Blind Loyalty

I've been giving some thought to my loyalties since starting this new job early last month. At the ad agency, my only client was Ford. I'd never been the biggest fan of domestic cars, but I also happen to be the kind of person who develops loyalties quite easily. As soon as I started there, my perspective changed, and I began to root for Ford hard core. I also started to drink the Kool Aid, giving FoMoCo the benefit of the doubt in terms of product quality and appeal. Most people would do this at least to some extent, so I guess it's nothing unique. But I probably lost perspective a bit too much.

I also gained an unnatural hatred for certain competitive products. Mind you, it wasn't out of control. I still appreciated that the Corvette was one of the best performance values on the market, for example. But I would write off vehicles like the new Challenger and Camaro, thinking that they'd never be as cool as the Mustang.

I must say, it's quite a load off to not feel constrained in this way anymore. In my new position, I do projects for nearly every OEM, so there's not much chance of an unwarranted bias. I'm free to love and hate vehicles with utter abandon.

Interestingly enough, I also don't feel quite the disappointment anymore about the sale of Aston Martin. I thought of it as the crown jewel in the Ford empire, and I was sad to see it go. I felt like I was losing my personal connection with the brand. But no longer do I think of it as my losing Aston. The brand and its heritage are the property of the car enthusiast world in my eyes, and it can be as much a part of me as it ever was.

The sweetest color combo...EVER

For years I've been futilely attempting to convince friends to buy silver cars with red leather interiors. Sure, silver is popular, but they obviously balk at the red leather part. This combo isn't available in most cars, but many roadsters do offer a red leather option. The car I hope to own eventually is a Porsche 356 with just such a color scheme. Here's a model of said car (it's the best pic I can find of the car).

It clearly looks awesome, but I understand that it's a difficult plunge to take. The interior color of your car is something you have to live with every day. This post is, I guess, an effort to spread the gospel of this color combo. The way I see it, the more silver roadsters with red leather there are in the world, the more beautiful a place it will be. To that effect, here are some more great looking cars.

So now that it's completely clear that I'm right about this, do the world a favor and go out and buy a silver convertible with red leather. Just don't get a 356. I don't want you having the same car as me!

A Designer's Brain Fart

Well, I've got some down time from work, so I thought I'd add more uninformed opinion to the blogosphere. I was just looking at some shots of the new 9-3 SportCombi, and it was a big relief to see that Saab has spared this car the indignity suffered by the 9-5 with its latest rework. It baffles my mind how car companies can put something on the road that is so flat-out ugly. Sales of the 9-5 have been on the outs since the intro of the redone svelte, attractive and spacious 9-3. So it's only natural that GM would try to reinvigorate the model with the slick rework.
Well, this was not the way to do it. I don't think there's much I need to say about this design, though maybe I'll just add the thought that it's trying WAY too hard, and that if you haven't seen it, believe me, it's even less attractive in person. And take a gander at the rear end. Nowhere in this part of the design is there anything that might be called "coherence".

It's true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And I guess maybe I should ask one of the 243 Americans who bought one in April.

The Teeming Masses

Trying to do a bit a recon for a consulting project I'm working on, I decided to pick my roommate's brain a bit. "What comes to mind when you think of Acura?" I asked.

Blank stare.

"Okay, what models do you think of for Acura?"

"Um, they have that RSX, right?" (It's actually been dropped.)

"Anything else?"

"I think they had a really expensive sports car; it was pretty cool lookin'."

"The NSX, right. Have you heard of the Legend?"

"Um..."

"How 'bout the Integra, [our friend] Kim's car?"

"Oh, right, yeah, I guess that's an Acura, too."

"Ever heard of the RL, TL, TSX?"

More blank stares.

Okay, so every once in a while, I need to be grounded, realizing that most people--even my roommate, who actually has a semi-interest in cars--have no idea what the hell is out there. I have to be reminded that to others, Acura's current lineup is as familiar as the current lineup of Steve Maddens is to me.

Okay, I actually really hope this is complete hyperbole, since cars tend to be more conspicuous than shoes. But the point is there. It's good to talk to people who don't share my interest in cars. It's also nice to have friends who, though they may not have much knowledge of the car market, always at least seem to be interested in what I have to say about it.

That is all.

New York Daily Snooze

Okay, so I went to the press days at the New York show over two weeks ago, but I haven't posted my thoughts about the show thus far. The reason: I had no thoughts. This year's New York show, to me, was a snooze. I could basically count the all-new intros on one hand, and three of them were the micro concepts from Chevy, of which only one will emerge. The Infiniti EX concept was impressive, and the Hyundai Genesis (above) was a stunner (aside from the front end that looks like a Camry from some angles). The Ford Shelby GT500KR was bad-ass, the Ford Flex (below) is "polarizing" and the new Subaru Impreza was a disappointing Mazda3 knock-off. Aside from that we got to see some new grilles from Buick. Whoopdee-friggin-doo.

With the Javits Center expansion, New York will grow in size. But this year the show seemed to make a major leap back in relevance. Ugh, I hate swallowing my New York pride.

The New Hotness

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but I was gettin' my travel on. I stopped by New York for the auto show, and then flew out to Cali for my new job. It's been a whirlwind two weeks, but I'm ready to reinsert my two cents into the blogging world.

My thoughts today center on a really great phenomenon I see occurring. For years, US car enthusiasts had every right to complain that the coolest cars were not making their way to the US market. It seemed everyone else had access to kick-ass Evos and Skylines, Alfas and TVRs, while American consumers had to make due with magazine photos.

Well, the tide has begun to turn. It started, if memory serves me correctly, with the Evo in 2003. Soon we'll be getting the Nissan GT-R, successor to the Skyline GT-R that we've been missing out on for so long.

But high-performance sports cars are not the only category to finally cross the ocean. Over in Europe, they've been making bad-ass small cars for years, whereas the US consumer equated size with price, and turned his nose up at small entries from luxury marques, such as the BMW 318ti and the Mercedes C Coupe. Well, things have changed--gas prices, the passing SUV craze, etc.--and Americans have decided that small can be good. Certainly much credit must go to the Mini Cooper (thank you Italian Job), and sure enough Audi saw the opportunity and slid the new A3 right into the bottom of its deck. Now the word is that the restyled C Coupe will be arriving in the US next year. BMW is bringing over the 1-Series, Volvo the C30...I can hardly contain myself! We'll even be getting the Smart ForTwo for those who want an uber-small Euro car.

So what's my point? For years US car nuts were denied some of the coolest road burners because there was no market for them here. (To be sure, the rest of the world missed out on much of the SUV explosion, but I didn't hear much complaining coming from Europe or Japan.) But US consumers have gotten--if I may say so--much cooler. Okay, maybe that's not really true. Maybe they've just gotten more sensitive to fuel economy. But the US car market is getting cooler.

Further to the point of the demise of the size = price equation, it took years for the small luxury SUV market to develop here. Until recently the only entries were the crappy, overpriced Land Rover Freelander and the cool, overpriced BMW X3. But now that segment is about to explode, with pretty much every luxury make about to intro its own.

It's about time that the American consumer woke up and smelled the "petrol". Now, how much longer do I have to wait for some kick-ass diesels?

Styling 101

Okay, I seem to be posting a lot lately about styling and some automakers' lack of creativity with their new models. Subaru has been featured in the last two posts, the latter declaring that they seemed to have ripped off some Mazda mojo. Well, the fact is, Subaru landed itself in a bit of a styling crisis with its new winged design theme. This is no secret. Now the company has realized the error of its ways, and is bringing its styling dept back down to planet earth. Problem is, they've plunged back down too fast, and seem to have burned up upon reentry. Subaru had some solid bright spots in styling, most notably in my mind the current Legacy (above).

But now panic has set in, and the home office seems to be directing the design squad to be as bland and conservative as possible. Case in point the new Tribeca ("B9" is history). When I saw it, it just rubbed me the wrong way. Not to say it's not an improvement--my god, the B9 was a train wreck. But this new effort seems a bit...Magoo. Autoblog pointed out some Pacifica and Touareg influence, but I'm thinking next-gen Chrysler Town & Country, complete with winged badge crowning the grille. The Tribeca is a great vehicle, with an interior unparalleled in its class. But with styling like this, how will it possibly stand out in the sea of CUVs hitting the market?