There was a time when the future of the automobile was exhibited to the public as a "concept." A concept vehicle was truly a vision of the future for which a few components would be present in new models within a few years later. Others were just straight out of science fiction with none of the concept's ideas brought to market at all.
Another editorial year has come and gone. This year may not have been full of excitement, but it had its highlights.
For starters, your definition may be different than the next person’s. Luxury is subjective to the beholder. How you define it depends on your expectations of what luxury means to you. Also, how luxury feels to you.
That cute blue video game hero that you played with on your Sega console was quite an inspiration. Perhaps an inspiration for General Motors to create a subcompact car for a global market becoming the video game’s namesake…they did – in 2011.
This is it! The final round of this year’s roundup of vehicles that I worked with but appear elsewhere in the mediasphere. This is also among the final group of vehicles being considered for #VOTY19.
When General Motors set out to create the newest generation of full-sized pickup trucks, they knew that they had to match the competition at their game. But, how?
Think about the idea of intention and purpose. A designer, an engineer, and an executive – oh, yes, let’s not forget the folks in accounting – are all involved in the process of creating a vehicle. Once everyone signs off on it, they have to campaign for its success. Even the marketing folks have to be on board with selling it to everyone – dealerships, the communications folks, and, ultimately, the consumer.
In the case of the pickup truck, there are many opportunities to customize one to ratchet up the cool factor. Any truck with four-wheel-drive can get a lift or level of its suspension, knobbier tires with custom wheels, skid plates for the frame, accessories for the exterior and inside, and then some. Some have even tweaked the engine for more performance and swapped out the transfer case and differentials to match the increased performance from underneath the hood.
Mid-engine cars are not a new phenomenon. They’ve been around for decades. It is a simple set of physics and calculus that provides a car with near-perfect balance and center of gravity thanks to the engine mounted towards the middle of the vehicle.
"Standard of the world" dictated a level of luxury one expects from the crest of the Cadillac family as applied to each automobile since 1903. Some would argue that its level of luxury would only be eclipsed by a chosen few – Rolls-Royce, Duesenberg, Pierce-Arrow, Marmon, to name some of the few. It had its contemporaries, such as Packard and Lincoln. Even Chrysler’s Imperial would match Cadillac's level of luxury during its time as the top model in the company’s lineup.