MarcHarris
New member
i personally think the new taurus is ugly. seeing it at the auto-show in January only affirmed that for me.
luckily for Ford, the Camry is no looker, and many Honda designs are somewhat bland as well.
Sure there's a lot of buzz currently about the upcoming SHO (was just reading all about it in the Detroit Free Press). While it may or may not be great for the price, I think the fact remains that the most important thing to to move high volumes of normal non-SHO Taurus'. A niche market car isn't going to be expected to move tons of units - but it has the importance of defining the model. I feel Honda has done a good job of keeping the opposite. Noone is sitting here talking about compacts and referring to the Civic Si - we talk about the civic. when we talk about family cars - we hear "Accord" not "wow that Accord V6 is a BEAST." Honda makes sure it's high volume sellers get the buzz (the new Fit the new Insight).
Also, I agree with the comment earlier about as a detailer - you notice things like fit and finish much more. I can honestly say I feel the gap has come down quite a bit. If you don't believe me - I want you to go to your nearest Lexus dealer and find the IS-F. its a beast of a car that looks pretty slick. the 5.0 V8 doesn't hurt either. But go ahead and sit in it....and enjoy the ugly *** plastic dash. 58k for a dash that ugly? WOW. You'd be stupid to overlook the CTS-V for the same price. It's also apparent that the Americans are building better car than in the past based off initial quality - that area is now equal. The last and final step to regaining more and more customers is to continue to improve reliability. While the Americas have many good cars (even for the price - yes), they also seem to have some really bad cars.
What i've learned to admire is the designs of American cars. Many look pretty good in my eyes, and they're definitely more aggresive designs than Honda and Toyota as a whole.
My last thing i'll leave you with is the "buy American" campaign that's been gaining more and more momentum here in Metro Detroit. If your VIN number doesn't start with "1", then you can't claim to be driving an "American" car IMO. When I think of what's "American", i think Made in America. Sure the top exec's are in America as are the headquarters - but they've been giving so many of the non-white collar jobs to other countries that I don't understand how so many UAW supporters continue to blame the Japanese.
p.s. to the big time critics saying the Big Three will never make it b/c they haven't sold the most reliable cars, i'm calling BS. take a look at VW, BMW, and worst of all MB.
luckily for Ford, the Camry is no looker, and many Honda designs are somewhat bland as well.
Sure there's a lot of buzz currently about the upcoming SHO (was just reading all about it in the Detroit Free Press). While it may or may not be great for the price, I think the fact remains that the most important thing to to move high volumes of normal non-SHO Taurus'. A niche market car isn't going to be expected to move tons of units - but it has the importance of defining the model. I feel Honda has done a good job of keeping the opposite. Noone is sitting here talking about compacts and referring to the Civic Si - we talk about the civic. when we talk about family cars - we hear "Accord" not "wow that Accord V6 is a BEAST." Honda makes sure it's high volume sellers get the buzz (the new Fit the new Insight).
Also, I agree with the comment earlier about as a detailer - you notice things like fit and finish much more. I can honestly say I feel the gap has come down quite a bit. If you don't believe me - I want you to go to your nearest Lexus dealer and find the IS-F. its a beast of a car that looks pretty slick. the 5.0 V8 doesn't hurt either. But go ahead and sit in it....and enjoy the ugly *** plastic dash. 58k for a dash that ugly? WOW. You'd be stupid to overlook the CTS-V for the same price. It's also apparent that the Americans are building better car than in the past based off initial quality - that area is now equal. The last and final step to regaining more and more customers is to continue to improve reliability. While the Americas have many good cars (even for the price - yes), they also seem to have some really bad cars.
What i've learned to admire is the designs of American cars. Many look pretty good in my eyes, and they're definitely more aggresive designs than Honda and Toyota as a whole.
My last thing i'll leave you with is the "buy American" campaign that's been gaining more and more momentum here in Metro Detroit. If your VIN number doesn't start with "1", then you can't claim to be driving an "American" car IMO. When I think of what's "American", i think Made in America. Sure the top exec's are in America as are the headquarters - but they've been giving so many of the non-white collar jobs to other countries that I don't understand how so many UAW supporters continue to blame the Japanese.
p.s. to the big time critics saying the Big Three will never make it b/c they haven't sold the most reliable cars, i'm calling BS. take a look at VW, BMW, and worst of all MB.
