"highmodulus" (highmodulus)
09/03/2013 at 13:20 • Filed to: None
3
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"highmodulus" (highmodulus)
09/03/2013 at 13:20 • Filed to: None | 3
| 18 |
Making all your cars look the same due to the cult of "design language" nearly killed Acura. The Acura Beak is a future MBA business case study (along with the Tropicana container fiasco) in why listening to your customers and focus groups is key. Customers did not like the Acura Beak, yet Acura stubbornly stuck with it and have been marginalized for their hubris. Worse, they forced it onto every car and SUV they made- so there was no diversification of design risk.
http://wot.motortrend.com/get-used-to-it…
Mazda ran into the same problem with what I call "derpy" face. Some overpaid paid Mazda exec thought it made the formerly handsome models like the Miata "happier". It didn't. It made them look worse. The new design language fixes much of the derp face disaster (trademark pending), but again is being forced on EVERY model. The Mazda 3 doesn't need to look like the CX9.
And Infiniti (they still make cars, not just sponsor Red Bull Racing-honest), took this obsession to the next level- also renaming all their cars to start with "Q". Now they can all look and sound the same- so yay?!?
Yes, you in the back? What about Zee Germans? They more seem to incorporate design elements and themes across the lines (see BMW for example) while finding a way to make the individual models seem distinctive. Hyundai/Kia also seem to do a good job of mixing certain design themes across models without ending up with a bunch of different sized nearly exact copies.
There is still time to stop the madness before you get Acura-ized Lexus. You have designers- let them loose!
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highmodulus
> highmodulus
09/03/2013 at 13:23 |
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This is some world class hubris:
Toshinobu Minami, who was appointed the exterior design chief of Honda and Acura in September, says he wants to make the brand sportier and more active. Although he’s well aware of the bad reception the chrome five-point grille has received, he says it’s here to stay.
“We concede that we went a little overboard at some points,” Minami told Automotive News . “We actually had pretty bad feedback on this initially from different directions. But we are not going to buckle under that pressure.”
Read more:
http://wot.motortrend.com/get-used-to-it…
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Jagvar
> highmodulus
09/03/2013 at 13:27 |
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Herp-a-derp.
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highmodulus
> Jagvar
09/03/2013 at 13:28 |
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Gah kill it with fire! So awful. . .
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Jagvar
> highmodulus
09/03/2013 at 13:29 |
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They all look like they have melting bumpers now.
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highmodulus
> Jagvar
09/03/2013 at 13:30 |
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They look like bad photoshops
Victorious Secret
> highmodulus
09/03/2013 at 13:35 |
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The Acura bird beak single handily killed any favour the TL ever had.
Old TL was a gorgeous thing.
New TL? Pile of design shit.
J. Walter Weatherman
> highmodulus
09/03/2013 at 13:41 |
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Wow. I'm hardly an expert in marketing, but I just don't understand how a company, when facing a negative reaction to a new product and customers leaving in droves, can think that an acceptable response is "well our customers are just wrong. Its their loss."
Plus, this wasn't some polarizing design feature that had people strongly for it as well as against it, it was pretty much universally panned. I can't even comprehend what the internal justification for continuing with that design language was.
RazoE
> Jagvar
09/03/2013 at 13:50 |
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Maybe I'm alone in liking the new aggressive face. The Acura beak looked like an afterthought, but the predator face looks like it was intended from the beginning.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> J. Walter Weatherman
09/03/2013 at 13:54 |
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It quite honestly would have been better, if they somehow just *had* to stick with it, for them to narrow it up and use it as a smaller motif like, say, the BMW kidneys or the Benz split/ovoid bulge. The furthest they could get from the current detested chrome upper lip would be to make something like the Edsel rounded coffin, and when you're best off taking design cues from Edsel, you've gone far off-track indeed.
Carwood
> highmodulus
09/03/2013 at 13:56 |
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"The Lexus RX F-sport" - Because technically your wife is still getting an RX and you don't want to look like you lost that argument completely.
BaconSandwich is tasty.
> highmodulus
09/03/2013 at 14:18 |
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Or it is sucking on a lemon.
bigfish13.jf
> highmodulus
09/03/2013 at 14:20 |
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"We are aware that people don't like our product, but we are going to continue to make it the same anyway"
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highmodulus
> bigfish13.jf
09/03/2013 at 15:16 |
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" Insanity : doing the same thing over a nd over again and expecting different results "
Xander, Proud of BOXER
> highmodulus
09/03/2013 at 16:13 |
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Meh.
Spindle grills look pretty good on IS, GS, and LS.
Velocity- Peuguette Connoisseur
> Xander, Proud of BOXER
09/03/2013 at 17:16 |
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I agree. On the sedans that aren't the CamrES (ha, get it), the spindle grill doesn't look bad. In pictures, the new IS looked meh to me, but in real life I actually like the design a lot.
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Xander, Proud of BOXER
> Velocity- Peuguette Connoisseur
09/03/2013 at 17:36 |
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That's the key: in real life
Burrito de EJ25
> highmodulus
09/03/2013 at 23:26 |
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I think your opinions are wrong.
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highmodulus
> Burrito de EJ25
09/04/2013 at 08:09 |
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Ok, I respect your opinion but obviously do not share it.
#civil debate society