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#Post#: 5037--------------------------------------------------
New Automobiles
By: Mac Date: January 10, 2012, 11:46 am
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Love looking at the what the automakers are dreaming up. While
mostly concept cars, many design ideas flow down. Word is bells
and whistles are what attracting the car buyers today. I would
tend to agree with that. First it has to be style. I would avoid
at all costs getting into a piece of crap design. In my mind,
that is just one reason Toyota and Honda sales have fallen in
the double digits. They have absolutely no style.
From the Autoshow this week...
I do not understand Dodge's decision to bring back the Dart.
Despite it having nothing to do with the past, the name alone I
think brings sour memories. With car names so very important,
Dart does not sound like a sound business decision.
#Post#: 5038--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Automobiles
By: Chiprocks1 Date: January 10, 2012, 11:56 am
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I love the design of the BMW personally, but I can't see most
consumers or long time lovers of the car liking it all that
much. The Lexus is awesome.
#Post#: 5039--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Automobiles
By: Chiprocks1 Date: January 10, 2012, 11:57 am
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It's hard to tell just what the Dart looks like with the
overhead red lights kind of masking the car itself.
#Post#: 5040--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Automobiles
By: Mac Date: January 10, 2012, 12:09 pm
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HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N7bqnAEPz8
#Post#: 5058--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Automobiles
By: Umainebearman Date: January 11, 2012, 5:10 pm
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Something about that grill is just not right.
#Post#: 5063--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Automobiles
By: Chiprocks1 Date: January 11, 2012, 5:58 pm
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[quote author=Umainebearman link=topic=628.msg5058#msg5058
date=1326323458]
Something about that grill is just not right.
[/quote]
Would you prefer something more along these lines......
#Post#: 5065--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Automobiles
By: Mac Date: January 11, 2012, 6:04 pm
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[quote]Something about that grill is just not right.[/quote]
Not impressed by it.
Oh well... next!
#Post#: 5095--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Automobiles
By: Mac Date: January 13, 2012, 1:15 pm
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I meant to continue on and not just blame the lack of design as
why some companies are failing miserably. The core would be the
quality is failing and the consumers see it, if not worse, feel
it. Toyota and Honda for example, have decided striving to be
No. 1, directed their focus from quality and are paying for it
big time.
For the longest time I felt the big 3 in Detroit, never listened
to the customers and made what they thought we wanted. Let’s see
if that will change.
But back to styling. Ran across this article which IMO, gets at
what I was trying to say. I love design in a car. It’s always
mattered to me. With my recent car shopping, design is key. In
fact it made whittling out cars easy. I finally did come down to
the Hyundai Sonata or Optima (for design and MPG), the Infiniti,
and the Sports Altima. Finally picking the Altima for best for
me, in design and finance. Since it was the first year for the
Hyundai, I thought I’d step back to see what happens over the
next few years. If they continue, Hyundai will remain at the top
of me list to keep an eye on. But if money does not become an
issue again, Audi has firmly rooted its soul into me.
[quote][glow=red,2,300]Automakers again driven by good
design[/glow]
By Paul A. Eisenstein, msnbc.com contributor
Hyundai pulled off a coup earlier this week, besting such tough
competitors as the 2012 Ford Focus and Volkswagen’s newly
updated Passat to win the North American Car of the Year award.
While there were plenty of reasons behind the win by the new
Hyundai Elantra, including a 40 mpg highway fuel economy rating,
the car’s design “played a big part,” suggested John Krafcik,
CEO of Hyundai Motor America. Krafcik’s sentiments were
confirmed by various members of the 50-juror panel that judges
the award (a panel that, in the interest of full disclosure,
includes this reporter).
In today’s hotly competitive automotive market, fuel economy has
leapt to the top of the charts when it comes to factors that
influence buyer decisions. But good design is also high on the
chart and, according to research groups like J.D. Power and
Associates, it may actually be more significant than it has been
in years.
Good design is being credited with helping carmakers as diverse
as Ford, Audi and Hyundai gain ground in an industry that’s just
recovering from one of its worst recessions in decades.
“It’s the difference between a short-order cook and a great
chef,” said Freeman Thomas, the head of advanced design for
Ford.
Ford learned the hard way the role that design can play. Founder
Henry Ford stubbornly kept the original Model T unchanged until
well into the 1920s, two decades after it was launched, famously
declaring customers could get the Tin Lizzie “in any color they
want, as long as it’s black.”
Alfred P. Sloan, the determined new chairman of fast-growing
General Motors saw an opportunity and offered an array of
colors. He also hired Harley Earl, a coachbuilder by trade, to
become GM -- and the industry’s -- first director of design,
heading up what was originally known as GM’s “Art and Color
Section.”
Earl introduced the idea of using sculpted clay models to
develop and refine automotive designs and, in 1939, his renamed
“Styling Division” rolled out the first true concept car, the
Buick Y-Job, which was intended to both tease the public with a
variety of advanced ideas -- such as a motorized convertible
roof -- but also test the reaction of potential buyers to the
Y-Job’s advanced styling.
That strategy continues today. A variety of concept cars, trucks
and crossovers are now on display at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show,
including a prototype of the reborn Acura NSX, which will return
to production in 2014, as well as a thinly-disguised version of
the next-generation Honda Accord Coupe that’s due to roll into
showrooms later this year.
The Accord targets the huge midsize passenger car segment, which
generated more than 2 million unit sales last year. In decades
past, buyers in the segment were “happy with plain vanilla”
designs, according to Joe Phillippi, director of AutoTrends
Consulting. “Not any longer.”
Toyota, long the gold standard of the midsize segment, took
sharp criticism this year for its redesign of the 2012 Camry. In
fact, dealers who saw the sedan 18 months ahead of launch were
so critical that the automaker struggled to tweak the styling
before launch, though analysts and auto critics say it still
lags behind cars from competitors such as Ford.
The U.S. carmaker recently introduced an all-new version of its
Fusion sedan, which will go up against the Camry when it comes
to market later this year. The Fusion has already won a
significant endorsement of its own, honored as the Eyes on
Design Production Design at the Detroit show by a panel of two
dozen automotive stylists.
Design alone is a key reason why Rebecca Lindland, research
chief for IHS Automotive, expects Camry sales to be flat in 2012
-- despite the carmaker only now ramping up production after
last year’s quake-and-tsunami-related shortages. On the other
hand, she is betting that design “could help the Fusion become
the best-seller” in the midsize segment.
Coming up with a winning design isn’t always easy. Stylists have
to work around the basic “architecture,” or platform of a
vehicle, which may severely restrict where they can place a
windshield, or “A pillar” -- the first pillar in the passenger
compartment, which usually surrounds the windscreen.
Upscale sedans, electric vehicles and old-school muscle cars
make their debuts at the 2012 North American International Auto
show.
And aerodynamics have become an essential element in the
development of new products, with even the slightest detail able
to have a measurable impact on what is known as the co-efficient
of drag -- which ultimately translates into fuel economy. Wind
tunnel testing has become a critical test for every new car
design.
So, today, any good designer “has aerodynamic solutions in mind”
the moment he or she begins work on a new project, according to
veteran GM designer John Cafaro. The good news is that, by using
digital design tools, he, his colleagues and competitors can
find a surprising number of ways to free up their designs while
still delivering good aerodynamics.
The battle for design leadership may be most apparent on the
flood of an auto show, but some of the nastiest skirmishes are
taking place behind the scenes. Manufacturers are, with
increasing regularity, raiding each other’s studios for talent.
Kia, which has been building a reputation for strikingly simple
bends of sheet metal, kick-started its styling program several
years ago by hiring away Audi’s Peter Schreyer, recently named
Man of the Year by Automobile Magazine.
Then, just a few weeks ago, Kia’s sibling Hyundai brand nabbed
BMW’s Chris Chapman, who will now have to take the Korean
carmaker beyond the breakthrough look it introduced with the
Elantra and earlier Sonata sedan.
As designers are all too well aware, you’re only as good as your
latest design. And the leader today could be a laggard
tomorrow.[/quote]
#Post#: 5595--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Automobiles
By: Mac Date: February 2, 2012, 11:58 am
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[glow=red,2,300]Acura NSX[/glow] - Suf - f ucking - sweet
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0PIBT7KmOk
#Post#: 5598--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Automobiles
By: Chiprocks1 Date: February 2, 2012, 12:18 pm
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No sh*t!!! Damn!
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