Clearly someone really thought about the design of this thing. It fits perfectly and easily (at least in our small SUV-ish station wagon) and does its job. It lays pretty flat, so it's somehow not *that noticeable either. Our short corgi uses the front panel as a headrest. It effectively keeps him from coming forward (except when VERY excited). And he's no longer worried about falling forward into the (human) foot room.
The new model looks like it fixes the only complaints I'd have about the old model (well, really that our dog would have) by adding the mesh window in the middle. (In our car, the old model blocks the center backwards-facing AC/fan vent built into the arm rest, which our dog really appreciates in hot weather. Also, he doesn't love not being able to see forward anymore.)