Mainstreaming good design

[Biker16]

Mainstreaming good design

The lessons learned from the success of the Chrysler 300 and the disappointment of the Ford Five Hundred have not been lost on the industry. Bread-and-butter sedans, your day has come.

 

Steven Cole Smith

Automotive News

October 1, 2007 - 12:01 am ET

 

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A tale of two sedans:

 

It takes a brave person to do the design — or to sign off on the design — of a sedan placed smack dab in the middle of the market.

 

It's the usual conundrum, the Catch-22 for car stylists everywhere. The look must be fresh, maybe even exciting. It's got to be new and different — but it can't alienate.

 

Historically, risks went unrewarded in the standard sedan segments. Big numbers were at stake. You couldn't afford to run off long-standing customers when chasing after new ones.

 

Only things have changed. These days the demands of the market are becoming clearer. The age of the bland sedan is passing. For now, at least, stunning good looks are what's called for in the mass market.

 

Flair finally gets a seat at the table with functionality.

 

Bread-and-butter cars, your day has come.

 

“And it's only going to get more intense,” Ralph Gilles, the super star of the Chrysler styling, said after viewing the competition at the recent Frankfurt auto show.

 

You can attribute this change in direction to a couple of things — a recent Ford flop in the mid-sized sedan segment and a huge Chrysler success.

 

Call it the tale of the two sedans.

 

Comparing the success, or lack of it, of two mainstream competing vehicles may point up the importance of good design, even in a category where design, traditionally, has been less important than in flashier, more personalized market segments.

 

Those vehicles: the current Chrysler 300 and the Ford Five Hundred, both introduced as 2005 models.

 

The 300 was an immediate hit, was promptly voted the North American Car of the Year, and the Chrysler group even found a market for the car in China and Europe.

 

The Five Hundred was greeted by yawns, underwent an emergency freshening and, this year, got a new name — because, said one Ford executive, “it can't do any worse than it has been.”

 

Ford CEO Alan Mulally, who spearheaded the change of the Five Hundred's name to Taurus, said the original design “may have been too conservative.”

 

Even Ford's media guide for the 2005 Five Hundred dismissed the design with a single strained sentence: “The Five Hundred's authoritative exterior design, with its clean geometric lines and stately proportions, displays confidence and luxury.”

 

Chrysler's press materials for the 2005 300 suggested substantially more confidence in its design.

 

“Simply stated, the Chrysler 300 signals a dramatic new design direction that will make everything else on the road seem ordinary,” said Trevor Creed, senior vice president of design. “We wanted to return to the proud, powerful lines that once made American automobiles the envy of the entire industry, but do so in a thoroughly modern way.

 

“At the same time, we identified a dramatic new design direction that continues the Chrysler brand's long-standing tradition of innovative design.'”

 

 

 

New era

Perhaps more than anything else in the past decade, the 300/Five Hundred story signifies a new era — an era where tepid design can torpedo an otherwise acceptable product, even in the mainstream.

 

For example, the longer, wider 2008 Honda Accord stretches its design further than any of the seven generations that preceded it — a “bold new styling direction for the entire Accord lineup,” said John Mendel, Honda's senior vice president.

 

The new Chrysler Sebring takes some chances — not all of them successful. But the result is a car that finally has a design personality.

 

The 2008 Chevrolet Malibu has the presence that could move it from a car that buyers settle for to a car that buyers seek.

 

Even the new-for-2007 Toyota Camry stepped up its styling. And rumors suggest that the next-generation Camry, expected in 2011, will be even more of a departure.

 

Also, Toyota changed, in midstream, the styling of the Corolla, which debuts this fall. Sources say the original design was too plain compared to the Mazda3 and Honda Civic — and was sent back to the drawing board.

 

All that said, there's no denying that other factors were at work in the 300's favor beyond design, a point agreed on even by Gilles, the car's chief designer.

 

“There are a lot of layers to design, and it isn't just styling,” Gilles said. “Much of it has to do with what I call product depth.

 

“It's popular to compare the 300 with the Five Hundred, but, for instance, the Five Hundred only had one engine. The 300 has four engines, if you count the SRT version. You should offer the customer a lot of flavors.

 

“People are demanding more permutations of even a single product. One customer can buy the 300 with a Hemi engine because he likes the performance; another buys the V-6 because it's a good value.”

 

It's about emotion

But Gilles says it's still predominantly styling that attracts a customer's attention to the point that he or she takes the time to learn about such things as engine choice.

 

“I'm a firm believer that emotion is still a big part of the automotive purchasing decision,” he said. “Even the most practical person has some emotional quotient.”

 

Arguably, the lessons taught by the 300/Five Hundred have not been lost on the industry, especially Ford.

 

“What did we learn from the Five Hundred?” asked one senior Ford executive. “That no one wants a boring car.

 

“Actually, there were two lessons that we paid attention to,” the executive added: “the negative reaction to the Five Hundred and the very positive reaction to the 427.”

 

The 427 was the beefier, almost sinister show sedan that debuted in 2003 but still resonates with consumers. The tubular grille on the Fusion comes directly from the 427 and was added only after it became apparent that the original Fusion's Five Hundred-like nose lacked a focal point.

 

The Five Hundred's flop also taught Ford to move quickly to fix broken design. Last-minute tweaks to the Edge helped make it one of the best-looking crossovers on the market. And as Automotive News recently revealed, the 2008 Focus underwent some updates almost on the way out the factory door.

 

This emphasis on mainstream styling is a global phenomenon, Gilles said. “I just got back from the Frankfurt show, and everyone has really put the hammer down, with an emphasis on panache and appeal.”

 

"Research, please?'

The revolution inside General Motors that wrought the 2008 Malibu illustrates what's happening.

 

GM has especially high hopes for the Malibu, which could well define the brand's personality when it comes to bread-and-butter sedans. Sharing a platform with the Saturn Aura, the Malibu's mechanicals are solid. But now the exterior gives no cause for apology.

 

One generation ago, that was not the case. The current car, new for 2004, excited no one, including GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz.

 

“I asked the vehicle line executive about that car. I said, "Could I see the research on that design, please? I'd like to know how that car did in research because it's kind of, well, tame-looking.'

 

“ "Oh!' he said, "it did great in the research.'

 

“ "Really?' I said. "I find that hard to believe.'

 

“ "Oh, yeah,' he said. "People saw European cues, they associated it with German manufacturers.'

 

“ "Great,' I said. "Can I see the research, please?'

 

“He said, "Well, usually the research is to be seen only by the VLEs.' And I said, "Yeah, but I'm the boss of the VLEs.' I called the research guys and said, "I'd like to see all the clinics of all the cars we have coming out.'

 

“And they were all disasters. The one on the Malibu was slightly less disastrous than the others, so he was correct when he told me, "It was the best clinic of any car we've had in the last five years.' ”

[Noah Harbinger]

Somebody didn't read the DCMA warning.

 

Somebody is going to wake up with Homeland Security sticking a truncheon up his [redacted], calling him an Info-Terrorist, hauling him away to Guantanamo, never to be heard from again.