{"id":1393,"date":"2002-01-14T09:26:22","date_gmt":"2002-01-14T14:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=1393"},"modified":"2002-01-14T09:26:22","modified_gmt":"2002-01-14T14:26:22","slug":"making_must_hav","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/14\/making_must_hav.html","title":{"rendered":"Making must-have cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

GM’s new vice chairman for product development, Bob Lutz, has a simple goal<\/a> — getting cars designed that people look at and want to have.<\/p>\n

“When I got here, I started asking people to describe the design process, and nobody could do it,” he says. “I realized it was just plain dysfunctional.” Cars were being designed once in the studio and then analyzed and reanalyzed by engineers and marketing experts and constantly redesigned to suit their needs along the way….
\nThere’s no better example of the GM riddle than the Pontiac Aztek, the 2001 sport-utility vehicle that was recently awarded top honors by J.D. Power & Associates for customer satisfaction among light SUVs. The trouble is, not many customers can stop laughing long enough even to look inside an Aztek, whose boxy, butt-ugly design has inspired more jokes than any vehicle since the 1957 Ford Edsel. It’s kind of what Lutz had in mind a year ago when he described GM’s products, among others, as resembling “angry kitchen appliances.”<\/p>\n

It’s remarkable that this is a lesson that auto companies in the US still have yet to learn — while comfort, reliability, price, cargo space and features are all things that will close the sale, the sale won’t even get off the ground until you catch the eye. US auto owners still identify with their cars, more often than not, so you want something that folks will want<\/i> to identify with.<\/p>\n

(Via Opine Bovine<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GM’s new vice chairman for product development, Bob Lutz, has a simple goal — getting cars designed that people look at and want to have. “When I got here, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7052,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/11\/05\/there_is_a_desi.html","url_meta":{"origin":1393,"position":0},"title":"There is a Design God …","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 5-Nov-04 12:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"RIP, Pontiac Aztek. (via Daimnation)...","rel":"","context":"In "Cars"","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49314,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/22\/hear-the-mighty-engine-roar-now-in-stereo.html","url_meta":{"origin":1393,"position":1},"title":"Hear the Mighty Engine Roar! (Now in Stereo!)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Jan-15 9:23am","format":false,"excerpt":"That mighty rumble, purr, or deep-throated roar of your uber-sexy muscle-car-pickup-vehicle ... may be being \"enhanced\" by sound files played through your stereo system.On the one hand, it seems so goofy as to be laughable. It's arguably deceptive, but not in a way that affects the actual performance or mileage.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31846,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/19\/guns-vs-cars-which-are-deadlier.html","url_meta":{"origin":1393,"position":2},"title":"Guns vs. Cars — which are deadlier?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Dec-12 11:00am","format":false,"excerpt":"For many years, the discussion about gun control has usually included this exchange:A. \"Well, cars kill more people than guns, so why don't you ban them?\"B. \"Because cars serve another purposes. And we do license all car drivers and make them take classes and require them to carry insurance.\"A. \"That's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21140,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/04\/zoom-zoom-zoom-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":1393,"position":3},"title":"Zoom-zoom-zoom","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 4-Jun-11 2:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The vehicle I was one of the official drivers of was a Fiat Doblo -- nicknamed by us \"The Toaster\". \u00a0It's a fun essentially-mini-van vehicle, seating five, with huge cargo space. \u00a0It was comfy, pleasant to drive, 6-gear manual with good performance, a diesel engine, sliding rear doors, and a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars"","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/fiat-doblo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":133561,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/28\/those-cars-the-darned-germans-sell-us-are-largely-made-here-in-the-us.html","url_meta":{"origin":1393,"position":4},"title":"Those cars the darned Germans sell us … are largely made here in the US","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 28-May-17 12:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"See, here's how globalism works, Donald, particularly in the auto industry: cars get built in a lot of places, and sold in a lot of places, and those places don't necessarily have much to do with where the cars are actually sold. But because the US buys a lot of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12580,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/03\/18\/car_talk_5.html","url_meta":{"origin":1393,"position":5},"title":"Car talk","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-Mar-08 9:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The occasionally amusing thing about business travel is getting to drive unexpected cars. Yes, usually I end up in the standard mid-sized sedan yadda-yadda -- but occasionally the vagaries of...","rel":"","context":"In "Cars"","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}