Forget about China, here come the Koreans!

2010 could be a pivotal year for the auto industry in some unexpected ways.  While many in the general press spend time contemplating whether the beleaguered American car companies will be able to profit from Toyota's colossal missteps and inevitable losses in market share, I happen to share the view that has been expressed in a few channels of the auto media that the South Korean automakers Kia and Hyundai stand to benefit the most.  While most media attention and fear mongering has been relentlessly focused on the imagined, or at least exaggerated threat of Chinese cars coming to our shores, products from the People's Republic remain woefully not ready for prime time in quality, design, and above all, safety.  In contrast, the Korean companies, who have already been here for decades, have suddenly started to get things right.  Seriously right.  After years of playing on acceptable to very good quality at rock bottom prices, Kia and Hyundai have clearly begun to ally their ever-improving competency in quality and value with new designs that are actually appealing and desirable for the first time.  I doubt even the most observant person could tell you what a Kia is supposed to look like, yet now with their "tabbed grille" motif they have finally begun to forge a consistent brand look that is memorable and identifiable. 

This doesn't mean that the Koreans have completely abandoned the tendency to mimic more successful rivals (taking a page from Japan Inc.'s playbook).  But for the first time, that mimicry has some teeth to back it up.  For example, The Kia Soul in many ways apes the Scion Xb, but the Soul's design is so much more refined, and so much more interesting from every angle.  Likewise, the new Genesis Coupe (shown up top) takes square aim at the Infiniti G37 Coupe, but is about 10 grand cheaper. I'd call that a win.  Having seen a few of them on the road, I can say they are certainly eye catching and should really put the hurt on Nissan.  And of course, the most talked about Korean car of the day, the Genesis sedan, has many obvious Teutonic styling cues, but even if that turns you off, it is hard to argue with the refinement, quality, and features offered for the pricepoint.  If I were a Lexus, Acura, or Infiniti customer, I might make my first visit to a Hyundai showroom! My only criticism is the decision to market the car as a Hyundai rather than creating a more upmarket sub-brand as the Japanese did.

So the Koreans are starting to make some decent looking cars for the first time. Big deal, right? Why am I so confident that Kia and Hyundai are going to take a chomp out of Toyota's (and the Big Three's) market share?  Because this is part of a larger pattern of business behavior that has already transformed the electronics and whitegoods sectors in the US market, and I have witnessed this firsthand in my job as an Industrial Designer.  Rewind to ten years ago.  The biggest cel phone handset makers in the US were Motorola and Nokia.  The iPhone didn't exist yet, obviously, and LG and Samsung were making second rate products with poor distribution.  Flash forward to today, and LG and Samsung are selling huge volumes of smart phones (dwarfing iphone sales, by the way) that lead the market in value and features for the money.  Motorola hasn't had a hit since the Razr, and Nokia is largely irrelevant in the US market.  Look at flat panel televisions.  10 years ago, Sony, Philips and Panasonic dominated the market.  Now Philips doesn't sell flat screens in the US anymore, and again LG and Samsung have made the Japanese run for the hills by selling sexier, thinner TVs for less money.  Stop in your local Best Buy if you don't believe me.  Let's look at whitegoods.  10 years ago, LG was making private label appliances for US and Japanese companies.  They had virtually no market share.  Today, LG and Samsung are gaining market share every day with high quality, fashion-forward washers and refrigerators.  Companies like Maytag and Whirlpool still have the majority of the market, but they are seriously panicking now. They even started making washers and dryers in red once LG did it.  The consistent pattern here is the willingness of the South Korean companies to take greater risks, carve out slimmer margins, and to retool more frequently than the competition in order to keep things fresh. It is a formula that really seems to work in the face of the arrogance and complacency that had hitherto characterized the Japanese and American companies who suddenly found themselves under attack.

This is what is going to happen in the next 5 or so years in the US car market, in my opinion.  Most people right now wouldn't be caught dead in a Kia or Hyundai (I had a friend laugh at me when I suggested he look at the Kia Soul instead of a Prius), but just watch as that perception rapidly changes due to improved design and marketing savvy -- The new Kia Sorento ad campaign is brilliant, by the way. The timing couldn't be better, too. With the market moving towards small cars, and Toyota mired in distraction, South Korea's moment to pounce has arrived.  And let's not forget, who is making the battery packs to power the new Chevy Volt?  You guessed it: LG of South Korea.

2010 could be a pivotal year for the auto industry in some unexpected ways.  While many in the general press spend time contemplating on whether the beleaguered American car companies will be able to profit from Toyota's colossal missteps and inevitable losses in market share, I happen to share the view that has been expressed in a few channels of the auto media that the South Korean automakers Kia and Hyundai stand to benefit the most.  While most media attention and fear mongering has been relentlessly focused on the imagined threat of Chinese cars coming to our shores, the cars from the People's Republic remain woefully not ready for prime time in quality, design, and above all, safety.  In contrast, the Korean companies have suddenly started to get things right.  Seriously right.  After decades of playing on acceptable to very good quality at rock bottom prices, Kia and Hyundai have clearly begun to ally their ever-improving competency in quality and value with new designs that are actually appealing and desirable for the first time.  I doubt even the most observant person could tell you what a Kia is supposed to look like, yet now with their "tabbed grille" motif they have finally begun to forge a consistent brand look that is memorable and identifiable.  This doesn't mean that the Koreans have completely abandoned the tendency to mimic more successful rivals (taking a page from Japan Inc.'s playbook).  But for the first time, that mimicry has some teeth to back it up.  For example, The Kia Soul in many ways apes the Scion Xb, but the design is so much more refined, and so much more interesting from every angle.  Likewise, the new Genesis Coupe, takes square aim at the Infiniti G37 Coupe, but is about 10 grand cheaper. I'd call that a win.  Having seen a few of them on the road, I can say they are certainly eye catching and should really put the hurt on Nissan.  And of course, the most talked about Korean car of the day, the Genesis sedan, has many obvious Teutonic styling cues, but even if that turns you off, it is hard to argue with the refinement, quality, and features offered for the pricepoint.  If I were a Lexus, Acura, or Infiniti customer, I might make my first visit to a Hyundai showroom! My only criticism is the decision to market the car as a Hyundai rather than creating a more upmarket sub-brand as the Japanese did.

So the Koreans are starting to make some decent looking cars for the first time. Big deal, right? Why am I so confident that Kia and Hyundai are going to take a chomp out of Toyota's (and the Big Three's) market share?  Because this is part of a larger pattern of business behavior that has already transformed the electronics and whitegoods sectors in the US market, and I have witnessed this firsthand in my job as an Industrial Designer.  Rewind to ten years ago.  The biggest cel phone handset makers in the US were Motorola and Nokia.  The iphone didn't exist yet, obviously, and LG and Samsung were making second rate products with poor distribution.  Flash forward to today, and LG and Samsung are selling huge volumes (dwarfing iphone sales, by the way) of smart phones that lead the market in value and features for the money. Motorola hasn't had a hit since the Razr, and Nokia is largely irrelevant in the US market.  Look at flat panel televisions.  10 years ago, Sony, Philips and Panasonic dominated the market.  Now Philips doesn't sell flat screens in the US anymore, and again LG and Samsung have made the Japanese run for the hills by selling a sexier, thinner TVs for less money.  Stop in your local Best Buy if you don't believe me.  Let's look at Whitegoods.  10 years ago, LG was making private label appliances for US and Japanese companies.  They had virtually no market share.  Today, LG and Samsung are gaining market share every day with high quality, fashion-forward washers and refrigerators.  Companies like Maytag and Whirlpool still have the majority of the market, but they are seriously panicking now. They even started making washers and dryers in red once LG did it.

This is what is going to happen in the next 5 or so years in the US car market, in my opinion.  Most people right now wouldn't be caught dead in a Kia or Hyundai, but just watch as that perception rapidly changes due to improved design and savvy marketing. The new Kia Sorento ad campaign is brilliant, by the way. The timing couldn't be better, too. With the market moving towards small cars, and Toyota mired in distraction, South Korea's moment to pounce has arrived.  And let's not forget, who is making the battery packs to power the new Chevy Volt?  You guessed it: LG of Korea.

Hybrid Horrors!

No, I am not talking about runaway Toyotas here.  I am talking about runaway marketing managers.  Why in the world do so many car manufacturers feel the need to plaster gigantic, tacky graphics over their cars proclaiming them as hybrids?  I am all for green initiatives, local organic apple pie and motherhood, but what ever happened to tasteful restraint??  Luxury and performance hybrids are a bad enough joke as it is, but can't they keep the joke to themselves?

It seems the worst offenders are the SUVs.  Both the GM and Porsche SUV Hybrids have massive "Hybrid" markings down the rocker panels as if to say "Please don't key my massive, hideous truck.  It gets marginally better mileage than the one I drove until last year!" Pathetic.  If you need to drive one of those absurd luxury barges, you should have the balls to carry it off without having to beg everyone's forgiveness, or dare I say praise.

Sports cars are also getting in on the fad for cheesy graphics.  In the old days, a supercar may have had the word "Turbo" emblazoned across it in order to advertise the fact that the car was faster than yours. But now, even supercars are getting "greener than thou," and this really turns my stomach.  Perhaps the worst offender is the new Lotus Evora Hybrid.  Not only does it have bad graphics on the side, but there is a rear window sticker on the clear engine cover that evokes circuit boards.  Can you get any more sophomoric?  And Ferrari showed off its new eco-friendly technology in Geneva by painting their show car...wait for it...GREEN! And in case you were too dumb to catch that subtle metaphor, they slapped on a tacky windshield graphic just to top it off.

I'll end here by just saying that this has to stop. Now. Please.  Last time I checked, the Tesla Roadster silently zips along producing zero emissions, and no one has to know about it but the driver and whoever can identify one on the street. Now that's earth-friendly and eye-friendly.

Bradley GT: Channeling your inner Burt Reynolds

Back when I was a kid, I thought the Bradley GT was a pretty neat-o ride.  But then again, since my first name is Bradley, the idea that a cool sports car shared my name was enough to catch my 6-year-old brain's fancy.  A Yellow and black one lived in the parking lot of a local gas station and whenever I'd pass by, I'd say to myself "that's my car."  But by the time I had reached that tender age of 6, the Bradley company had in fact already been shuttered for 5 years.  The idea was born in the late 60s, and was but one of many kit cars based on the stalwart VW beetle.  Perhaps another post is in order on all the various and sundry cars built on the Beetle platform, but this has got to be one of the cooler ones (as opposed to replicar Mercedes SSKs just to name one example that sends a shudder down the automobiliac's spine).  It was a swoopy fiberglass bodyshell with gullwing doors, a T-top and shag upholstery.  Basically, it looked like the love child that might have resulted from a one night stand between a Dune Buggy and an early 70's Vette at some party where the host might have had a sunken living room and a mirrored coffee table covered in blow.  Some more astute observers might compare it to a Matra 530, or even to Raymond Loewy's BMW 507 body, but let's not get carried away here: Liberace owned one in Gold with glitter metal flake.  Are we going to split hairs here? I think it's safe to say that along with Prince, the Bradley GT is one of the more outlandish things to come out of Minneapolis.

Be that as it may, the car stayed in production for about a decade (several thousand cars were made according to wikipedia) and went through two versions, the GT and the GT II.  There are still some well cared for examples about today, and many more decrepit ones.  You can pick one up for a song, compared to the price of other "desirable" fiberglass sports cars (in case a Lotus Elite is just out of your budget). I'd say go for it.

Click on the pic below to see the full page magazine ad.

Have 2010's F1 Cars been beaten with an Ugly Stick?

I think I might be starting to show my age because as the F1 season is getting ramped up for 2010, all I can think of is how little interest I have in it, and how ugly and weird looking F1 cars have gotten.  F1 has gone through "ugly periods" before.  The cars of the mid seventies were particularly odd and ungainly.  Mechanically they were quite similar to those of the late 1960s, but with the radiators moved out to the sides, large wings and mammoth slicks applied, topped off with ridiculous high-hat airboxes attached to the still-exposed engines.  I enjoy these cars enormously, but beautiful they are not.  It wasn't until the ground effects cars came into vogue and the increased use of full-coverage fiberglass bodyshells came about that F1 cars became more flowing and graceful again.  The Lotus 79 is perhaps the epitome of this more graceful style of late 70s car.  By the time the Brabham BT50 came around in 1982, F1 cars had a new purity.  This was helped even more by the dawning of the turbo era, which eliminated the bulky airboxes of the 70s. 

The introduction of the carbon fiber monocoque as the 80s progressed allowed a new level of refinement and aerodynamic wizardry to improve the breed once more.  By the late 80s and early 90s (let's just call it the Senna era) some of the best looking F1 cars of the modern era were being designed and raced.  Turbos were out, and airboxes were back, but this time with graceful sweeping lines, sculpted directly into the engine cover.  In my opinion, the most elegant F1 car of the modern era was the Jordan 191, with which Michael Schumacher had his debut F1 race at Spa in 1991.  This car epitomized the super-sleek, clean look of the time. It is not a coincidence that the one F1 car in the MoMA collection is a 1990 Ferrari 641.  The car is just pure and purposeful from every angle.

Some might mark the beginning of the end as 1990, when Tyrrell debuted the first "high nose" on its F1 car.  Benetton became more associated with this design feature, which it appropriated and continuously refined from 1991 onward until all the rest of the teams eventually adopted it by 1996.  The last car in F1 to have a "low nose" was the 1995 Ferari 412T2.  It was quite a stunning car - probably the last F1 car that can honestly be called "beautiful"- and it was fittingly raced in the last year before an ascendant Michael Schumacher came over to Ferrari and changed the sport forever.  Although the "low nose" was now consigned to the history books, I think F1 cars for the most part continued to be very sleek, clean and purposeful even with the high noses, but not for long. 

To me, the biggest nail in the coffin was when the FIA decided that F1 cars should be longer, and that the wheels should no longer sit outside the front wing.  When you look at an early 90s F1 car, the big slicks frame a delicate, pencil point nose and front suspension.  Now, the front tires are hidden behind a massive "front loader blade" wing which of late has become covered in various aerodynamic appendages - some of which resembling a concorde jet wearing a false moustache - that do the car no aesthetic favors.  The rear wings on these cars are even worse.  Not only are they enormous, they have a separate section of airfoils that "leans" forward over the rear deck of the car, completely spoiling the proportions of the vehicle from the side view.  And now the engine covers, once sloping fluidly downwards behind the driver's head, now terminate in a vertical fin that continues all the way back to the aforementioned wing. The noses of the cars, once tapering pleasantly, now have all the appeal of a melted sex toy - especially this year's Mercedes (seen above). Side pods are concealed behind all manner of bizarre baffles and fins, it's a wonder the driver can see to his side.  But then again who needs to see to his side if there is no overtaking anyway?  In short, the new cars look like puke.  Only puke covered in loud, tacky graphics.  I am not that old yet, but I can already catch myself saying...Boy back when I was a kid, we had REAL racecars.  Like I said.  I think I might be starting to show my age...
See the full gallery of the cars mentioned above here.

What happened to Crinkle Finish?

I am a young whipper snapper, I'll admit.  I wasn't even alive back when "cars were really cars," but one thing I would really like to see come back into fashion is "crinkle finish" on metal parts, like the cam covers on the Maserati below.  Considering that today's entire engine bays are concealed behind hideous plastic shrouds, perhaps I am focusing on the trees rather than the forest here.  But there is just something really compelling about the play of various textures in a classic engine compartment, and the crinkle finish is a detail that sets it off just right.  Without crinkle finish, there would be no Testarossa, afterall. 

But crinkle finish wasn't just for engines and valve covers back in the old days.  No sir.  Even dashboards and instrument panels would be painted with it in cars like the Ferrari GTO.  In these days of plasticized wood, plated satin silver parts and faux carbon fiber trim, it would be a refreshing change to see some actual texture from time to time.  If that's crazy, I don't want to be sane...

Click on the photo for a few more examples.