car design thread

Everyone is aware of the problem..........,not one wants to do anything about it apparently.
https://www.autoblog.com/features/car-designers-have-forgotten-the-art-of-restraint

 

Of course, why not?

 

And chapter 24 just landed.
https://driventowrite.com/2025/11/11/never-a-dull-moment-john-manoogian-design-memories-part-24/#more-135830

Never A Dull Moment — Part 24


Random thoughts from the 1990s.

The Draw Car computer key found on everyone’s keyboard
The decade of the 1990s would prove to be as tumultuous as the previous ones had been. Automotive design would evolve and transition from the analog to the digital era. It would be like reinventing everything we had learned or thought we knew about the design process. Pencils, paper, along with markers and chalk, would be replaced by computer software. The analog design era from 1930 – 2000 would be coming to an end.

On a personal level, I embraced to transition to the digital methods because I believed it would allow us to spend more time on the creative design portion of the process. A faster more efficient method of bringing our vehicles to market was one of our goals. But I was not able to learn the digital process due to spending my valuable time managing the studio. I regret not forcing myself to learn the use of the new tools like Alias and Photoshop, as everything I had learned and perfected with pencil, paper, chalk and markers became obsolete. And while today in some studios, they are still used, the analog techniques have faded away in favor of the computer and all its design programs. Progress.

There is something unique and tactile in the exercise of putting pencil to paper and creating a sketch with markers and chalk. The same output can now be created with keystrokes on the computer, with the ability to simply hit delete and make subsequent changes. Will the designs become better? More creative? Time will tell.

With the advent of the digital processes, now designers around the globe can, in real time, see what designers halfway around the world are doing. Where we used to have to wait a month or two to see what everyone else was doing with design through print magazines, suddenly, the computer allowed access instantaneously. Automotive Design has been democratized and now anyone with a computer can design a car, or so they think. In some ways maybe this is a good thing. Canvass the neighbourhood for the next design? Crowdsourcing is right around the corner and AI will be the next wave of transition.

Along with the massive changes in the design process, those of us in the Pontiac Studio had our hands full keeping up with all that required our attention. The 1994 Grand Prix had slipped to 1997 and the volume car, the Grand Am was due for a complete makeover in 1999.

The Germans

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In August of 1992, GM Design received a letter from BMW asking us to not use the Twin Port grille design on future Pontiacs as it might confuse customers and diminish the value of their brand. Since we had been using a Twin Port grille design since 1959, we didn’t believe customers would confuse BMWs with Pontiacs. BMW started using vertical Twin Port grilles in the 1930s and gradually morphed into a horizontal format by the ‘90s. Pontiac started with a horizontal Twin Port grille design and morphed into a more squared off Twin Port design. GM Legal subsequently addressed their concerns with a letter of explanation although I had to laugh at the thought that anyone would confuse a Pontiac with a BMW.

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How Pontiac grilles have changed over time… Source: The author
At the Detroit Auto Show in January of 1995, we were finally going to show the public the new ’97 Grand Prix in a thinly disguised concept. This was our long awaited moment to at last show the 4 Door Coupé. Press Days were always a gruelling slog of spending 12+ hours entertaining the motor press by putting our best foot forward, showing off our ‘baby”, like the proud parents we were. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive with compliments from all viewers. While admittedly we had departed from the original concept of what a Pontiac Grand Prix was from its inception in 1969, I believed the new car would be equally successful.

The Wide Track look would be back, as we had asked the engineers to widen the car’s front track and return to the Pontiac Wide Track advertising slogan from 1959. At the conclusion of the day’s activities, we were finally able to sit down and reflect on the events of the day when four or five individuals in white shirts and ties converged on the show stand to examine the new Grand Prix. It was usually standard procedure to check out the competition at these shows and I didn’t give it much thought, but then I heard them speaking. Lo and behold, my three years of High School German finally paid off — they were Germans!

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Courtesy of GM
Naturally, my interest was piqued as to why these Germans might be interested in a Pontiac, so I asked one of my colleagues who was from Germany to eavesdrop on these interlopers and find out who they might be working for. To our collective shock, he said they were Mercedes engineers. Mercedes: I thought, why in heaven would Mercedes be interested in a Pontiac Grand Prix. In 1995. Not exactly the same buyer demographic for sure. They were crawling all over the car paying particular attention to the roof and upper body. At the time I didn’t give it much thought, thinking they were just curious as to what us Americans were up to.

Fast forward to the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2003, and on the Mercedes stand, the Vision Mercedes CLS was on display. Four Door Coupé indeed. Coincidence? Can’t say for sure as I’m guessing they had been working on it for some time, but I think they were interested to see how we had solved some of the design problems. The only annoying thing was they were telling the world they had ‘invented’ the four Door Coupé.

Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz
Brand Management and the dreaded clinics

The newly instigated GM Brand Management philosophy would be given its first test with the 1999 Grand Am. Here was a vehicle that sold over 200K units each year, which is no small feat, and the cookie marketers would have their input over our designs. What could go wrong? Endless market research and the dreaded consumer clinics were waiting in the wings. The vehicle development process had matured to where the process included making nine scale models, narrowing that selection to six, then three, then a final approved design.

Market research events were conducted to get a sense of what the customer wanted and what would or would not be accepted from a design point of view. These were always fascinating and dreaded events. Listening to car buyers talk about their car preferences and ‘grading’ our designs provided a great deal of stress. If they ‘liked’ what we were showing them, was that necessarily a good thing? Or what if they disliked what they saw? Asking customers always conjured up the oft quoted Henry Ford statement: “If I had asked them what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” We often don’t know what we want if we don’t know. I never knew I needed a smart phone until I did.

The fact that our compensation was partially tied to the market research results just added to the stress level. Why was I to trust the judgement of non-designers as to what was commercial and what wasn’t? All my experience and education weren’t sufficient? I’ve always been a firm believer in providing the ultimate customer a product that made them happy and proud owners. My issue was did they really know what they wanted? Could they articulate their desires? Mentally we were working three-four years out, whereas the customer only knows today. Our job was to lead the target and provide products that would be commercial five years in the future and still look good.

Informed intuition and the ability to gauge the customer has forever been the difference between success and failure in the marketplace. Do the Edsel and the Aztek conjure up any images?
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Yup. I spent my first several yrs in the Olds Studio doing 'twin port' grilles. But Olds were different from Pontiac's fronts. That letter from BMW cracked me up. But GM Legal dealt with it, and we never heard from them again. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Don't disagree. Smacks of land Rover to me, in a good way.