QOTD: What Is The Biggest Case Of Misplaced Hype For A New Car?
In the now-infamous article on the Scion FR-S and the relentless hype campaign leading up to its launch, I invoked the Chevrolet Camaro as an example of how a new car can be praised as the Second Coming of Christ during its debut, only to have cooler heads prevailed down the line, when the novelty wears off and its flaws become apparent.
Thanks to reader and contributor Jeff Jablansky, I was able to dig up perhaps the most egregious example of this phenomenon.
For the true car snob, nothing is held in higher esteem than the British buff books. Even as sales of the American color mags declined, people would willingly shell out upwards of $12 for a copy of CAR, EVO or the print edition of Top Gear. Their ruthless criticism of certain cars (sometimes warranted, sometimes not), hyperbolic tales of driving derring-do and beautiful aesthetics lent them a credibility that no American publication could match.
How could one not love a publication that summed up Kia’s sub-par sub-compact offering with “ Her name is Rio, and she’s crap“? Unfortunately, when it came time to review anything homegrown, no superlative was spared for even the most wretched garbage dredged up by the post-Thatcher automotive industrial complex.
The Jaguar X-Type, as we all know, was a less than stellar car. Despite being based off of a Ford Mondeo platform, they were as reliable as an old Mark II, and failed to offer grace, pace or space. And yet CAR magazine is effusive in its praise, even going so far as to state that “Even the Impreza WRX ought to be worried”.
That might be the only statement more ludicrous than Peter Robinson’s assertion that the Toyobaru is better than the Porsche Cayman. The Toyobaru is at least in the same league as the Cayman, as far as being a sports car goes. The only similarity between the X type and the WRX is that their monikers share the 24th letter of the alphabet.
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- Jkross22 I'd imagine there's a booming business available for EV station repair.
- JLGOLDEN Enormous competition is working against any brand in the fight for "luxury" validation. It gets murky for Cadillac's image when Chevy, Buick, and GMC models keep moving up the luxury features (and price) scale. I think Cadillac needs more consistency with square, crisp designs...even at the expense of aerodynamics and optimized efficiency. Reintroduce names such as DeVille, Seville, El Dorado if you want to create a stir.
- ClipTheApex I don't understand all of the negativity from folks on this forum regarding Europeans. Having visited the EU multiple times across different countries, I find they are very much like us in North America-- not as different as politicians like to present them. They all aren't liberal "weenies." They are very much like you and me. Unless you've travelled there and engaged with them, it's easy to digest and repeat what we hear. I wish more Americans would travel abroad. When they return, they will have a different view of America. We are not as perfect or special as we like to believe. And no, many Europeans don't look up to America. Quite the opposite, actually.
- Dwford Let's face it, Cadillac is planning minimal investment in the current ICE products. Their plan is to muddle through until the transition to full EV is complete. The best you are going to get is one more generation of ICE vehicles built on the existing platforms. What should Cadillac do going forward? No more vehicles under $50k. No more compact vehicles. Rely on Buick for that. Many people here mention Genesis. Genesis doesn't sell a small sedan, and they don't sell a small crossover. They sell midsize and above. So should Cadillac.
- EBFlex Sorry BP. They aren’t any gaps
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New Beetle: Despite even getting its own video game (Beetle Adventure Racing) and starring in many others (Midtown Madness), the real New Beetle was just a Golf with a poorly designed body, good luck replacing... well anything in a body that was more suited for a toy than an actual car. It was also nothing like the old VW Bug. Chevy Sonic: Remember the Daewood\Chevy Aveo? Thats what this is except for being uglier. Kia Soul: Actually I take that back, I wouldn't know a thing since this cars target audience consists of hamsters.
2011 Ford Explorer. I don't understand how turning the Explorer into yet another milquetoast crossover generated so much hype, especially considering Ford already had a number of very similar offerings on the market.