QOTD: Living Beyond One's Reasonable Years?
A new trim level here, a revised bumper there, general fiddling. Sometimes, there’s just no way around it — a manufacturer’s vehicular offering is overdue for replacement. Today we want to discuss the models on sale in The Current Year that have lived past their reasonable shelf life.
The idea behind refresh-not-replace is of course money saving; to stretch out a few more years from a platform that’s already a sunk cost. It occurred to me there might be several current models overdue for replacement after the article yesterday on the visually refreshed Nissan Patrol. We North Americans know it as Armada.
The current Patrol debuted in 2010 overseas, the same year the fancy version appeared locally as the Infiniti QX56. Since then, Patrol has sailed along with mostly minimal changes. The 2020 (second overall) refresh looks as though Nissan put in a bit more effort. There’s finally a central screen in place of a bevy of buttons — thanks, Infiniti. But the rest of the interior does not fare so well.
Areas of age concern are found around the gear shift, the trim along the dashboard, the timbered wheel, and the big red starter button that Nissan has been using in various colors since sometime around 2005. All those things a manufacturer could redesign with a new platform must stay the same if you are stretching out an old one on a limited budget.
The refresh will probably net a slight sales boost, as the exterior alterations are definitely more pleasing and cohesive than the outgoing version. But it’s just not enough. The layers of lipstick are piling up on the pig, and cash-strapped Nissan needs to face facts: that their product needs replacement. Not to say the current model is particularly poor; the Armada seems a good value amongst large SUVs which can seat seven and still go off-road. But that doesn’t change the decade-old underpinnings.
What models on sale presently are overdue for a do-over?
[Images: Corey Lewis/TTAC, Nissan]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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Discussions about chassis age/features/need for updates somewhat amuse me. If the vehicle is fulfilling its function is change just "because it's time" or "long in the tooth" really necessary? Chrysler products seem to take the brunt of this criticism (and yeah, I agree that the interior needs some updating, but....). And yet, as I recall, the Toyota Camry was using a chassis design dating from 2002. Yup, there'd been some minor updates through the years, but same design until the release of the new model (2017? 2018?), that information was never reported, or only reported in one or two auto magazines. Was the Camry's 2002 chassis that much better than the Charger/300 in 2005? Or is it simply bias, based on "the Camry's reliability"? I don't know--but if Toyota can get away with the lack of substantive updates, why shouldn't Chrysler? But Chrysler gets nailed every other breath and Toyota gets a pass. And along the way, Chrysler did make upgrades and changes--they've not been totally static. (BTW, the chassis age/dates are based on my failing memory...I'd only read that info in ONE auto mag, and (apparently) missed it if it was in any other story.)
4Runner, good lord can we get a modern transmission..........