline and everything are what we expect at the rear of a car, not the back of a truck cab, and it’s hard to wrap your occipital lobe around that. I mean, I know why it looks like that — because all these body panels are right from the SUV version:
And, sure, I admire Geely’s resourcefulness here, but you can’t just design the end of a car and then think, what the hell, let’s keep going, after the fact. I mean, you can, but this is what you get.
Then there’s the scale of the truck bed. Sure, it’s short, but it’s so tall and chunky that it all feels like it’s from a different car. It’d be like if you lost a foot in an accident, and the doctors grafted on a Sasquatch foot in its place.
Sure, it may work, but it’s always going to be so huge compared to the rest of you.
There’s really no angle where this works. From the side it’s wince-inducing, from the rear it’s just kind of confusing, and from a front three-quarter view it sort of looks like an SUV with an extraordinarily full diaper.
The wood bed floor is nice, though, and I’m sure it’s useful. Also, if you own one, you can be sure that while you’re driving it, you don’t have to actually look at it, so that’s a plus, too.
(thanks Car Industry Analysis for reminding me of this thing!)