i think Maseratis want to be 'prettier' by definition but i really don't see a need for this kind of entry after all, how much demand is there really for $1/4 million cars? the investment would be monumental, for how much of a return?
Justin, I have tried to email you at the email address you sent me but it keeps coming back as undeliverable. Have a lengthy answer to your question, but don't know how else to send it. PM me again with a valid email address. thanks jm2
Profits margins on higher cost products are always greater than those on lower cost products. In the automotive sector they also serve as halo products and generate increased interest and sales volumes in the lower ranges. And we all know the Maser MC12, besides looking pretty, was created to win in competition so I guess that shows that functional can also be pretty? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
a chat with McLaren Chief Designer Frank Stephenson: 'Full Chat' With McLaren Design Director Frank Stephenson The story about the Mini exhaust pipe is humorous
You know those times when some new crazy, poorly designed supercar gets released and the general public is all "Did you see that?!! It is so cool and so beautiful!!" and the design community says "Meh"? To me, this should be one of those times, so it is annoying when some "Design Organization" throws accolades. But I shouldn't care. So now I don't. Thanks for listening! I feel better
no problemo Had to laugh at this article from Business Week about the new Prius Not the most attractive design on the market Rivals the Pontiac Aztek as one of the worst designs . ever......... The Toyota Prius that Kendall Greuel bought six weeks ago does what he wanted, which is save money on his daily 100-mile round trip commute. Just one thing nags at the Oklahoman. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of the car, Greuel said, and think its kind of ugly. The 31-year-old IT worker from Muskogee has his finger on the latest vexation for Prius, the gas-electric hybrid that established Toyota Motor Corp. as an environmental leader two decades ago. At a time when American customers were already defecting from Prius because of cheap gasoline and a shift to trucks, the automaker pushed through a polarizing redesign -- one thats been a hit at home in Japan but has failed to stem a sales slump in the U.S. The Prius design is busy and overwrought, said Eric Noble, who runs a product development consultancy called Carlab in Orange, California. It never should have been allowed to happen. In his view, the new Prius comes close to rivaling the Pontiac Aztek, a 2005-era sport utility vehicle often mentioned as one of the worst auto designs ever. QUICKTAKE Cleaner Cars The 93,083 Priuses sold in the U.S. through August was a 26 percent drop from the year-earlier period and put the model line on pace for its worst annual deliveries in five years. Design Defense Bill Fay, Toyotas head of U.S. sales, begs to differ with Priuss critics. Toyota chose the design to attract mainstream customers as well as environmentalists, and plenty of people like it, he said in an interview. The vehicles greatest challenge is fighting the booming popularity of truck and SUV models spurred by cheap gasoline, Fay said. The situation in the U.S. is far different from Japan, where Prius has resumed its position as the top-selling model and gasoline costs the equivalent of about $4.50 a gallon. The potentially varying reactions to the design may reflect cultural differences. Toyota opted for an entertainment or anime design that appeals to the Japanese market more than the U.S., said Geoff Wardle, head of graduate studies at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Several design elements dont support a common theme, he said, such as the neon-red lights zigzagging through 20-inch tail lamps that protrude from the side of the car like flying buttresses. Fay was among executives consulted on the design and said hes confident the Prius line will do well. All we can do is continue to reinvest and make the car as compelling as we can, because the market is going to change again, he said. Two Prius models, the Prius C compact and Prius V wagon, havent been updated along with the liftback version. Reinforcements are on the way in the form of a refreshed plug-in model, newly dubbed the Prius Prime. With a 25-mile all-electric range that extends to 640 miles between refuelings, the Prius Prime will be priced $6,000 less than the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt. Squandered Lead Yet even Prius Primes green credentials disappoint some environmentalists. Roland Hwang, transportation program director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, says Toyota is being too conservative. The plug-ins electric range is less than half the Chevrolet Volts 53 miles. And while General Motors Co.s all-electric Chevrolet Bolt arrives in showrooms this year, Toyota doesnt offer a battery-only car in the U.S. One can argue Toyota has squandered its lead in the green vehicle market, Hwang said. The Priuss rate of sales decline through August is almost double that of all hybrids lacking a plug, according to HybridCars.com. Demand has dropped even though Toyota updated the segment-leading Prius late last year with a double-wishbone suspension for better handling and added tech features such as lane-keeping assist. Only 42 percent of owners are opting for another Prius when they trade in their car, down from 64 percent in 2005, according to Edmunds.com. Customer Surveys Start your day with whats moving markets. Get our markets daily newsletter. Sign Up In surveys, customers complain about a cramped interior and paucity of storage space, said Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Vision, a San Diego consumer research firm. In his firms overall measure of customer satisfaction, Prius ranks below the now-discontinued Chrysler 200. Among customers who shopped and rejected the Prius, 12 percent did so because of exterior styling, up from 8 percent with the prior model. Those figures help explain why Toyota has had to keep relatively high rebates on Prius even after the redesign. The company now offers rebates of $3,039 on each Prius, down only about $200 from the year-earlier period, said Jessica Caldwell, an Edmunds.com analyst. The competition wont get any easier. Environmentalists will have unprecedented choices as the number of battery-only and hybrid plug-ins grows to 33 next year from three in 2011, according to the Consumer Federation of America. And the Prius now has gas-electric challengers within Toyotas own lineup: the company has sold 28,862 RAV4 hybrids this year. For now, the Oklahoma Prius owner Greuel is satisfied that his new ride is averaging 56.1 miles per gallon, enough to save the equivalent of a second monthly car payment. But as for that design -- with curves in the hood converging into a small snout above an exaggerated grille opening -- his attitude toward it depends on what mood Im in. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. LEARN MORE Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
when I see design solutions like this I try to put myself in the design process to understand what happened. having watched the Aztek debacle unfold at a safe distance, I can only imagine then there's this Image Unavailable, Please Login
It's funny, I was about to put up a similar picture of the Mirai. My reason was that, although the Mirai is almost as much of a mess as the Prius (Some may say more so), the Mirai is Toyota/Lexus's best attempt at the floating pillar treatment that they and Nissan somehow managed to jump on the bandwagon of at the same time. Floating pillars have been around forever in show cars and some production cars and I had found it interesting that Nissan and Toyota put it on a number of their most popular vehicles at pretty much the same time. (Aston Martin followed suit, ruining the DB11) Driving down the freeway and seeing a Prius and a Marai, it is amazing how wrong the Prius is and how much better the pillars work on the Mirai.
if only the pillars were the issue the bodyside looks like it's been in a bad accident.... but yes those things have been around 'forever' the big Jag also tries the blacked out C Pillar trick, with not too much success IMVHO
Is everyone in Design management blind? Are the company CEOs letting the 6 year old grand kids make the design selections? This is truly sad. Is there no one inside these companies that is preaching cohesiveness? John: What are you students thinking? They see this as a problem or are they embracing this crap?
By the time they have gotten to your classes hopefully they are comprehending that underlying design is as important as being able to make a flashy presentations. Take your Mitchell book to demonstrate how designs could be cohesive. Sure seems like one of the easiest evaluation tools has been lost - put a hand of the front to see if the back is part of that same design, same for back to front, then top to bottom.
You & I have a little different perspective on design than most of my class has...... But it's not hopeless.
I really, really don't want to be Mac and live design in the rear view mirror but at the same time there are tenants of good design that always matter. Way too much of today's work appears to be throwing stuff at the wall and let the clay modeler try to sort it out. I do see that there is an attempt to break away from the folded paper and Audi rigidness but they are flailing away without a sense of actual direction.
My take is that for design students today, ugly is the new beautiful - a real shame and somewhat rebelistic - but hey, even some of the professionals in the business are taking this approach, almost as if they've lost touch with reality in my opinion, and are excited to be smacking the new designs with the ugly stick just to make a visual statement, no matter how painful it may be for our eyes. Good luck to those who take that design direction...not. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have to disagree with Mr. Visioneer and his statement: "My take is that for design students today, ugly is the new beautiful." In my entire career I have NEVER heard a design team say when they got to work: "Hey, let's do an ugly car today" Beauty will never go out of style. It's up to each designer to decide where the line is between what is considered beautiful & what's considered ugly. Yes, beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, and I'm thinking the designers at Toyota must have asked themselves if in fact the new Prius & the Toyota Hydrogen car were 'beautiful' in their opinions. My sense is that over the years Toyota was criticized for being 'design conservative' and these 2 cars are the results of trying to address that criticism. I'm not defending what they've done, but I do understand how & why it happened. Yes the cars are still overdone/overwrought IMO, but someone within Toyota must have said "we need to be bold and scare people." The Lexus team have done the same with their design face. doesn't make it right or wrong, just an attempt to be 'different' Different yes........good? the jury is still out. Remember: Judgement & Execution........all designs/designers live & die by those tenants as far as I'm concerned.
What about an ugly pickup truck? It seems like to convey toughness, pickup truck designers don't exactly strive for beauty but are going for macho instead. All the best, Andrew. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Last year at LA Auto Show I stood by the new Prius and couldn't believe all the people complimenting it I have two employees that own them. I dont get it
