In China, Chrome [Grilles] Makes a Big Comeback
In China, Chrome [Grilles] Makes a Big Comeback
Interesting article in today's WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...179910560.html
In China, Car Grilles Bloom
The future is so bright for the Chinese car industry you have to wear shades. Literally.
Chinese car buyers adore cars with chrome grilles, the more garish and gothic the better. A stroll down the aisles of the Beijing International Automotive show, now through May 2, is to be confronted at every corner with a Chinese domestic automobile jeering at you with a mouthful of bling.
"It is all about face," said David Goggins, an executive with FAW-Volkswagen, one of the larger joint ventures between Western car makers and the Chinese. "It is about how you show off."
"It is purely about status," agreed Anthony Williams-Kenny, the British global design director for auto maker Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. "It is about telling people 'I'm important, I'm successful, I'm at the top rung.'"
One-upping your fellow motorists may have practical advantages in China, where the rules of the road are negotiated in real time, at real speeds—particularly at unregulated intersections. Studies have shown that drivers world-wide tend to yield to the driver of the more expensive, prestigious automobile. The hauntingly overlarge grilles of Chinese vehicles may be a kind of defensive driving technique.
For American car enthusiasts schooled in the chromic excesses of General Motors designer Harley Earl and Chrysler's Virgil Exner, the Chinese love of big grilles resonates. Like America in the 1950s, China—or at least the Eastern part—is swimming in new wealth after a period of scarcity. "Suddenly, people can buy stuff," said Mr. Goggins. "And no one is quite sure how long all that is going to last, so it is a kind of feeding frenzy."
The results may strike Western auto connoisseurs as ridiculous. The most egregious example could be Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd.'s Geely GE sedan, which the company describes as the "perfect interpretation of Chinese classical aesthetics." The Geely's grille is somewhere between an evaporative cooler and an enormous Norelco shaver, with huge semicircles of vertical chrome pushing—crowning, if you like—through the sheet metal. Should the grille, and the six-meter car behind it, leave any doubt, there is a sculptured hood ornament as big as a man's fist.
The Chinese love of big, declarative grilles could be, for Western luxury car makers scrambling for market share, auspicious. Cadillac, Audi, Buick and Bentley, among others, have front-ends design language that emphasizes status and recognizability. Cadillac's Ciel concept car, and Bentley's EXP9 concept SUV, both have brilliant, gloriously graphic faces.
And Western designers aren't above pandering. "When we went to [Bentley Chairman Wolfgang Dürheimer] with the design choices for the SUV," says Bentley designer Robin Page, "We said, 'It can be more British country utility or more Shanghai limo.'
"He said, 'Yes, please.' "
In China, Car Grilles Bloom
The future is so bright for the Chinese car industry you have to wear shades. Literally.
Chinese car buyers adore cars with chrome grilles, the more garish and gothic the better. A stroll down the aisles of the Beijing International Automotive show, now through May 2, is to be confronted at every corner with a Chinese domestic automobile jeering at you with a mouthful of bling.
"It is all about face," said David Goggins, an executive with FAW-Volkswagen, one of the larger joint ventures between Western car makers and the Chinese. "It is about how you show off."
"It is purely about status," agreed Anthony Williams-Kenny, the British global design director for auto maker Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. "It is about telling people 'I'm important, I'm successful, I'm at the top rung.'"
One-upping your fellow motorists may have practical advantages in China, where the rules of the road are negotiated in real time, at real speeds—particularly at unregulated intersections. Studies have shown that drivers world-wide tend to yield to the driver of the more expensive, prestigious automobile. The hauntingly overlarge grilles of Chinese vehicles may be a kind of defensive driving technique.
For American car enthusiasts schooled in the chromic excesses of General Motors designer Harley Earl and Chrysler's Virgil Exner, the Chinese love of big grilles resonates. Like America in the 1950s, China—or at least the Eastern part—is swimming in new wealth after a period of scarcity. "Suddenly, people can buy stuff," said Mr. Goggins. "And no one is quite sure how long all that is going to last, so it is a kind of feeding frenzy."
The results may strike Western auto connoisseurs as ridiculous. The most egregious example could be Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd.'s Geely GE sedan, which the company describes as the "perfect interpretation of Chinese classical aesthetics." The Geely's grille is somewhere between an evaporative cooler and an enormous Norelco shaver, with huge semicircles of vertical chrome pushing—crowning, if you like—through the sheet metal. Should the grille, and the six-meter car behind it, leave any doubt, there is a sculptured hood ornament as big as a man's fist.
The Chinese love of big, declarative grilles could be, for Western luxury car makers scrambling for market share, auspicious. Cadillac, Audi, Buick and Bentley, among others, have front-ends design language that emphasizes status and recognizability. Cadillac's Ciel concept car, and Bentley's EXP9 concept SUV, both have brilliant, gloriously graphic faces.
And Western designers aren't above pandering. "When we went to [Bentley Chairman Wolfgang Dürheimer] with the design choices for the SUV," says Bentley designer Robin Page, "We said, 'It can be more British country utility or more Shanghai limo.'
"He said, 'Yes, please.' "
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Jan 2005
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Considering how Chinese market is the biggest in the world, I wonder how soon they start influencing us?
So far they have been in very unfair position where they are buying cars tailored for us and not for them... I bet that will change in 4-5 years max.
So far they have been in very unfair position where they are buying cars tailored for us and not for them... I bet that will change in 4-5 years max.
Lexus Test Driver
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From: Bronx, NY
I keed i keed!
Lexus Fanatic
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From: Waiting for next track day
The chinese buy a car every 2.3 seconds , so whatever they like the manufacturers will be doing . I saw on Top Gear that Audi is even making long wheel base version of their cars because apparently the chinese think that one of the most important attributes of a car is rear leg room ( suprising since they are generally not very tall people)
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Driver
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From: CA
The chinese buy a car every 2.3 seconds , so whatever they like the manufacturers will be doing . I saw on Top Gear that Audi is even making long wheel base version of their cars because apparently the chinese think that one of the most important attributes of a car is rear leg room ( suprising since they are generally not very tall people)
go to China and take a look, the cars are much more utilized than in U.S. backseat are often filled and i cannot think about any Sedan in the U.S. would fit 4 people comfortably for a long road trip (Avalon maybe a rare exception).
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