Who's idea was it to put the bigger strakes on the 5th Generation Grand Am's bumpers and doors? I really wanted one of those as a teen and probably would have gotten a 4th or 5th Gen had I not moved to Europe in 1998. All the best, Andrew. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Oh,oh...........you got me! I was the Chief Designer on those cars. Wayyyy overdone. Long story, but Sr Mgt wanted STRONG Brand identification, so the ribs grew to exessive proportions.The team wasn't happy, but it made the customer happy. I used to say that 'some day' there would be tribunals for 'styling crimes against the automobile' That day has arrived. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Interesting C pillar and backlight in your sketch. Likely made the glass guys go apoplectic. Were you part of the Rageous show car series? Dark days. Jeff
So this is the only asymmetrical part of the body (except for the rocker/exhaust areas), it looks like.
When I was in High School I LOVED the entire Pontiac design language. The 85 Grand Am was something I lusted after Were you involved back then ?
That was just before I got sent to Pontiac. I got there in '87, and didn't leave till '02. 1st project was the '92 Grand Am. We worked hard and played harder. Dodge wanted to be like Pontiac..........they finally made it happen.
Interesting behind the scenes perspective - thanks! So, I don't remember. what other models had the ribbing to reinforce brand identification? BTW, weren't the bean counters put off by the cost of all that add-on plastic cladding? Did the other divisions' versions use cladding too?
I really liked them. The 5th Generation in particular looked great. Apparently I was one of those in the public that liked way overdone. lol The tribunal rules that... no crime was committed! His Honor NeuroBeaker presiding, Andrew.
Every time we asked our customers, they said they 'wanted to be seen' in their cars. They loved the complexity of Pontiac's Design language. I rode with customers while they drove and talked about why they purchased what they did. To a fault, they wanted what Pontiac was serving up, like it or not.
those were the days when there was sharing doors between divisions. The cladding was a means of product differentiation. Some cars used it too much, but others we tried to be more subtle. Interestingly, the customers loved it for the bodyside protection & the 'look'. Look at the new Citroen with it's plastic bubbles on the bodyside. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Very popular designs, but the auto magazines used to make fun of the Pontiac cladding all the time. In the same breath they would worship any turd that came from Japan. Strange how advertising in their magazines seemed to steer their overall impressions To this day I pretty much ignore anything any of them have to say.
for the most part the popular automotive press hated what Pontiac was doing. we sold over 200K Grand Am's a yr for many yrs no one liked the fact that the customers were mostly hard working blue collar types rather than hip Starbucks swilling Yuppies. Whatever. I never heard one sentence of criticism over how Mercedes used plastic cladding on their lower bodysides. Different standards I guess. And now that Citroen are using it as protection, everyone is fawning over it. Go figure. We tried to integrate the ribs into a meaningful bodyside mold to get rid of cladding, but it was too little, too late Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Advertising - The known biggest whore was MoTrend (also known as the land of the living dead). Epic stories about Car of the Year being bought by annual advertising commitments. Also the story of how Bob Petersen went off when he found out that the first Import Car of the Year went to the Citroen SM; a company that did no advertising in the US. Even in recent times the magazines fawn over German. Remember how Chrysler reworked some MB. The MB was spectacular but when it became a ChryCo it was regarded as crap. Maybe the most recent whoring is the Alfa Guilia. Remember that the publisher is from the sales/financial side and is over the editorial side of the publication. Jeff
GM's use of cladding was a solution to the corporation not buying tooling for unique sheetmetal. This at least allowed a lot more design distinction between the divisions.
Yep, and after seeing the Alfa Super Bowl ads we know why....SM was like a drunk sailor looking to spend big bucks on advertising for the Alfa. To bad he doesn't spend more on the dealer network as that will ultimately send them and FIAT brand cars back to Italy unfortunately.(or maybe they survive as just small Maserati/Alfa dealers with much smaller goals).
How about spending on finishing the product development. Apparently SM is having troubles with the Fiat dealers. Especially when they were promised Alfa as part of the deal for the franchise but then told Alfa would be a separate franchise. Of course that also plays into how many years ago was there supposed to be an Alfa product line in their stores. To some degree blame the dealers for believing the smoke and mirrors SM proclamations by SM that Alfa would be at Audi sales numbers in 5 years. Read Peter DeL's website for more insight. Stories of management exodus from Auburn Hills as people are uncomfortable about the FCA future.
Are you talking about the Grand Cherokee, Chrysler 300, Crossfire and that wagon thing that was both C and MB with different grilles? Everything I read, especially about the 300 and Grand were very upbeat, but I stopped looking at MT when I was in a barbershop as a teen.
Very true but some of the FIAT dealers could not fix a FIAT, so send them an Alfa??? They are not equipped, although the also Maserati and Alfa with FIAT dealers are a lot better. They will dump FIAT brands in the US soon, and realize their Alfa goals are a pipe dream. Maybe we will end up with Maserati Alfa dealers in the long run as the market for SUV's will save them both in the North American market...Sorry to go off topic.....Back to car design.
