Reactions did not wait after the first images of the SsangYong Rodius in 2004, and none were positive: what was that monstrosity?
Though immensely capable — it could carry up to 11 passengers — few managed to surpass the design of the massive Korean MPV. Were it for its giant front and rear optics, the inexplicable line of arched windows — style…coupé — this bulky vehicle owed nothing, even nothing, to beauty.
However, SsangYong Rodius met a second generation in 2012 that corrected many of the ills of the first, but could the first generation have come out with a more acceptable design?
Marouane, the designer of the YouTube channel The Sketch Monkey, accepted the challenge to “save” Rodius, and after the conclusion of his intervention, we have to admit that it was… acceptable.
The focus of his intervention was concentrated on the rear volume, where, with a simple operation — a horizontal flip of the two glazed areas on the last pillars — he completely altered the perception of the entire Rodius profile.
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If in the original Rodius, all the lines towards the rear assumed a downward trajectory, giving the perception that it was always circulating with excess load, by inverting the orientation of the lines in the glazed area, causing the lines that define it to shift in towards the ceiling, broke that perception.
The remaining changes — more structured contours and larger wheels — don't turn the SsangYong Rodius into a butterfly, but they definitely help Rodius to be better “settled” on the road, with the “weight” (visual) of the rear volume a look much better supported by the rear axle.
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