From here.
Originally Posted by
Ferrer
Yet they insist on retro muscle cars.
I remember reading somewhere that one of the spokespeople for one of the Big Three said that in the next few years their focus will finally begin to shift from the Baby Boomers to whatever it is that we're called and will start making cars accordingly. I think the next generation of Mustang has been confirmed to be styled for the 21st century, which is nice. I hope the Camaro changes as well. The Challenger is probably the most faithful to muscle cars of old: great sound, overweight, and ill-handling and therefore needn't change to stay acceptable but badly needs to change to stay competitive.
And then there's the Cadillac Ciel...
The Ciel and Sixteen are both excellent but that doesn't seem to be the direction the Cadillac wants to take.
Lincoln, too, is lost in the wilderness. Cadillac at least has released those few concepts in the last decade and has shown that, at a minimum, a small cell of its engineers and designers remember that they're designing Cadillacs. Lincoln has shown no such signs.
In a world where people will pay $65,000 for a Tahoe with chrome wheels and disturbingly-absent merlettes where the bowtie or GM badge should be, why shouldn't people pay $70,000-$80,000 or so for a range-topping proper Caddy, ducks and all?
Put a big engine in it, don't make it sporty, and make it as opulent while still reigning things in for the sake of taste.
Europeanness is overrated.
The grass is always greener.
I am reminded of the USDM subculture in Japan. They slavishly replace clear turn signals with amber, get license-plate surrounds from Californian car dealers, and try to get trim from American-market cars on their Japanese vehicles. Funnily enough, those items are the ones American JDM enthusiasts desire least.
It is also funny because JDM fads become USDM fads become slightly different JDM fads ad infinitum as each side of the Pacific copies the other.
Similarly, America apes Europe by pretending that basic sedans are sporty, and Europe imitates America by increasing new model's size by 999,999,999% each model cycle and letting GM mismanage and axe storied marques.
This is why I think, in theory, a world car is so promising: take all the best parts of car cultures around the world and incorporate it into one car. Unforunatley, those good parts are either mutually-exclusive or expensive and world cars are stuck in an indifferent place between best-of-all-worlds and worst-of-all-worlds.
Last edited by f6fhellcat13; 08-02-2012 at 04:29 PM.
"Kimi, can you improve on your [race] finish?"
"No. My Finnish is fine; I am from Finland. Do you have any water?"