bmw was the sport sedan vs merc the lux sedan. bmw now looks like a hi end south korean merc wannabe.
I don't get their message to me here, whatever it might be The sides are completely devoid of any hint of..., well anything; and then they throw every conceivable shape on the front end. There is that old saw of a company's management producing some car where it looks like the designers weren't all on the same page. This one however reminds me of the saying "men are from Mars and women are from Venus. A very, very weird effort.
You beat me to the sad comment. I had a 1995 (I think) 740i, that purple-ish color they had. Comfort seats. Beautiful and awesome road car. I’m also disappointed that the new S-Class is kind of uninspiring also, but nowhere near this debacle. I read in a car magazine years ago they commented on the three parts of a car - interior, exterior, and engine. It’s amazing how hard it is to get all three parts aligned in a car that inspires me (at a price I want to pay).
And yet, BMW reported sales numbers are still pretty decent. Sorry, shouldn't have used the word pretty there, maybe quite decent...
Image Unavailable, Please Login The Lincoln Star Concept. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Could be. Maybe the rich don't want to stand out in the cities anymore but still want nice quality interiors?? Or BMW has lost their taste in car design. That grill does look like bad taste bling.
Seems that someone in Ford's Chinese design studio has finally discovered the Range Rover Velar after 4 years... It's interesting to see designers struggling to find solutions for the front end that speaks to 'brand' but doesn't require air flow.
Yes, the jury is still out as to how to handle the front/grilleless execution on electric vehicles. Not real fond of the 'Ginza at night' front end of the Cadillac Lyriq, but then I ordered one, so what do I know? Image Unavailable, Please Login
It looks like what would happen if you evenly baked an SUV for too long and pulled it out just as it started to melt. All the best, Andrew.
Re the "suicide doors".....seeing them on a number of concepts lately; only know of RR having actually produced them. I like them aesthetically and functionally; how well do they do passing side-impact tests? (Lyric chose not....)
Side impact is do-able with the right structure underneath. Lincoln did a limited run of sedans w/suicide doors.
Hope they get the electronics figured out. I had a new Aviator for a short time and it was a mess. Screens would freeze or go blank. Only way the fix it was to pull over and restart it.
Same issue on the Ford Edge. Hold power and forward seek at the same time and you can do a reset while driving. It'll clear active RAM and reboot in about 2 minutes. All the best, Andrew.
Yes, now I recall......mid '60's, sedan & convertible... (edit) convertible ONLY! Sedan retained a vertical in between......
Image Unavailable, Please Login No, several yrs ago, the Lincoln sedan offered a limited edition 4 dr w/suicide doors.
This Lincoln is not gaining anything, visually, by having the excessively angled roof. It is screwing up the proportions and losing headroom, imo.
Henry Ford’s Plastic Car April 22, 2022Leave a commentJim Farrell Image Unavailable, Please Login Henry Ford’s Plastic Car By Jim and Cheryl Farrell This year on April 7 marks the 75th anniversary of Henry Ford’s death. Most people think the flathead V-8 engine was his last major contribution to the automobile world. There was, however, one later project. It was Ford’s effort to build and market a plastic car with a selling price of $400, which was a little more than one-half the then current price of a Ford automobile. For all his faults and shortcomings, Henry Ford wanted to help farmers. After years of research, and testing many plants, he thought the soy beans were the answer. Ford built steering wheels and dash knobs from soy bean mash. At one time, the paint used on Ford products was made from soy bean oil. He sometimes wore clothing made from soy bean material, and there are stories about Ford feeding his luncheon guests soy bean food products that tasted terrible to everyone except him. Starting in 1928, Ford placed a family friend named Robert Boyer in charge of an experimental chemical laboratory. and asked him to find industrial uses for common plants. By 1937 Ford himself was wearing suits made from soy bean material. By 1938, Boyer made glove box doors from plastic, and Ford tested large sheets of soy bean plastic by jumping up and down on them. By 1941, Fords had a car deck lid made from soy bean plastic, and he used an axe to demonstrate how strong it was. That same year he also assigned tool maker Lowell Overly to the Design Department to help design and build a plastic car. The Design Department first built a quarter-sized model, and to stay within Ford‘s 3,000 lb. weight limit, started building a tube-type chassis and framework for the car. E.T. “Bob” Gregorie, the head of Ford‘s Design Department, assigned Ed Martin and John Najjar to work with Overly. Gregorie and Overly were soon at odds over the design of the car, so Henry shut the project down, collected all the parts and pieces, and put them in storage. Three months later, Overly was given a place in the Soy Bean Lab and told to finish the car. The directions Ford gave Overly were to use the light-weight tubular framework, a streamlined body and a V8 “60” engine. Overly built a model of the car he proposed, Ford approved it, and Overly began making body panels to attach to the car’s tubular framework. By this time, the Design Department had become more cooperative and helped make a full-sized clay model of the car Overly and Mr. Ford wanted. Because of wartime restrictions, the molds used to cast the plastic panels had to be made from concrete, which left a lot to be desired—and the panels required a lot of hand finishing. The plastic panels were attached to the car’s framework with clamps and screws, and any joints were sealed with more soy bean resin. Recessed acrylic windows in rubber seals were installed within 1/8-inch of the car’s exterior. The car’s seats were also made from soy bean fabric. Total weight of Ford’s plastic car was 2,300 lbs. The car was introduced to the public with lots of publicity on August 13, 1941, and the New York Times even ran an article forecasting that Ford would market his plastic car as early as 1943 for about $400. Every time the plastic car was shown, it was outside because it stunk of formaldehyde. Although it was driven around Dearborn, the panels soon began to shrink and the smell continued. War preparations and then the war gradually stopped everything. Ford’s plastic car was soon placed in storage in the basement of the Design Department. There’s some indication that the car may have been seen there as late as 1971, but in all likelihood it became a contribution to some wartime scrap drive. By the time World war II ended, Henry Ford was in his 80s, and had suffered at least two strokes. He was no longer active and died in 1947. Absent some breakthrough in the manufacturing process, many doubt whether a plastic car could have been produced at the end of or shortly after the war. But then again, in 1946, Bill Stout, who then worked for Graham-Paige, built both the body and the frame of his Scarab automobile from fiberglass. Photos: Ford Design Henry Ford’s Plastic Car 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 Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
