Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

[Spectre]

You are a wealth of knowledge of things I never thought about. Except the corvette one.

I can confirm this actually with the market research I've conducted here at work. Cannot get in to specifics due to the NDA but this I can confirm for sure.

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that I was a business and marketing dual major in college (probably for longer than I should have been). I still like reading up on those fields - and researching customer demographics are a fundamental part of marketing.

One of the things you learn in marketing is that almost all stereotypes have a basis somewhere in reality - if not the present day then somewhere in the past. As part of doing marketing, you really have to nail down what/when/where that basis is before you move forward with whatever plan you have conceived.

JCE: I presume you find that kind of marketing research fascinating, especially when the results don't match what the client expected?

 

[gaasc]

it explains your hatred of MBA's

Bringing it back to cars.

Drool.

 

[EyeMWing]

If it's LI auto find, don't even bother

Huntington Volvo. Could you be conned into eyeballing it?

 

[93Flareside]

it explains your hatred of MBA's

Bringing it back to cars.

Drool.

The way the hood ends higher than the door lines. It bothers me.

 

[laxmax613]

The way the hood ends higher than the door lines. It bothers me.

It seems weird when you look at it now, but you'll notice that this is a feature on a lot of cars. It can help mitigate the perception of a car as "tall" or "truck-like" without making compromises to the size of the greenhouse to keep the height down. The original body-on-frame ford explorers use this well.

 

[JCE]

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that I was a business and marketing dual major in college (probably for longer than I should have been). I still like reading up on those fields - and researching customer demographics are a fundamental part of marketing.

One of the things you learn in marketing is that almost all stereotypes have a basis somewhere in reality - if not the present day then somewhere in the past. As part of doing marketing, you really have to nail down what/when/where that basis is before you move forward with whatever plan you have conceived.

This is absolutely true. Some stereotypes were based in fact, but sometimes they do change as you know. In this particular instance with Subaru its true. LOL

JCE: I presume you find that kind of marketing research fascinating, especially when the results don't match what the client expected?

Very fascinating, that's half the reason why I do it. Never gets boring and on occasion we (client and myself) are dumbfounded at the answers our respondents give on a particular topic. We bid the project one way and it comes in a completely unexpected way. People are so unpredictable sometimes!

I do also find that my own opinion/stereotype sometimes is way off base and I have to change my thinking after looking at the research deck once my project finishes data collection.

 

[EyeMWing]

Or how the entire Scion line was aimed at the 18-25 year old primarily male demographic and ended up mostly selling to the over-50 set, more females than males.

This, I think, was largely because they were cheap basic transportation and appealed to the ultrafrugal coupon-user set.

That said, it did hit the young-and-gullible fairly hard. I know one young woman who owns a Scion TC who swears it's a sports car ('the TC stands for Toyota Celica!' she says as her long-suffering boyfriend replaces the tailgate handle for the tenth time) and the spiritual relative of the FR-S and therefore BRZ.

 

[JCE]

That said, it did hit the young-and-gullible fairly hard. I know one young woman who owns a Scion TC who swears it's a sports car ('the TC stands for Toyota Celica!' she says as her long-suffering boyfriend replaces the tailgate handle for the tenth time) and the spiritual relative of the FR-S and therefore BRZ.

LOL Sorry, that story made me laugh. What a crock!

 

[gaasc]

I mean...the TC took the Celica's spot in the lineup...the BR-Z just rolled it back to when the celica was actually good.

 

[public]

The Celica was also one of the best-looking Ford Mustangs.

 

[Labcoatguy]

Funny you should mention that, the Celica went FWD about the time the Mustang almost did. Imagine an alternate universe where the Celica remained RWD. Perhaps that would've prevented the MR2 from being 2ZZ-ready.

 

[JCE]

Funny you should mention that, the Celica went FWD about the time the Mustang almost did. Imagine an alternate universe where the Celica remained RWD. Perhaps that would've prevented the MR2 from being 2ZZ-ready.

Can you imaging going further and seeing the Mustang be killed off at some point in the 2000's because it would of been trash? I cannot imagine a world without a Ford Mustang much less a FWD one. The Probe was neat but it wasn't ever going to be accepted as a Mustang.

I do wish the Celica would of stayed RWD or AWD with a RWD bias. But alas Toyota did some crazy shit back in those days and then promptly turned in to boring carbage since--present day included.

 

[Der Stig]

Best Mustang is British Mustang.

 

[Labcoatguy]

See also: British 2nd-gen Camaro.

 

[public]

I also enjoy the British Mercury Capri:

 

[Spectre]

Don't forget the American Rabbit/Golf GTI:

 

[93Flareside]

I like the euro focus.

 

[EyeMWing]

I like the euro focus.

ERR_FOCUS_WAS_EUROPEAN_IN_THE_FIRST_PLACE

- - - Updated - - -

I'm not sure if anyone has noticed this yet, but Subaru's parts bin skills are still on point:

Without digging into the parts system (The '18 Crosstrek isn't in there yet), I'm pretty fucking sure the only difference between the '18 Impreza wagon and '18 Crosstrek is a couple inches of suspension and the front bumper cover.

 

[JCE]

ERR_FOCUS_WAS_EUROPEAN_IN_THE_FIRST_PLACE

- - - Updated - - -

I'm not sure if anyone has noticed this yet, but Subaru's parts bin skills are still on point:

Without digging into the parts system (The '18 Crosstrek isn't in there yet), I'm pretty fucking sure the only difference between the '18 Impreza wagon and '18 Crosstrek is a couple inches of suspension and the front bumper cover.

FOG LIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kidding. Definitely about the same.

 

[prizrak]

Huntington Volvo. Could you be conned into eyeballing it?

It's fairly far, especially with traffic, if it's still there next weekend I can try to hit them up. Time is a luxury for me these days

- - - Updated - - -

ERR_FOCUS_WAS_EUROPEAN_IN_THE_FIRST_PLACE

- - - Updated - - -

I'm not sure if anyone has noticed this yet, but Subaru's parts bin skills are still on point:

Without digging into the parts system (The '18 Crosstrek isn't in there yet), I'm pretty fucking sure the only difference between the '18 Impreza wagon and '18 Crosstrek is a couple inches of suspension and the front bumper cover.

That makes sense since really the Xtrek is basically the old Impreza Outback Sport.