- Nov 1, 2001
- 61,504
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of course i searched for a comparison picture showing a similar car. it only serves purpose to prove what i am saying.
of course i searched for a comparison picture showing a similar car. it only serves purpose to prove what i am saying.
mb
Lifer
- Jun 27, 2004
- 10,233
- 2
- 71
My opinion? I think it's very clear that they do *not* look similar. You want to use two tiny pictures that highlight almost no details? That's like shrinking a picture of a red moon down to 8x8 px and saying it looks like a tomato.
This does not look anything like this (other than the similarities shared among all sedans, as I mentioned earlier).
If you really think they look that similar, you need to get your eyes checked.
- Nov 1, 2001
- 61,504
- 12
- 56
yeh, i must be fuckin blind because your opinion is the only one that can be right.
Riiiight. you aren't going to convince me of that either. so save your fingers.
- Nov 1, 2001
- 61,504
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Originally posted by: rh71
looks good now, has style... looks nothing like a ford.
bingo :laugh:
mb
Lifer
- Jun 27, 2004
- 10,233
- 2
- 71
Originally posted by: moshquerade
yeh, i must be fuckin blind because your opinion is the only one that can be right.
Riiiight. you aren't going to convince me of that either. so save your fingers.
No, you must have eye sight problems because you are the only one that thinks they look alike. It's not just my opinion. You're just being too stubborn to realize it. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't even click on the two links I provided.
http://www.edmunds.com/insidel...d=151726/pageId=171970
I hope the sports package is the X factor because the $45,475 Taurus lags behind the $38k Infiniti all around.
theeedude
Lifer
- Feb 5, 2006
- 35,787
- 6,197
- 126
Time to short TM?
Toyota is still peddling same boring products, and others' reliability has pretty much caught on.
Americans are restructured and don't have anchor of debt around their necks. Koreans are coming on strong. I can't think of a business sector where Koreans took on the Japanese and did not take their lunch.
Toyota is still peddling same boring products, and others' reliability has pretty much caught on.
Americans are restructured and don't have anchor of debt around their necks. Koreans are coming on strong. I can't think of a business sector where Koreans took on the Japanese and did not take their lunch.
nobody in their right mind would buy a car that was branded airport rentals a few years ago for $45k.
and senseamp: IMO a company's car lineup does not exactly correlate to its stock market performance. i am pretty sure nissan took a sizable market share in the entry mid-size sedan market with the altima, and in the entry lux-sedan with the G35/37, and you can see how it stacks up with the big boys for the past 5 years:
http://www.google.com/finance?...&q=NASDAQ:NSANY&ntsp=0
and senseamp: IMO a company's car lineup does not exactly correlate to its stock market performance. i am pretty sure nissan took a sizable market share in the entry mid-size sedan market with the altima, and in the entry lux-sedan with the G35/37, and you can see how it stacks up with the big boys for the past 5 years:
http://www.google.com/finance?...&q=NASDAQ:NSANY&ntsp=0
theeedude
Lifer
- Feb 5, 2006
- 35,787
- 6,197
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Over long term it does correlate though. Ultimately, you are paying for the profit stream, and they are making money by selling cars in their lineup. I think competition is such that it's going to be hard to make money making bland generic cars like Toyota is doing. Before, everyone else's quality was pretty much junk, so it was easy to command a premium for simply having high quality. But now most cars have pretty good quality, plus these Koreans can turn around on a dime and come up with a reliable and exciting lineup in a few short years. There may be high volumes in bland cars, and it may well be what American consumer wants, but it's going to be hard to make a profit in them if everyone's product is relatively similar. Cars that are going to make money are going to be more niche ones where the buyer wants that specific car. Mini is prime example. Toyota's one car in that category is Prius, but even that is going to see more competition in the future.
I think paying 40+ for a Ford is ridiculous, it will be worth nothing in the long run. If you plan on keeping it, that's fine.
Wow, that really does look like a Camry. It's ass appears shorter though.
Drove a Camry Hybrid a week back and didn't care for it. The worst part was that it was made for taller people, and I was toe-ing the gas pedal.
Drove a Camry Hybrid a week back and didn't care for it. The worst part was that it was made for taller people, and I was toe-ing the gas pedal.
When you have less to lose...
How this pans out will all depend on reliability. Ford has been on the move the past 5 years or so, making a genuine effort to compete with the Japanese on quality and driveability...and they've done it with some models too. The Fusion is a solid sedan. The F-150 continues to be an excellent truck, though Japanese competition in the fullsize truck market was nonexistent until 2007 when it was upgraded to "minor".
This is why GM and Chrysler slogged through Chapter 11 while Ford hasn't had to resort to that, among other reasons. They're trying.
Personally, I'm all for more competition. As far as the aesthetics, the exterior looks fine to me, but the interior is particularly pleasing. Ford's been doing damn good interiors for some time now too.
alkalinetaupehat
Senior member
- Mar 3, 2008
- 839
- 0
- 0
While in both the Taurus/Camry and Accord/5-series examples there are clear basic elements of car design which are similar because of the very structure of cars, Mosh does somewhat have a point in that the current design trend, like most other trends, is leading to a glut of cars which share multiple "unique" design features being repeated ad nauseaum.
Frankly many cars remind me of being on a boat. My 2cents anyways.
I think there are many other factors in a company's profitability: marketing effectiveness, profitability margin, reputation etc.
What Toyota excels in is volume of scale: you can undercut your opponents when you sell enough cars. Corolla and Camry are perfect examples. Toyota is not straddled with legacy costs like GM/Ford, hence they can have a wider profit margin compared to other companies when they sell many copies of it. Are they the best cars in their class? Questionable. Does Toyota makes money off them? Certainly.
Brand image is also an important factor. Most consumers want a reliable car (cars perceived to be reliable at least), hence it does not matter to regular consumers if you can get a V6 Hyundai Sonata for 4-cylinder Camry money.
Finally, I disagree that niche markets generate more revenue. R&D expense per car decreases as you sell more copies (even assuming fixed R&D cost for all models, which I doubt since R&D for a unique product such as the MR-S is surely more expensive than a plain jane vehicle such as the Corolla), hence your profitability margin increases as you sell more. It's always better to capture 15% of a $10B segment than capturing 90% of a $1MM segment (I can imagine niche auto manufacturers such as Lotus are hardly profitable).
Engineer
Elite Member
- Oct 9, 1999
- 39,230
- 701
- 126
I don't disagree. The Korean car companies are champions at trying to make their cars look like luxury cars. The new Genesis from Hyundai looks very much like a Mercedes from the front end (IMO). I guess the new Taurus and Camry are "somewhat" similar, but not nearly as much as others.
alkalinetaupehat
Senior member
- Mar 3, 2008
- 839
- 0
- 0
Originally posted by: Engineer
I don't disagree. The Korean car companies are champions at trying to make their cars look like luxury cars. The new Genesis from Hyundai looks very much like a Mercedes from the front end (IMO). I guess the new Taurus and Camry are "somewhat" similar, but not nearly as much as others.
It was sad going to NAIAS in '07. On the lower level some ambiguous Chinese companies had cars on display which were near duplicates of then-current models from various american and german auto manufacturers, and curiously enough what separated the near-clones from their originals were elements VERY similar to what is now coming to market as a new look. Funny how the world turns.
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