Rob Hall Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 Ha ha! He said upchuck... That Suzuki is definitely a girly car (in fact it would also make the perfect clown car), but that other car (Mazda?) is just plain ugly! The silver car is the current Nissan GT-R...an incredible performance car...it's a very well known car, surprised people wouldn't recognize it..
Zoom Zoom Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 but that other car (Mazda?) is just plain ugly! You really don't know modern cars at all The GTR is "merely" iconic And it's never going to win any beauty contests. Ever.
Harry P. Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 You really don't know modern cars at all The GTR is "merely" iconic And it's never going to win any beauty contests. Ever. Not into Japanese cars, sorry.
Boreham Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 (edited) personally I detest the previous "new beetle" and this is no better.. VW had a huge oppertunity to regain the iconic status that the beetle had..one time.. Despite a "trend" towards minimal and eco friendly ...lifstyles rather than grasping that... they went with the money spending vainity bunch..who spend money on the ...oh that's so chic... you know the sunglasses in the hair types..who buy and buy fashon... well this 2nd generation New Beetle is another fashon accessory. they could and should have built an minimal looking car..clean simple interior.. go nuts and have wind up windows....current stock of 1400cc and 1600cc engines and have them rear mounted... retianing the beetles orignal aspects with styling features that showed respect to the orignal.. the production costs would have been similar if not cheaper..and aim the car as it was orignally intended.. a peoples car... In an economic climate that encourages the frugal well again VW got it wrong... well there design and marketing people did.. don't get me started on the other regurgitated stuff... Edited June 26, 2011 by Boreham
Rob Hall Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 personally I detest the previous "new beetle" and this is no better.. VW had a huge oppertunity to regain the iconic status that the beetle had..one time.. Despite a "trend" towards minimal and eco friendly ...lifstyles rather than grasping that... they went with the money spending vainity bunch..who spend money on the ...oh that's so chic... you know the sunglasses in the hair types..who buy and buy fashon... well this 2nd generation New Beetle is another fashon accessory. they could and should have built an minimal looking car..clean simple interior.. go nuts and have wind up windows....current stock of 1400cc and 1600cc engines and have them rear mounted... retianing the beetles orignal aspects with styling features that showed respect to the orignal.. the production costs would have been similar if not cheaper..and aim the car as it was orignally intended.. a peoples car... VW is going to be doing a cheap minimalist rear engined car soon...the production version of the Up!.
62rebel Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 where would they have sold this car? it was safety regulations and epa requirements that drove the cost of building a type 1 beetle past the break even point and with no real point in bringing BACK a car that sold only as a taxicab in Mexico due to THEIR "stringent" safety regs was implausibly stupid. no car buyer today (except ME, possibly) is willing to pay for a car with no a/c, no power steering, no automatic trans, no power brakes, no cupholders, no airbags, and a design dating all the way back to the thirties. VW saw an opportunity to revive an iconic NAME and based it on the existing Golf platform. Audi monkey-see/monkey-do'd with the 1st gen TT, using the same lame underpinnings and powertrain. and guess what... they sold like proverbial hotcakes. they brought customers back to VW that had been siphoned off to Honda and Toyota and their .... offspring brands. who are "longshoremen and steelworkers"? they don't buy VW's.... they buy Toyota Tundras and Nissan Titans.
Lownslow Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 (edited) personally I detest the previous "new beetle" and this is no better.. VW had a huge oppertunity to regain the iconic status that the beetle had..one time.. Despite a "trend" towards minimal and eco friendly ...lifstyles rather than grasping that... they went with the money spending vainity bunch..who spend money on the ...oh that's so chic... you know the sunglasses in the hair types..who buy and buy fashon... well this 2nd generation New Beetle is another fashon accessory. they could and should have built an minimal looking car..clean simple interior.. go nuts and have wind up windows....current stock of 1400cc and 1600cc engines and have them rear mounted... retianing the beetles orignal aspects with styling features that showed respect to the orignal.. the production costs would have been similar if not cheaper..and aim the car as it was orignally intended.. a peoples car... In an economic climate that encourages the frugal well again VW got it wrong... well there design and marketing people did.. don't get me started on the other regurgitated stuff... putting a engine in the back of that thing would be extremely unpractical. traditional yes, but in terms of repairs and handling, no. some people need to get it in their heads that the old days of how a car should be are gone. Edited June 26, 2011 by Lownslow
Boreham Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 (edited) putting a engine in the back of that thing would be extremely unpractical. traditional yes, but in terms of repairs and handling, no. some people need to get it in their heads that the old days of how a car should be are gone. ye better drop Porsche an Line..and let them know about it.. Edited June 26, 2011 by Boreham
Rob Hall Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 putting a engine in the back of that thing would be extremely unpractical. traditional yes, but in terms of repairs and handling, no. some people need to get it in their heads that the old days of how a car should be are gone. VW is doing it for the upcoming Up! city car..
Harry P. Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 VW is doing it for the upcoming Up! city car.. If the Beetle has gone a bit "upscale" as Boreham suggests, this seems like the perfect car to step into the Beetle's old marketing slot.
Boreham Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 (edited) VW is doing it for the upcoming Up! city car.. typo there Rob I'd say... subsitute the "C" for SH . . . IMO Edited June 26, 2011 by Boreham
Rob Hall Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 If the Beetle has gone a bit "upscale" as Boreham suggests, this seems like the perfect car to step into the Beetle's old marketing slot. Well, the New Beetle was kind of a mildly 'upscale' trendy small car, as is the New Mini and the New New Beetle...there are plenty of other cars that fullfill the cheap basic subcompact niche (Honda Fit, Chevy Sonic, Ford Fiesta, Hyundai Accent, etc)..
Peter Lombardo Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 Well you guys are right, the Nissan GT-R will never win a beauty contest….but it will out perform most super cars costing over $100,000 MORE! From the drivers’ seat, you can’t see the ugly shape outside, but from outside you can see the huge smile on the face of the driver that just smoked your butt. I like a pretty car….but a fast car that can handle….now that is a thing of pure beauty.
Harry P. Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 Well, the New Beetle was kind of a mildly 'upscale' trendy small car, as is the New Mini and the New New Beetle...there are plenty of other cars that fullfill the cheap basic subcompact niche (Honda Fit, Chevy Sonic, Ford Fiesta, Hyundai Accent, etc).. Yeah, but I tnink Boreham was sort of saying that the old Beetle should make a comeback. That'll never happen, of course... automotive technology rarely progresses backwards! I don't think the marketing guys at VW see a big future in a redesigned Beetle with a rear-mounted air-cooled engine and manual roll-up windows! What next? The useless heater, too???
Rob Hall Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 Well you guys are right, the Nissan GT-R will never win a beauty contest….but it will out perform most super cars costing over $100,000 MORE! From the drivers’ seat, you can’t see the ugly shape outside, but from outside you can see the huge smile on the face of the driver that just smoked your butt. I like a pretty car….but a fast car that can handle….now that is a thing of pure beauty. I kind of like the look of the GT-R, they look much better in person than in photos, IMO...there is a dark gray one I see frequently at my favorite coffee shop...in the early morning light they look really distinctive and mean..
Rob Hall Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 (edited) Yeah, but I tnink Boreham was sort of saying that the old Beetle should make a comeback. That'll never happen, of course... automotive technology rarely progresses backwards! I don't think the marketing guys at VW see a big future in a redesigned Beetle with a rear-mounted air-cooled engine and manual roll-up windows! What next? The useless heater, too??? That would be daft..I think he meant a new car in the spirit of the old Beetle..i.e. cheap and minimalist...which is where the VW Up! will fit... I have no interest in cheap, stripped down cars but internationally there is a market for them...Renault's Dacia Logan, the Tata Nano, etc Edited June 26, 2011 by Rob Hall
Harry P. Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 That would be daft..I think he meant a new car in the spirit of the old Beetle..i.e. cheap and minimalist...which is where the VW Up! will fit... I have no interest in cheap, stripped down cars but internationally there is a market for them...Renault's Dacia Logan, the Tata Nano, etc No, I think he meant literally going back to the old Beetle. As far as that Nissan, too bad they put such a grotesque body on what, according to you guys who are into Japanese cars, is a great car underneath. Some of the current Japanese styling trends remind me of those cheesy Japanese anime monsters and robots...
Boreham Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 :lol: history repeating itself... after WW2 a few of the well known car manufactures...veiwed the KDF wagen..it's facility and they laughed at it's prospects... 10 years later..it stormed the world... we live now in a world of mod cons and laziness... maybe my values are unpopular.. then again My daily is 1973 1300cc escort...... gets more apprication form the general public than that beetle...
Harry P. Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 then again My daily is 1973 1300cc escort...... Yeah, but remember, your whole country is about the size of New York City! Americans do a lot more long-distance commuting and long trips in general... and they expect cars with a lot of creature comforts. For better or worse, the American market expects things like automatic, fancy audio system, power everything, etc. as pretty much a given. The way Europeans like their cars equipped would never sell here in the states. It's a completely different mindset.
Boreham Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 now we've gone totally off topic.. please remind me again.. is it european cars that haven't broken into the American market... or is it the other way around... so back to the topic... the VW Beetle euro / german origins.
Aaronw Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 now we've gone totally off topic.. please remind me again.. is it european cars that haven't broken into the American market... or is it the other way around... so back to the topic... the VW Beetle euro / german origins. We really don't see many bottom end european cars in the US. The Japanese have had fairly good success in the econo box segment but the European brands have tended to be in the high end luxury market. Even the Japanese have mostly given up trying to sell their cheapest cars here. Personally I don't get it, in the late 90s I was all set to buy myself an inexpensive Russian truck based on their military UAZ. While the 4x4 magazines got their test samples, the trucks never went on sale. A few years ago a rugged diesel powered compact pickup from India was supposed to go on sale to challege Toyota and Nissan, but again it never materialized. I don't know why but it is actually very hard to find a bare bones car or truck to buy new (luckily there are still plenty of old ones to choose from).
diymirage Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 Yeah, but I tnink Boreham was sort of saying that the old Beetle should make a comeback. That'll never happen, of course... automotive technology rarely progresses backwards! I don't think the marketing guys at VW see a big future in a redesigned Beetle with a rear-mounted air-cooled engine and manual roll-up windows! What next? The useless heater, too??? you my friend should have a good look between the outgoing US model of the jetta and the incoming US model of the jetta here are some highlights OUTGOING : disc brakes all around, multilink rear suspension, electric reclining seatbacks, adjustable armrest, gas strutted hood INCOMING: rear drum brakes, torsion beam rear suspension, manual reclining seatbacks, no adjustable armrest, hood with prop rod you were saying ?
Rob Hall Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 you my friend should have a good look between the outgoing US model of the jetta and the incoming US model of the jetta here are some highlights OUTGOING : disc brakes all around, multilink rear suspension, electric reclining seatbacks, adjustable armrest, gas strutted hood INCOMING: rear drum brakes, torsion beam rear suspension, manual reclining seatbacks, no adjustable armrest, hood with prop rod you were saying ? Yeah, they seriously cheapened the new Jetta and the new Passat. I don't know why but it is actually very hard to find a bare bones car or truck to buy new (luckily there are still plenty of old ones to choose from). I don't think there is much of a market in the US for such vehicles.
Harry P. Posted June 26, 2011 Posted June 26, 2011 I don't think there is much of a market in the US for such vehicles. Most Americans don't buy "bare bones" cars. They don't sell well here, so very few are available.
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