Archive for January, 2012

With the Town Car gone and the Navigator far out of fashion, Lincoln has been struggling. If they’re to survive as a premium brand, they need a reason for people to buy their cars. At the show this year, they offered a couple.

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To some extent, Acura has never recovered from the advent of Lexus. They had a very good first few years with the Asian luxury brand space all to themselves, only to be consigned to the second tier by the larger, faster, quieter, smoother newcomer. But the real damage came later. First they dropped the popular Legend and Integra nameplates. Most recently they gifted all of their cars with an unattracive chrome bucktooth grille. I was far from alone in wondering if Acura had totally forgotten what they’re about. I went to total’s triple reveal looking for a signs of intelligent life.

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Lexus badly wants us to think of it as a “dynamic and exciting” brand. So their top executive gave a speech declaring how dynamic and exciting they are, and (entirely without a sense of irony) how the car he was introducing had left him speechless–every word obviously read off a teleprompter. In this speech on speechlessness, Lexus’s fear of increasing irrelevance was palpable. They’re desperate to change their image lest they become known as the last car you’ll ever buy.

The speech did accompany a concept of a sports car that’s likely to see production in some form, but in the usual Toyota way it was overdone. They badly wanted to make the car look exciting, but didn’t really feel it themselves. So, well, they’re not where they know they need to be yet.

…or die trying. Back when I was working on my Ph.D., the potential for more intensively involving consumers in the development of new products fascinated me. I saw potential to improve the lives of people on both sites of the equation, the creators of products and those who buy and use them. Perhaps they could even get to really know one another?

Since then, the Internet has come into being, and more recently all sorts of social media. The desire for community is increasingly recognized.

Well, Chevrolet claims to have more intensively studied Gen Y than anyone else. They learned that Gen Y wants a company that understands them and involves them. Chevrolet seems to be really trying to do both.

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I had to skip Dodge’s presentation. But our good friend and photographer Eric Merrill made it and got some pics. I then stopped by to check out the car after Chevrolet.

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So the new car introduction I was most looking forward to has come and gone. General reaction to the 2013 Ford Fusion is very positive. Me, not quite so much.

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So now that I’ve had a chance to sleep on it, what do I think of the Cadillac ATS? The styling still doesn’t seem to make a strong enough statement to force the car into the public’s awareness. Certainly good enough, but people aren’t going to see one and wonder, “What’s that car?!”

So the ATS is going to have to break through in some other way. So, as I decided yesterday, the car’s–and Cadillac’s–fate hinges on how well it actually handles. After sitting in the new 3-Series this morning, I can definitely state that I like the driving position in the Cadillac much better. The instrument panels seems much taller and more massive in the BMW. (Beyond this, the BMW’s interior, though upgraded over the E90, seems sterile compared to the Cadillac’s.) If the ATS also steers and handles as good as or even better than the BMW–and early reports suggest that the new 3 gives up ground n this area–then the ATS could eke out some comparison test wins.

Do this, and enthusiasts will start talking the car up. Can such word-of-mouth sell a significant number of cars? Perhaps we’re about to find out.

I’ve been looking forward to the Cadillac ATS ever since I learned it was being developed a few years ago. Okay, I looked forward to the less expensive Pontiac off the same new “Alpha” platform even more, but that one’s clearly not happening. I like compact cars more than larger ones. And rear-wheel-drive tends to make a car much more fun to drive. Cadillac was supposedly aiming at the BMW 3-Series with the CTS, but the CTS is much larger than the BMW. With the 2013 ATS, Cadillac will finally offer a rear-wheel-drive car that’s very close in size and weight to the 3.

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The rich are different than you and me. Or at least their cars are.

Normally I pay little attention to ultra-premium cars. The people I know well and the great majority of TrueDelta members aren’t likely to ever buy one. And TrueDelta is unlikely to ever have a large enough sample size of any of them. But I was invited to attend an NAIAS-related event featuring a broad selection of these cars, so I decided to check it out. Climb in and out of a few Astons, Lamborghinis, and Rolls Royces and it becomes apparent that the thinking behind these cars is fundamentally different than that behind your typical car.

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The U.S. government offered to give a further five percent of Chrysler to FIAT if the latter offered a U.S.-built car that achieved 40 MPG in the EPA’s tests. The skeptic in me figured that FIAT would lightly rework one of its cars, minimally tweak the styling to make it a Dodge, and call it a day. But have they? I’ll be attending the formal introduction tomorrow. But photos have already leaked, and they provide some clues.

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