I’m trying my hand at car design for a contest at the Studebaker National Museum. They have an August 7 deadline for submissions for a Studebaker for the 21st century. My concept is for an Avanti Estate, essentially a shooting brake, with 2 doors and lots of cargo space in the rear. A sport coupe with room for golf bags and groceries. The side-profile above is a start, and I’m going to attempt a 3-D rendering using Google’s Sketch-Up.
The other day I saw a group of 2002 T-Birds cruising the highway and realized how their design could be a model for how smaller cars can be made to appeal to US consumers. Too often Detroit models itself after the Japanese, as evidenced in the new Camry-clone Chevy Malibu, seen at left. I think the Malibu is a handsome car, much better than the previous version, but is it distinctly Chevy?
Eric Felten wrote a recent column in the WSJ about the lack of American style in American cars these days. He writes:
One could argue that there’s a certain advantage to making bland and indistinguishable products when, like GM, you suffer from negative brand equity. And it certain is negative these days: Company executive Troy Clarke recently told the Washington Post about focus groups that had reacted positively to photos of the Chevy Malibu — that is, as long as the Chevy logo was obscured.
The other design route is to model cars off tanks and Humvees, with bulky, grotesque plastic trim, making many Dodge and Jeeps resemble armored bank vehicles. Now I’m waiting for the inevitable Detroit equivalent of the Honda Fit. But why not take a different tact and create something as cool as the T-Bird, add back seats, and sell it as a sleek, efficient American car. A Reliant K for a new generation.
I made this “Ride Pimper” toy for MTV.com back in 2004 for the premiere of “Pimp My Ride”. You can choose from 3 types of cars, then modify with paint and parts. It was popular at the time, but hasn’t aged well if you believe recent comments.
Related: Although this cheeky ad purports to show the damages inflicted to a “Mom” vehicle, the only difference this dad sees with his car is that he wouldn’t be caught dead with a 6-pack of Zima in the trunk.
Sociological Images unearths an old VW ad that features the 1950s manufactured conflict between man and wife over what car to buy with the husband’s money. Similar to the hen-pecked husband in this Volvo ad from the same era, the man in the photo above (who looks like he’s about to be castrated beheaded) desires the car that’s advertised. But his wife is reluctant, even hostile to the idea of driving it, so the husband must do the job of the car salesman in convincing his wife to allow him to buy the car he wants, even though he won’t be driving it.
“It looks like a bus.”
“I wouldn’t be caught dead in it.”
Do these sound familiar? Your wife is not alone. It is hard to convince some women what sense the VW Station Wagon makes.
Although the wife’s assumed place in the family is taxi and delivery driver, the ad implies that since she’s a woman she must be too dumb to understand the utility of a van. She only cares about how it looks.
According to the ad her duties include carting groceries, baby carriages, antique chests, tree saplings, Boy Scouts and camping supplies, all while enduring “bumper to bumper traffic on hot days.” Can’t she pick her own damn car? She’ll be picking up hubby’s dry-cleaning too, I’m sure. Dude, give your slave a break.
The kicker is the final statement, which, if there was any confusion, really puts the woman in her place:
“If these facts don’t convince her, tell her it’s only $2655 and you aren’t made of money.”
In other words, it’s really not a mutual decision with the husband making a convincing argument. He’s gonna buy her the cheap death-trap and she better get used to it.
Nowadays we know that car companies conduct focus groups with and conduct marketing campaigns for women specifically. In fact, Volvo recently created a concept car designed by and for women. “YCC”, or “Your Concept Car” included such innovations as a redesigned headrest to accomodate pony-tails and interior decor that can be swapped out depending on the season. Oh, how far we’ve come.
I learned the hard way not to rely on the car’s jack to hold the brick up in the air. I needed to tighten the right rear shock and figured it wouldn’t be a problem to just leave it on the jack since I wasn’t going under the car. The combination of no parking brake, no wheel wedge, and banging on the wrench sent the car teetering forward, bending the jack and gently settling down on the brake rotor. Great.
I grabbed a couple of stands and slowly jacked the car up, notch by notch. Lesson learned.
Two days after their article on the dangers of cell phone use while driving, the NY Times has an article outlining how the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had studied the effects of phone use by drivers, only to bury the findings for fear of angering Congress.
The former head of the highway safety agency said he was urged to withhold the research to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who had warned the agency to stick to its mission of gathering safety data but not to lobby states.
Critics say that rationale and the failure of the Transportation Department, which oversees the highway agency, to more vigorously pursue distracted driving has cost lives and allowed to blossom a culture of behind-the-wheel multitasking.
The NY Times has an article today about states legislating cell phone usage and texting while driving. It includes an interactive piece that demonstrates your level of distraction while texting. It’s a cool little piece, but I think it doesn’t demonstrate real-world scenarios and may be deceptive. The lane change decisions you have to make are steady, constant and rhythmic, rather than random and directed by the driver. Very often a driver can cruise in a lane for a while before needing to change lanes, but the game has changes every 5 seconds. Also, the texting doesn’t demonstrate how you might react to a real message. When asked to choose a pie from a list of options, I typed “peecan”. The message came back saying it didn’t understand and I needed to write it again. Would a human being really not understand that I’d like pecan pie, rather than apple?
It does demonstrate, however, that multitasking doesn’t work. Interacting with both the road and the cell-phone, you feel the stress of bouncing from one to the other. At times I just gave up on the road so I could type and spell correctly. I may have blown through a few toll-booth gates, but at least I knew I’d be getting ice cream on my pie, rather than whipped.
For the younger generation of multitaskers, the great electronic din is an expected part of everyday life. And given what neuroscience and anecdotal evidence have shown us, this state of constant intentional self-distraction could well be of profound detriment to individual and cultural well-being. When people do their work only in the “interstices of their mind-wandering,” with crumbs of attention rationed out among many competing tasks, their culture may gain in information, but it will surely weaken in wisdom.
The Truth About Cars lays waste to the 2010 Outback, claiming it’s moved from being a cool off-road wagon into a cookie-cutter CUV. The last redesign was in 2005 and looked handsome and relatively sleek; not quite as sexy as the Legacy Wagon but still cool. Now it just looks chunky and clunky. Let’s hear what TTAC has to say:
Towering more than four inches higher than its predecessor, spanning two inches more across the beam, standing another awkward inch higher off its tires, the new Outback looks—IS huge. The super-chunk roof rails are grossly exaggerated (until you discover the trick design that allows the crossbars to disconnect and swing 90 degrees to find residence integrated in the longitudinal rails). The rear quarter view screams “Venza!”—which is like shouting “movie” in a crowded firehouse. Curiously, there wasn’t a Tribeca on the showroom floor. Cannibalism avoidance? Either that or the former “flying vagina” was hidden by the swollen Outback.
…
The Outback’s ergonomics couldn’t be further from Audi’s if they were designed by Daewoo. Every button on the Outback’s dash now requires reading glasses, a precise finger, and a map. Twin Big Gulps and a swollen armrest bin take precedence over the handbrake, which has been demoted to a tiny button buried left of the steering column amidst a myriad of other tiny, illegible, and obstructed switches for stability control, external mirrors, trunk release, and a bunch of curious blanks. To compensate, the twin steering column stalks are chunkier. Thanks. So much.
The Ghostbusters wagonhearse ambulance was for sale yesterday on eBay. Final bid was $45,100, which didn’t reach the reserve for this 1959 Caddy. So you’ll have a chance next time.
The other day I saw a group of 2002 T-Birds cruising the highway and realized how their design could be a model for how smaller cars can be made to appeal to US consumers. Too often Detroit models itself after the Japanese, as evidenced in the new Camry-clone Chevy Malibu, seen at left. I think the Malibu is a handsome car, much better than the previous version, but is it distinctly Chevy?
I learned the hard way not to rely on the car’s jack to hold the brick up in the air. I needed to tighten the right rear shock and figured it wouldn’t be a problem to just leave it on the jack since I wasn’t going under the car. The combination of no parking brake, no wheel wedge, and banging on the wrench sent the car teetering forward, bending the jack and gently settling down on the brake rotor. Great.
