Design Notebook has a piece up on the Cube, the Scion competitor that might be Nissan's most internationally-designed car ever, coming from a design team spread across three continents. The quirky car features design touches absolutely unseen in other cars, like a ceiling designed to reflect a pebble dropped in water, and bungy cords on the armrests to hold "driving mascots" (stuffed animals). I reflexively deemed the latter silly, until I thought about how many females I know that actually do drive around with such things.

Then there's that boxy, assymetrical shape:

"It looks as if it's going fast even when it's standing still," is the cliched compliment auto designers like to hear. But Nissan's design director, Shiro Nakamura, jokes that the Cube looks as if it's standing still even when it is going fast.

..."The Cube is the least carlike of cars," Mr. Nakamura said. "It is more product design than automobile design." No wonder he likens the rear door to the one on a refrigerator.

Mr. Nakamura presents the Cube as a kind of value proposition: lots of space with a small footprint. It is like a studio apartment with a cathedral ceiling.

The Cube's official website is here. Read more about the design of the car, including Pratt Institute's ID Department's involvement in a Cube project, here.