Where's the passion??

[mchastek]

I think what makes cars sell is PASSION. The consumer has to be absolutely in love with a car, and it'll sell like mad. In my opinion, cars have been lacking that passion for some time now. There are a few exceptions (the new mustang, the Nissan 350Z, etc), but overall, these new cars are not exciting, at least not to me.

Where has the passion in the auto industry gone??

[Viper 10]

The bean counters have driven the passion out of much of this industry. On top of this, the "Bling" crowd have kidnapped this industry, like meth has ruined the music industry.


Car makers are afraid to design cars that evoke emotional connections. The latest example of this is the 2006 Dodge Charger. No Charger was ever a 4-door configuration. I just spoke to Tom Gale at the meguiar's aawrds Show and he said that DC should have never nemed the current car the Charger. It is essentially a Magnum sedan. DC has completely disconnected the Charger name from its preformance legacy.

Another example is the hideous designs that are coming out of BMW. They have completely tossed their roots out of the window to chase a very Asian styling. What happened to their designs that trickled down from legendary cars like the 3.0 CSI. The previous generation 6 Series was a wonderful tribute to that heritage.

Another example of the guys at Dodge who newtered the Viper. It now looks like an oversized Honda S2000. There is a reason why Gen 1 & 2 Viper owners did not rush out and by this car... it was because they took the passion and emotion out of this car.

Shall I go down the list to cars like:
- Honda Element
- Toyota Scion
- Chevrolet's Corvette (which is a SRT-10 Viper with a Vette tail section)
- Ferrari's Enzo (which copies an Audi R8 Le Mans Prototype race car and ignores traditional Italian breeding)

If there are a few manufacturers that still lead the industry, I would have to include Audi, Lamborghini (which is heavily influenced by Audi), Infiniti and maybe even Mazda. Saturn's new convertible roadster is a nicely styled affordable car.


This industry needs to bring back designers like Tom Gale who developed amazing prototypes. IMO, people like J Mays and Ken Okuyama are diluting the designs of today... and the folks at Art Center design school are falling into their clutches.

Brad

[aaron kominsky]

sales peopl take the least path of resistance by skipping steps that lead to less profit more objections and less sales passion still is in the hearts of old timers that have the right attitude ambition and desire to make money

[Maxwedge]

you cannot cut your way to a great cars. A cheeply made car is only going to look cheep. Why do american cars get the bad image they have?????
I do find it interesting that BMW can "refine" a chassis for 20 years and get rants and raves about it...Fords Fox platform only got hacked on endlessly. Even why the Cobra mustang had a Independant rear and handled great, yet it was still hacked on...
Funny Bias the media has