THE AUTOEXTREMIST

January 18, 2012

Detroit Auto Show Aftermath: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Inconsequential Tail Chasing.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

(Posted 1/16, 1:00 p.m.) Detroit. After the endless product reveals, the ritual genuflections from the media, and with the obligatory ring-kissing at the charity preview (aka “Auto Prom”) now completed, it’s always good to take a look back at the Detroit Auto Show, just to make sure our eyes didn’t deceive, the Fog of War didn’t intrude, and because industry players seem to thrive on post mortems, (but only if they agree with them, of course).

Overall it was a good show, but then again you knew that. The industry has moved on from the dirge-like “Let’s show ‘em we’re still alive” to the “We’re back in the game and feisty” mode, which, trust me on this one, was far more palatable and enjoyable than the dark days of the last couple of years.

But what really happened?

Well, Ford kept rolling, GM surprisingly didn’t impress all that much, Chrysler over-promised on the decidedly average Dart (true to Sergio’s “M.O.”), the German automakers for the most part behaved like German automakers and the Asian manufacturers were all over the map.

Let’s start with Ford. A colleague of mine emailed me and asked, “Is the Fusion really that good?” which was refreshing, because at least he asked. This was compared to the critical universe out there in Keyboard Land who felt compelled to weigh-in on all things Detroit Auto Show without even being there. But hey, that’s standard operating procedure these days and to pretend otherwise is pure folly.

Ford tried to improve the situation by flying in a bunch of bloggers to write about the Fusion – and they were quite pleased with themselves for doing that, I might add, even though it mattered not one iota – but they didn’t really need to because in retrospect the Fusion is every bit as good and significant, if not more so, than it was upon its unveiling.

It’s rare when a car arrives in a segment that not only redefines it but also completely changes the dynamic altogether, but the Fusion does exactly that. As I said last week, “suddenly the Malibu doesn’t reach far enough, the Sonata seems stale and the Camry looks easily ten years old.” And that’s saying a mouthful because those are seriously tough competitors, each and every one. But the Fusion truly transcends the segment, and those worthy competitors have been instantly relegated to second-tier status overnight.

I’ve heard from the hand-wringers and their insistence that the new Fusion will price itself out of the segment and that the competition will eat Ford’s lunch based on that, but I don’t see that happening at all. What I do see is people wanting the best in the segment and flocking to the Fusion in droves, while paying a premium to boot. If this business is based on image being everything (and more on that later), then the new Fusion will be red hot the moment it hits the showrooms next fall.

And what about that new Lincoln? Wow, did the Internet Hordes That Were Not There carve up the new MKZ Concept, insisting it wasn’t all that great, it was derivative, the Fusion looked better, blah, frickin’ blah. And they would be wrong, because for a statement of future intent this new Lincoln is brilliant. And I don’t use that relentlessly overused word lightly.

It seemed lost on a surprising number of people that the MKZ Concept is a level set for the brand and that from this day forward everything about Lincoln, from its products and its dealers to its brand presentation and image will be fundamentally altered. But forgetting that, the design presence of the new MKZ is unmistakable. And even though the tilted turntable reveal was incapable of doing the car justice, I predict it will look sensational on the street, which is, at the end of the day, what this business is all about.

Is the transformation of Lincoln going to happen because of this one car? Don’t be silly, of course not, and for that matter it’s the next products that will make or break the brand. Is all of this going to happen overnight? No. It will take a decade at least to get the Lincoln brand back on track and in the game. Let me repeat that, a decade. Does Ford’s current and future management have the stones to stay the course and see this through? That’s the $5 billion with a “B” question.

As for GM, I questioned the thinking behind the “I Want” presentation of its two youth concepts for Chevrolet and the execution of the presentation was even worse, and it grinds me even more now that I’ve read some of the subsequent articles about how this industry is in a desperate race to capture the disaffected youth’s attention going forward. But more on that later.

For me the more serious, in-market issue is the Cadillac ATS. Everything about the car screams that the True Believers in Product Development did their homework and then some. It’s clear that Mark Reuss was bound and determined to make a statement with this car and he marshaled his troops appropriately, and the attention to detail in getting the weight down is something to behold, especially when GM has struggled mightily in this area in the past. But surprisingly enough, even though the exterior and interior packaging is right and the dynamics of the ATS should be ultra-competitive, it’s the design that doesn’t work for me and I’m shocked by that. It’s clear that the “art and science” design language pioneered in the CTS doesn’t quite translate to the ATS. The car is inelegant in the front bordering on cumbersome and that’s depressing to contemplate. And if the ATS struggles because of it, I will not be surprised. As for the XTS, interestingly enough though the skeptics are teeing-off on it, don’t be surprised if it’s a real hit for Cadillac. It’s the right size for a lot of people – aka the people with the money to pay for what they want – who still like bigger, more comfortable cars and it looks more handsome in the flesh too. The ATS may be the news that everyone at Cadillac wants U.S. consumers to pay attention to, but it’s the XTS that will make the real news for the division at the retail level.

I haven’t changed my opinion on the Dodge Dart one bit. Not only is it not the greatest thing since sliced bread in the segment, it’s far from the “automatic” hit that Chrysler’s brain trust would have you believe. As my colleague Mark Rechtin so eloquently put it in Automotive News: "How do you mess up an Alfa Romeo Giulietta? Let Dodge designers make a Neon out of it.” Truer words were never spoken, by the way, much to the Chrysler fan boys’ chagrin. And as I stated last week, the Dart is merely average and allows Chrysler to be represented in the segment. And nothing more.

Of the German automakers, Audi didn’t screw up, which means they automatically win the German car derby, because they were already ahead to begin with. BMW showed its new 3 series and as I’ve said, until proven otherwise and until someone knocks it off of its perch, the car will continue to define the sports sedan segment. And Porsche was off on its own in an unapologetic world they are quite comfortable occupying by themselves, one quite apart from their German rivals. Life is good for Porsche.

As for Mercedes-Benz? It continued to flounder because this company doesn’t appear to understand who they are and what they stand for anymore. Are they the maker of great cars and the AMG high-performance machines that honor the legacy of the marque? If so, they should focus on that and keep their mouths shut. (The new SL was decidedly average, and thus a disappointment.) Or are they the Tone Deaf Meisters and marketing stumblebums who continue to embarrass themselves at every turn with their dismal Smart car adventure and their relentlessly tedious and humiliating media events? Mercedes touts its sales success in this market but it has transformed itself into a soulless enterprise with questionable marketing instincts and piss-poor leadership. The brand deserves better.

Speaking of soulless enterprises, VW was off in its own world too but it’s not necessarily a joyful one. The E-Bugster, forgetting the whole electric charade (and its tediously freakish intro), is a worthy take on the Beetle cabriolet but other than that the VW presence in Detroit was lackluster and desultory. VW’s display looked for all the world like a German used car lot, because the Passats and Jettas blend together so well in a cynical cadence that it sucked the very life right out of the proceedings. VW may be doing well in this market but their presence in Detroit left a lot to be desired.

The post-mortem on Honda and Acura isn’t good despite the much-praised NSX. Far from the Beacon of Enlightenment that Honda insists it is, the new Accord Coupe concept was a crushing disappointment, a mediocre exercise in evolution when the brand cried out for a new beginning, one that would go a long way toward re-establishing its mojo. The NSX is gorgeous and all and it represents where Honda insists it will be three years from now, but it’s what Honda stands for right now that’s most disheartening. This is a company flailing about with no clue in sight, fumbling though evolution after evolution when they should be reinventing the proverbial wheel. Where is the creativity? Where is the whole “marching to a different drummer” persona that propelled the brand to greatness in its heyday? It was nowhere to be seen in Detroit and the relentless tedium that Acura offered up (The ILX? Really?) was just the bitter icing on a grim Honda cake. The NSX is three long years away and it’s obviously not a volume play. Honda better step to the fore and soon with some mainstream vehicles worth talking about or they will find themselves teetering on becoming an afterthought.

The gorgeous Lexus LF-LC was a showstopper that I loved, but it was the Toyota NS4 that was clearly the most significant car for Toyota by far. The NS4 proves to me that Toyota has a firm grip (finally) on the importance of design, and that they’re not going to be represented by the stunningly mundane suit of clothes that defines the current Camry for long. The NS4, more than any other entry at the show, should strike fear into the hearts of Toyota’s competitors, because if this company gets the design equation figured out, watch out.

(Toyota)

That was it for the most part from the show, but I can’t file this column without talking about the Big Thing at Cobo Hall, and that was the hyper hand-wringing among the manufacturers about the millenials, and how it was the industry’s task to reach the 80 million or so strong who qualify as such, or else. And nowhere is that hand-wringing more in evidence than at GM and Chevrolet.

Chevrolet’s presentation of their two concepts (the Code 130R and the Tru 140S), as I mentioned last week, was so relentlessly tedious that it threatened to quash the upbeat mood of the show in one 20-minute burst of sheer drudgery. It doesn’t matter to me that the designs were decidedly average (and yes, in this case derivative in the truest sense) and weren’t worthy of the minor hype storm that ensued for them, what mattered to me was the thinking behind them, because GM is venturing into dangerous territory that threatened to send this industry down a primrose path to self destruction.

I get the fact that the millennials (aka the Nanosecond Attention Span Generation) couldn’t care less about their driver’s licenses or any vestige of the high-performance era, that their communication devices are their lives and that over-sharing defines their very existence, but that doesn’t mean these manufacturers should turn the asylum over to the inmates and allow this generation to start dictating how they design their cars.

But that’s exactly what GM is setting out to do, at least according to that grim presentation they unleashed on the media last week.

John McFarland, the senior manager of Chevrolet marketing, told the Detroit News that, "We don't really think that any brands today are doing it right. We don't think anyone quite 'gets' this group."

Maybe so. But no one back in the day understood the transformational swingin’ 60s decade or its revolutionary generation either, yet this industry didn’t throw their hands up and decide to let consumers design cars. What GM is embarking on is a fool’s errand of the first order, a death march of inconsequential tail chasing that will, as sure as I’m writing this, result in a one-way ticket to irrelevance. (And I can’t believe that Joel Ewanick is letting this charade surface for public consumption.)

I get what allegedly makes the millenials tick – such as it is – but at the end of the day this business will not be defined by them. Why? Because there is no amount of experiential social media marketing forays or collective group hugs that will sell a vehicle that is flat-out unpleasant to look at or poorly executed. In other words, manufacturers can reach out to the millenials at every opportunity in the various social media platforms that exist and put all of the connectivity they can muster into their vehicles to entice them, but this generation will not be interrupted from their over-sharing by a clown car, even if it plugs into their lifestyles absolutely perfectly.

This business has always been about the product, it still is about the product, and it will always be about the product. But, that said, this is a fashion business as well, and as a manufacturer you will be defined by your image at every checkpoint. That’s why product design will remain the single most important factor going forward, the Ultimate Initial Product Differentiator, if you will.

And that’s why these auto companies, instead of worrying about what makes the millenials tick, should be worried that their designs don’t come off as being evolutionary or worse, boring. Because once these manufacturers go down that road, it’s exceedingly difficult to find their way back.

Just ask Honda.

And that’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.

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