Come Up With Something New America

8-ball · 01-13-04, 08:06 PM

I don't know about you but I think that the god damn American automakers could come up with something new. All of the cars are just copies from the old ones. Like the Ford GT40, the 2005 stang, the Shelby Cobra, the Chevy SSR, the PT Cruiser etc are all old remakes. They should stop remaking and make.

thepolarfoxqx · 01-13-04, 08:16 PM

you know, you really have a point there.

america's auto industry is in trouble right now, and they are looking at their glorious past to help solve the problem when the japanese and europeans are looking to the future (actually, the japanese usually look to the europeans, the europeans look to the future). We need to stop drawing so heavily from what we've done, and make something new and memorable. All the great american classic cars were all originals. We need to redefine what makes an american car and put ourselves back on top.

jterp · 01-13-04, 08:37 PM

Easier said than done ... You can't just tell someone to invent the wheel. [/img]

LateNightCable · 01-13-04, 10:33 PM

Come on, the Europeans are lost as much as anyone. If one's past is illustrious, I see nothing wrong with making a career of recreating it in one form or another.

People who are constantly " looking to the future " are simply afraid of being left behind by the crowd, as if the crowd knows a damn. Feel content in the present, and the past, and you will feel no need to forcefully " create " your future. It will just develop itself naturally and come to you.

That may be the Tortous way over the Hare way, but it yeilds the best results. Anything else is just contrived.

thepolarfoxqx · 01-14-04, 05:25 AM

American cars have had the same theme for 40 years or 50 years, it's quickly becoming outdated, old, and lackluster. The time has come to reinvent the great american car, because right now we're loosing the race. The germans and the japanese are moving ahead and we are not. I'd hate to see our once great auto industry, the industry we started, wither here.

If people over seas can have divrgent new ideas on cars, why can't we?

jterp · 01-14-04, 04:07 PM

American cars have not had the same theme for the past 50 years -- the american cars are just now recovering from the FWD fiasco we call the 80's and 90's --
Americans tried something new then and it fell on its face -- so going back to what we know we like isn't necessarily a bad thing-- RWD - big engine (the hemi thing - i know its a marketing campaign but it's working like a mo-fo) -- isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if it brings about cars like the chrysler 300C...

thepolarfoxqx · 01-14-04, 07:39 PM

300C will be a great car, but it is in fact little more than a rebodied last generation E-Class mercedes with american engines and interiors. The chasis, transmission, driveline components are all german. It will no doubt be a great car, and the hemi is more than marketing, i'll admit it. The hemi, while still pushrod, embraces some of the design features that make DOHC engines more efficient, like central spark plug location and better valve angles. That's how a run of the mill truck motor using the hemi design can make the same amount of power on 87 octane as the much more complicated (and fragile) corvette motor can at the same 5.7L using 91 octane. It should be noted that the new hemi has gotten lots of praise for being a very refined engine (especially for a pushrod), so if old american technology can be made to work that well, i think it's a good thing, and i've never been a chrysler guy, but i'll say the hemi impresses me. a lot.

I think once run of the mill american cars go back to the rear drive layout (which i see as far superior for a number of reasons), we might just have what it takes to be number one. We are improving faster than anyone else is, we have a ways to go, but if we don't cop out, we'll get there.

You might make fun of me and my liking an attractive dash board and car with doors that shut with a good thunk and no rattles, but that is what sells bread and butter cars, smooth ride, smooth engine, good power, and reasuring build - that and they have to be asthetically pleasing and affordable. The japanese have capitolized on it, but we are really starting to come around.

I like the 300C a lot, i don't fault it for heavy use of german parts, i just think it would have been the right thing to do to let the boys in detroit make a rear drive car, i'm sure - since it was being designed especially for these cars, it would have been more cost effective and possibly even in some ways more modern than the old benz platform. Either way its fine, i just think for an american name like 300, it's better done right.

jterp · 01-14-04, 08:32 PM

a whole new platform cheaper than a using the benz platform?

LateNightCable · 01-14-04, 09:58 PM

Yeah, I'm thinking it would be cheaper to use the old E-Class chassis than design a new one. A two for the price of one deal, I'm sure the last E-Class payed itself off a long time ago. E-CLass quality is good, but Chrysler deserves more autonomy than that, just like all brands owned by VW.

I saw a picture of the base 300 and I thought it was some kind of photoshop joke. It does not look very good on base gray wheels, and big baloon tires. This is one car where a set of 20-22" rims would actually look prime. A return to rear drive is definitely a good move. For years I've been wishing Chrysler would stop playing with V6 front drivers. Right now I'm wondering when the light bulb will go on, and they plop a Hemi into the Crossfire. I believe America can carve out it's own profitable niche once again.

Dresol · 01-18-04, 10:56 AM

The americans have to come up with something really good to make us europeans buy it. The only car the Europeans like at the moment, is the Ford GT (the name isn't GT 40 anymore!) and the Crossfire. The Cadillacs and GM's are slaughtered here in Europe. They have only gotten one star (out of 5), which is, without saying, really bad. The Americans would have to come up to European standards when they are going to try to sell a car over here and less American. If someone buys an American car, it's usually a Tahoe or Suburban. That's it! But if you buy a Cadillac STS for example, then everyone here would ask then why they didn't go for a German or English car, and the only thing the buyers would say that they are patriots and they wanted something else. That's the only reason that they are buying one. That is why there are only 2 Cadillacs on the roads here and some more of the other brands.