Detroit Muscles Up Hold the obit! Motown finds some new life by reviving its monster hits of the motorway. By Keith Naughton Newsweek March 13, 2006 issue - GM chief designer Ed Welburn sweeps into his Chevrolet design studio and it's as if he were stepping back in time. On one side of the cavernous white room, designers huddle over a silver retro remake of the Chevy Camaro. A few steps away, stylists scurry around a future Chevy family car that ripples with sinewy muscles from a bygone era. Papering the walls of the studio are photos of classic iron from Detroit's halcyon postwar years—the chiseled '65 Chevy Impala, the jet-age '65 Ford Galaxie, the long-nosed '65 Plymouth Fury. Welburn slowly walks around the work-in-progress family car, inspecting the latest nips and tucks. Suddenly, he notices an 18-inch clay model on a table nearby that offers an alternative take on the car with a gull-winged rear end. "Oh, my God," the normally soft-spoken designer shouts. "That rear is unbelievable! It links all the way back to the late '50s." Full Article
You know, that sort of thing pisses me off. Leave the "classics" alone and think up some NEW stuff... A 4 door Charger sedan? UGGH. Please, somethings should just die in peace... :angry:
Apperantly, redemption sits right next to one's glory years just below the surface, covered in sand. I'm sure that if they bury their heads deep enough they'll find both. Or just one.
In a way, it's similar to Hollywood. When in doubt, get in the wayback machine and spit out another lame sequel or movie version of an old TV series. Truly original ideas die quickly in both cultures.
Its like plymouth had the retro P/T c ruiser then they went out of business the designer left and was hired by GM and now we have the HHR retro... Will it stop? I dont think so..
Some of the retro-cars I do like. They are more appreciated when they are built affordable so that everyone can enjoy them. The PT Cruiser is a good example. I remember 2 years ago when I went to an auto show in Orlando and spotted a retro 56 Chevrot Impala convertible. It was a beautiful car and the retro was done very well. It was even ready to drive. Wonder what happened to that idea? The down-side to the retro is that when the market saturated, it gets old pretty fast.
Bingo! Building retro vehicles is not a strategy that will turn the "big three" around. For the most part the retro vehicles are not high volume or high profit, and mostly serve to get the customer into the showroom. What's lacking is the car that most people would actually buy when they got to the showroom. Without addressing that issue first, Detroit is in for a long tough road.
For a minute there, I thought you were talking about the Chicago auto show and how all Detroit had to offer was more power. I mean, who's the moron that complained the Avalanche was underpowered and that Chevrolet needs to put 300hp under the hood?
