Design Change, WHY?
05-20-13, 05:54 AM
#31
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The hood ornament harkens back to the embellished radiator caps of decades ago. The flat faced grille of the Rolls Royce Phantom likewise mimics the exposed radiators upon which those caps would reside. It makes sense on the Rolls Royce as it has loads of retro styling elements. It is still possible to order a Mercedes-Benz E-Class or S-Class with a hood ornament, but I believe those are the only mainstream models which still make it available.
The hood ornament and flat-faced grilles came to symbolise "old" in the automotive world. Vehicles with older demographics sported these styling elements in to the 1980's. Hood ornaments and grilles themselves became smaller or non-existent in the 1990's in response to this trend. This also fit with the "aero" trend. Grilles were revived as branding elements in the 2000's. Now we have vehicles with giant corporate-branded grilles, but still, without hood ornaments. I think government fuel economy regulations may mean we'll never see a new surge of hood ornaments as they would disrupt air flow.
The hood ornament and flat-faced grilles came to symbolise "old" in the automotive world. Vehicles with older demographics sported these styling elements in to the 1980's. Hood ornaments and grilles themselves became smaller or non-existent in the 1990's in response to this trend. This also fit with the "aero" trend. Grilles were revived as branding elements in the 2000's. Now we have vehicles with giant corporate-branded grilles, but still, without hood ornaments. I think government fuel economy regulations may mean we'll never see a new surge of hood ornaments as they would disrupt air flow.
05-20-13, 06:07 AM
#32
The rest of your post makes sense, but sometimes, it looks like Infiniti is comfortable playing in that "near" Top Level arena. To me, they seem kinda like Acura. Japan's big 3 luxuries have sort of played as a team to allow Lexus to take the spot as alpha. Not sure if there is some secret plan to do that in the Japanese government, but it is very coincidental that BOTH Inf/Acu don't have flagships and do not offer a "full lineup" like Lexus/MB/BMW. There are glaring holes in the other Japanese brands.
With the powerful backing of Honda/Nissan, you would think they would've done something by now.
Japan's Lexus takes on USA's Cadillac and Europe's BMW/MB/Audi/Jag
Japan's Acura/Infiniti fights USA's Buick/Lincoln, and Europe's Volvo
Very strategic competition if looked at that way.
p.s. The talks about Infiniti's planned flagship are very interesting...
With the powerful backing of Honda/Nissan, you would think they would've done something by now.
Japan's Lexus takes on USA's Cadillac and Europe's BMW/MB/Audi/Jag
Japan's Acura/Infiniti fights USA's Buick/Lincoln, and Europe's Volvo
Very strategic competition if looked at that way.
p.s. The talks about Infiniti's planned flagship are very interesting...
there is no such strategic plan, Nissan is not even Japanese anymore, it is owned by Renault.
Simply put, Acura and Infiniti are sales failures. I guess that puts them into that lower list :-).
Nissan/Renault have huge plans for Infiniti, they are just not happening... it is not enough to simply say you want to be #1... Ghosn and Lutz do/did a lot of promises and PR campaigns.
05-20-13, 08:07 AM
#33
Lexus Fanatic
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05-20-13, 08:43 AM
#34
Lexus Fanatic
05-20-13, 08:59 AM
#35
Lexus Fanatic
Yes, that was (and still is) a common teenage prank. But a lot of owners liked the ornaments (still do), and, despite vandalism (which can happen with any car, as the number of keying-incidents prove). I don't see the need for them to have been dropped, except maybe for pedestrian-impact standards. And putting them on a spring-loaded support solved at least part of that problem.
05-20-13, 09:07 AM
#36
Lexus Fanatic
Interesting, though, that you mentioned Cadillac. I remember that when Lutz first came to GM, he was given a Chauffeur-driven Cadillac DeVille at company expense. After sampling the Buick Lucerne and its comfort, even though it was not what one would call an ''enthusiast car", he decided to dump the chauffer-driven Caddy, take home a Lucerne, and use it as his daily-driver, driving it himself.
Today, Lutz does a question-and-answer column in some of the auto-mags.
05-20-13, 09:11 AM
#37
Lexus Fanatic
Originally Posted by spwolf
Ghosn and Lutz do/did a lot of promises and PR campaigns.
05-20-13, 10:23 AM
#38
Pole Position
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05-20-13, 10:39 AM
#39
Lexus Fanatic
Last edited by mmarshall; 05-21-13 at 09:36 AM.
05-20-13, 10:44 AM
#40
Sorry I did not read all the posts in this thread so if this was mentioned please forgive me but these days the manufacturers have actually become much more efficient than they have been in the past. Back in the mid to late 50s all through the 60s the car companies were so competitive that they redesigned some models every year and offered most of their cars with any option the factory had. Now you can usually only get packages and that is it.
05-22-13, 09:30 AM
#43
Lexus Fanatic
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