Looks Do Matter
The Aztek was Pontiac’s bid to market a crossover that blended the best of the minivan and sport utility vehicle and appealed to younger, active-lifestyle buyers.
The Rendezvous was Buick’s bid to market a crossover that blended the best of the minivan and sport utility vehicle and appealed to younger buyers, etc.
Both were built off the same General Motors Corp. platform, shared with the GM minivans.
Pontiac’s stylists went for wild, giving the Aztek slab sides, scoops, side cladding in contrasting colors and a sharply angled glass hatch in the back.
Buick’s stylists went for restrained luxury, giving the Rendezvous softer, sculpted lines and a smooth rear hatch.
Aztek was roundly cheered by auto reviewers for versatility but fetched a chorus of hisses and boos for its styling.
Rendezvous got good press on both counts.
Now analysts at J.D. Power & Associates have plowed through sales data filed by more than 5,000 new-car dealers in 25 major markets and found that while Rendezvous models typically take about 60 days to sell, Azteks linger on dealers’ lots for an average of 120 days. (Good news for would-be Aztek buyers: Dealers pay interest on cars on their lots, so it is cheaper to discount them than to let them hang around. If you can stomach the looks of an Aztek, you usually can get a good deal on one.)
The Rendezvous also sells to a young (for Buick) buyer--the average age is 49--and has helped lower the average age of Buick buyers overall to 56, versus 64 before Rendezvous was introduced a year ago.
By contrast, the average age of an Aztek buyer is 44, and Pontiac’s overall average buyer age of 43 is two years older than it was before the Aztek was introduced.
Monthly sales data, according to Power, show that Aztek sales have rarely topped 3,000 units a month since it hit the market two years ago and this year averaged just 2,300 units a month from January through June.
But Rendezvous’ monthly sales peaked at 6,491 in December, seven months after the vehicle was introduced, and this year have averaged 5,025 units a month through June.
What a difference design makes.
John O’Dell
GM’s Perceived Quality
As General Motors redoubles efforts to improve its reputation in design and quality, the world’s No. 1 auto maker is reaching the conclusion that the two go hand in glove.
“We can’t disconnect one from the other,” said Anne Asensio, GM’s executive director of interior design, quality and brand character.
Quality includes customers’ perception of workmanship and attention paid to little things, something at which, Asensio said, Volkswagen excels.
“For example, the Passat: They use a hard [plastic dashboard] part, but they create a bevel and it communicates something soft,” said Asensio, formerly a senior designer with French auto maker Renault.
Stylists can design in perceived quality with surprising results, she said during a recent presentation on product quality at GM’s Technical Center.
At GM, for example, policy calls for door and window seals to be made of premium material, while at VW, at least on the Passat, “they just stick [on] a piece of tape, but with aluminum and grain [texture]” that makes the finished product look quite good, Asensio said.
With material-cost reduction at the forefront of auto makers’ minds these days, designing something that enhances a car’s looks but is less expensive is win-win.
“Designers say, ‘That’s cool, fresh and communicates something I’ve never seen or felt before,’ ” Asensio said. “But when the designer is doing cost analysis, you have the whole [project] in mind.”
Providing quality with less-expensive solutions has to be done just right, however. “If you deliver that in a [Cadillac] Deville, you’re dead,” Asensio said.
“It’s a balance of quality and design. You can have a hot, hot car that is of lower quality, and it can do well,” she said of vehicles with unique, striking styling.
She didn’t provide any examples, but industry analysts point to cars such as VW’s Jetta and the Pontiac Sunfire as less-fancy vehicles that are popular with younger buyers.
But better quality doesn’t need to be reserved for high-end products. “When you know how to get [good quality], you can go to a lower segment and it doesn’t cost more--you already know how to get it,” Asensio said.
Terril Yue Jones
BMW Updates the Z
BMW has released the first photos of its new Z roadster. The new car isn’t just an annual model upgrade but sports a completely new body that’s longer and wider, giving BMW occasion to update the name--from Z3 to Z4--to call attention to the changes.
The company calls the new BMW Z4 “a modern interpretation of all the classic roadster features” and says the new design uses an “interplay of convex and concave surfaces, hard edges and curves” to create “new transactions of light and shadow from every angle [for] an eye-catching visual character.”
From the front, the Z4 has a little Honda S2000 in it, and from the rear view there’s a dash of Mazda Miata, but overall the new design retains the shark-like good looks that made the Z3 a standout on the highway.
The rest of the package, according to BMW’s first official description, includes a trunk with 9 cubic feet of space, about what you’d need for two golf bags or a weekend’s luggage for two, if both are light packers; an automatic soft top (up or down in 10 seconds) with heated glass rear window and an integrated tonneau cover.
There’s a choice of in-line six-cylinder engines: a 2.5-liter model that pumps out 184 horsepower or a 3.0-liter version that supplies 225 ponies. The bigger engine comes with either a six-speed manual or BMW’s five-speed automatic with manual mode; the 2.5-liter comes with five-speed manual or five-speed automatic.
Suspension is a modified version of the 3-Series’ underpinnings; weight distribution is 50% front and 50% rear. Run-flat tires, traction control and a rollover safety system are standard.
Options will include a navigation system, an integrated hands-free telephone and a dynamic drive control, which lets the driver dial in a sport mode that changes system programming for quicker steering, faster throttle response and a more aggressive shifting pattern for the automatic.
The for-sale date is sometime this fall in the U.S., next spring overseas.
Like the Z3, the Z4 will be built in the U.S. at BMW’s plant in Spartanburg, S.C.
John O’Dell
GM Design Chief to Stay
General Motors design chief Wayne Cherry will remain at the auto maker for another year, putting off the handover of one of the most prominent jobs in automotive design.
Cherry was scheduled to retire in September when he turns 65, but GM management asked him to stay on to guide GM through the overhaul of its design operations announced in January.
Under that reorganization, GM scrapped its “brand character” design studios and set up a system in which five executive directors of design report to Cherry. They are responsible for: passenger cars; trucks; design, quality and brand character; engineering operations; and advanced vehicles.
Industry experts believe that GM executives didn’t think they could find an appropriate successor to Cherry either within the company or from outside by September, and they want more time to conduct a search for the person who will guide the design of coming generations of GM vehicles.
Terril Yue Jones
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O’Dell writes about automobiles and the Southern California auto industry from Los Angeles and can be reached at john.odell@latimes .com; Jones is The Times’ Detroit bureau chief and can be reached at t.jones@latimes.com.
