(pic links above from top to bottom: Element,Xterra,CTS,Escalade)
Only to those that pay any particular attention to the latest in vehicle models and advertising will find any of what I'm about to write interesting, and then maybe not!
In the span I would estimate of about 3-5 yrs, most manufacturers have completely abandoned the "normal" driver. What do I mean? Well, say someone who really doesn't care what he drives and looks at a car strictly as an "appliance" to get from point A to point B. It's almost impossible to find a vehicle that doesn't have what used to be "luxury" appointments. Even the smallest of models at modest prices have A/C and power accessories. And even good old V-dub abandoned it's base trim so that now power win/locks cruise etc. etc. is standard on Golfs and Jettas. Too bad I say! As much as I like to drive and critique the engineering that makes a car a car, I'm already missing the ability to drive a model that has crank-windows, no A/C, cloth interior AND the low-roar of the engine working as the gears are shifted. I've driven many new cars, and find most of them TOO ISOLATED. I guess if you're a big-butt that needs an overstuffed SUV to coddle your rear, that's OK, but the fun in driving is being engineered-out. Instead, "industrial design" has taken over, and "group-think" advertising extolling "lifestyle" models over truly fun-to-drive machines is the present norm. Here are just a few of my "peeves" on specific models and their advertising "virtues"...and how miserably they fail!
The Cadillac line is no longer you Dad's car for sure, instead the awful Escalade has become an icon vehicle for the hip-hop, MTV pimpsters to cruise around while wearing their ball caps backwards. Or in some cases is IT IS your grandpa's car, and one he can never really quite learn to park! Cadillac has sold it's soul also on the (drum roll), awful CTS. Trying to capture the 45yrs. old+ crowd with Led Zeppelin blaring through your TV while the car races through what looks like the Nevada desert, is truly pandering to those that do remember, or even attended Led Zep concerts in their hayday. GM/Madison Ave. tried on this one, and maybe convinced a few, but a failure on my score-card in the design department. Who will want to be seen in these vehicles, especially 10 years from now!?(Or even now!)
Nissan's Xterra and Honda's Element have to epitomize the industrial-design/lifestyle-selling marketing paradigm to the "X-Treme"! For 3 yrs now Nissan has showed how exciting your life can be by almost getting killed by either of the following: X-treme mtn biking/kyaking/parashooting etc. etc. Now, in my rather limited experience regarding anything X-treme, I'd have to say that most of the folks doing this type of activity are NOT the ones buying these vehicles. Most will be driving an old pick-up, possibly a Subaru or an 80's pre-SUV type vehicle or an old VW bus! True x-tremists have their priorities, and buying a $25K smallish SUV that gets only 15mpg is not one of them! Anyway, most are too busy being X-treme to have a job!
Ah, and then there's the funky-dunk Element. Honda readily admits it's targeting the early 20's crowd. OK, I'm growing long-in-the-tooth, but when I was that age, Mom and Dad did not eagerly agree to purchase a $20K vehicle so that I could go to the beach everyday in the hopes of finding the perfect wave, and all the while during the drive being gawked at, "What the heck is that!" Advertising, and plenty of it, is the ONLY thing that will sell this box. In fact, it reminds me of some of the European plumbers-vans you'd see on the narrow streets of an English town. In base DX form, the Element easily gets my #1 spot "ugly stick" award to the Industrial School of Design. I can see it now. After a brief lunch shift at Taco Bell, Miff, Biff, Buffy and Moon-Unit head for the coast cruising along in the Element. Gag me with a spoon!