Easter dealer parking lot photo shoot

sicnarf_1978

Active Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2009
Messages
231
Location
St-Jérôme, Québec
Car(s)
2017 Buick Regal and 1997 Peugeot 106
Today, I spent some time in some dealers parking lot.... some photos...

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The new Hyundai Elantra

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The new 2006 Civic... oops, 2012... it looks like the old one. Failed

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1991 Honda Acty pickup JDM... use to be in the showroom, in mint condition

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2012 Mazda 5... like the Civic, but for different reasons, failed. And Ugly.

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2012 Ford Focus. Very cool car, well done.

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The new Explorer, strange face.

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A lot of Ecoboost pick up in Duportage Ford parking lot.

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Bigger is better... but you change your mind when...

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... you see the price. 80 000 CAD... outch !

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Something you will never see in Europe... a full line of F150.

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A Sport Edge... I prefer the Limited one.

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The old 2010 and the "all new" 2011 Dodge Journey. Which one is the new one ? Like the Civic (and the entire Chrysler lineup, Failed !

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Imported from Detroit... and it can return there.

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The 4 door Charger... yes, 4 doors. Chrysler did a mistake, a real Charger have 2 doors, not 4.

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Buick Regal. Very cool and classy. Better looking then the original Opel Insigna.

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Camaro. Inside, there was an SS convertible.
 
How is the Regal better looking than the Insignia if all that differs between them is the front grill?
 
There is something that has been bothering me and maybe I shouldn't bring it up here, but there were multiple examples of it above. This idea that if a new car doesn't look wildly different from the outside, then the manufacturer was lazy and it "fails". The problem with that logic is that the exterior styling of a car is completely insignificant. I mean sure, the world is full of superficial morons who haven't the first clue about cars except for what color they like, but there are far more important things when it comes to a new generation of a car. Face lifts are easy, just bolt on some new bumpers, maybe play with the headlight design a bit. Easy. Reworking various portions of the drivetrain, improving engine designs, reworking the suspension geometry, and even improving the interiors, those are the hard, expensive, meaningful improvements. Like the 2010 and 2011 Dodge Journeys, had the OP bothered looking at the interiors, he may have had a clue as to what Chrysler focused on improving with that model. But of course it's so much easier to judge the book by it's cover.

Now normally I wouldn't care what people think about a new car, since their opinions are meaningless anyway, but I hate the idea of car companies reading those kinds of "complaints" online and deciding that they can appease the [expletive deleted] masses by simply swapping out the sheet metal with something wildly different on their same old crap cars, since buyers only care about it looking a bit different on the outside.

/rant
 
How is the Regal better looking than the Insignia if all that differs between them is the front grill?

The Regal has more class. It looks more like a luxury car. I prefer it.
 
ok, look, the "real" charger has however many doors they put on it. Im looking at a picture of a real charger and it has 4 doors. at the same time this is comming from someone who probably likes the new camero. :)

i like that sport edge, looks sharp. anyways, great pics! im guessing your not on a car lot often?
 
i agree with you so i jumped in and added some fun!

please, read and let me know if im wrong about this but im very sure im not. i agree with TomCat. We tend to judge by the walkby before the drive. i personally wont buy an ugly car no matter how good it is but i get the point and i agree.

There is something that has been bothering me and maybe I shouldn't bring it up here, but there were multiple examples of it above. This idea that if a new car doesn't look wildly different from the outside, then the manufacturer was lazy and it "fails". The problem with that logic is that the exterior styling of a car is completely insignificant. I mean sure, the world is full of superficial morons who haven't the first clue about cars except for what color they like (Americans), but there are far more important things when it comes to a new generation of a car. Face lifts are easy, just bolt on some new bumpers, maybe play with the headlight design a bit (GM). Easy. Reworking various portions of the drivetrain, improving engine designs, reworking the suspension geometry, and even improving the interiors, those are the hard, expensive, meaningful improvements (Ford, MB, ect...). Like the 2010 and 2011 Dodge Journeys, had the OP bothered looking at the interiors, he may have had a clue as to what Chrysler focused on improving with that model. But of course it's so much easier to judge the book by it's cover (canadian).

Now normally I wouldn't care what people think about a new car, since their opinions are meaningless anyway, but I hate the idea of car companies reading those kinds of "complaints" online and deciding that they can appease the [expletive deleted] masses by simply swapping out the sheet metal with something wildly different on their same old crap cars (GM again), since buyers only care about it looking a bit different on the outside.

/rant
 
The Regal has more class. It looks more like a luxury car. I prefer it.

How the hell does it have more class if the only difference is the front grille??? Besides, YOU don't have the estate version, hatchback, diesels, V6 Turbo, four-wheel-drive version. You can't even have the option of 20-inch rims.
 
i agree with you so i jumped in and added some fun!

please, read and let me know if im wrong about this but im very sure im not. i agree with TomCat. We tend to judge by the walkby before the drive. i personally wont buy an ugly car no matter how good it is but i get the point and i agree.

I totally forgot about this thread. Yeah, if a car is truly ugly and it's hurting sales, then they should do something about it. But when you have cars that are actually pretty decent looking and sell quite well, then you'd be a bit of a fool to change it too much. Brand recognition is important, you want people to be able to look at your new car and recognize it as a... Honda Civic, for example. They sold a billion* of the old body-style, so it would be dumb to change it drastically for the new generation. Otherwise people would see it and wonder if it's the new Hyundai or Nissan or something, rather than knowing immediately that it's a Honda.

*true story, I was bored one day so I counted.
 
Regarding the journey's... for some reason the new front bumper isn't on many of them. If you go to dodge.com and go to the journey page, you'll immediately see what I mean.

That said, the Journey IMO was one of the best car/mpv that chrysler had in the "bad old days." Think about it:

* the previous journey's interior wasn't bad. It had nicely grained soft plastics throughout because Chrysler knew the European compact mpv segment would be a very big deal. The styling was off.

* there wasn't much wrong with the exterior styling.

The biggest issues was the drivetrain and handling. These were rectified for 2010/11 and if you step inside, the interior is far more conventional and well made.

If Dodge renews pushing the journey in advertising I think it'll do better here. In canada its the best selling crossover iirc.
 
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