Toyota Cavalier, Ford Taurus wagons, Ford Explorer, Chev Blazer, Jeep Cherokee and any others you can think of that Bill Clinton inflicted on Japan and really shouldn't have ever been brought here. None of these cars have been discussed on here for a while and are a rare sight on the road now, anyone still running one or know someone that does persist with them? They were all quite comfortable wagons for their time. Are you still enjoying the Pickapart rummage sessions or are you Rockauto junkies these days? The latter has to be a plus point for those that do still own one or are thinking of, ahem, investing. Your thoughts.
sandypheet,
May 20, 1:13am
There probably folk still paying them off.
apollo11,
May 20, 1:32am
Reminds me of a TV clip I watched, a wealthy collector was buying zero milage 'common' cars and hermetically sealing them in plastic wrap in an underground storage area, and they showed a brand new Honda City going into storage. The reasoning was that no one else would bother, and they would become very rare.
ronaldo8,
May 20, 5:58am
Ford Taurus, I'll never forget the day I clapped eyes on the third gen, was in the US at the time shortly after its release. With much hype and hoopla Ford had just moved its design team to Alias designer, A cad package that was the reason for my being there, it excelled at compound curved surfaces and perfect seamless curvature. I burst into laughter, what an ugly pig, a shocker, just because you can make every line a curve doesn't mean you should.
franc123,
May 20, 6:03am
It certainly caused controversy wherever it went that car. It wasn't universally hated though, Ford shifted a lot of them in that period and were clearly looking to export them in both LH and RH drive something that usually causes funny looks from Detroit beancounters during development and can be VERY difficult to get approval for. At one point several years later they canned the model line only to bring it back again.
meow_mix,
May 20, 7:32am
I dunno I think the Chevy Cavalier was a reasonably honest car. nothing wrong with them, Toyota put their badge on them so they must be OK.
franc123,
May 20, 8:32am
To put it bluntly the Cavalier ended up with Toyota branding in Japan because they were told they had to, it was a Govt objective. The dealer network who sold them there didn't really want the cars to sell or to support them either, they were considered a cheaply made nuisance and hugely inferior to a Camry despite being a volume seller (and Camry competitor) in the US.
apollo11,
May 20, 9:59am
In industrial design parlance, it's known as an 'extruded poo'.
apollo11,
May 20, 10:03am
That metallic aquamarine paintjob draws attention to the car being towed. And I saw more than one abandoned by the side of the motorway.
trogedon,
May 20, 7:39pm
My cousin (with about 15 Fords - a collector) bought a one owner, very low mileage (40k kms?) Ford Taurus a few years ago. When I said the ugly one - yep the ugly one. I thought he was smarter than that.
franc123,
May 22, 9:54am
Ugly styling can even be an enhancer of the future value of a car. You could draw parallels here between the Edsel and the Taurus.
mimik3,
May 22, 10:11am
I had the first Taurus in NZ as a company car. The passenger cabin was okay but outside. umm I would park it in dark areas so no one would laugh. Driveability was okay and the engine was reasonably powerful, but the body shape was was definitely a pig. Also had a Ford Probe (auto) and Sierra Wagon. Those were the days.
franc123,
May 22, 1:29pm
Interesting, all of those cars were controversial at launch, particularly the Sierra. Its almost like people got upset when Ford tried something different and expected nothing other than conservatively styled cars from them.
meow_mix,
May 24, 2:06am
I always thought the Taurus looked OK, it certainly has it's curvy edges, but the bum of it melts away like the AU Falcon which also had controversial styling.
ronaldo8,
May 24, 8:46pm
I was doing Instructor certification in Alias, The poo in question was being touted because Ford had come on board and that third gen was the first major project they'd used it for. There was much hype blown into it all, a big win. Perfect curvature continuity between panels in software, virtual prototyping prior to clay etc etc,all very new and cool using Aliases dominant strengths, the surfacing is still the best available.
Then I saw the thing itself in a dealership while walking to lunch one day. what Ford had done with my beautiful software. It was as if they had tried to push every button, oo oo lets have oval rear glass that is compound in every axis and yet seamlessly joins to a body like a sucked wet jube. O and this thing! and this! lets do that as well! Like a teenager first exposed to every photoshop filter.
The horror! in steel and rubber, made real.
ronaldo8,
May 24, 8:58pm
You are dead right, I feel strangely attracted to old Renaults of late.
apollo11,
May 24, 9:16pm
It's a very delicate balance, pushing the boundaries in styling. Sometimes you have to add a little bit of 'weird' to the mix and hope the whole lot coalesces into striking, or interesting. If you fail in your proportions, it will always be seen as ugly. They ignored some important underlying visual cues to squeeze the Taurus out.
apollo11,
May 24, 9:19pm
But the Edsel is very rare, and only commands the sort of price a far more common, and far better looking car- like a 240z does.
richardmayes,
May 24, 10:05pm
There's a V8 Ford Explorer that visits our area from time to time. Makes a nice noise.
(I'm not much of a V8 trainspotter but I can usually pick if it's a Ford or a Chrysler approaching before I see it. The Chevs and Mercedes still all sound the same to me. )
richardmayes,
May 24, 10:22pm
Yes, they swung and missed with the Taurus. I like that they "swung" though, it would be a boring old world if designers never took risks. So many of the cars of the early 1990s previous generation were featureless boxes.
I remember the controversy around the Ford Taurus, people where horrified and it was a sales failure, but not long after that most cars started to have braver designs with more shape in them.
2005-2010 was a real high water mark for styling of ordinary everyday cars IMHO. The Honda Euro Accord, Mazda 6 and Subaru Legacy of that era are all great looking cars with just the right mix of curves and edges.
They have gone too far the other way now, there are too many lumps and bumps, and weird bits of lego that stick out on cars now.
meow_mix,
May 25, 2:25am
I disagree, I am a huge fan of Legacys, have owned two, but I never liked the 2003-2009 model. Earlier Legacys were always flash, nice cars but that model seems extremelly boring with very dated 1990's styling, especially the sedan which has crappy taillights that look like they're off an old Mitsi Lancer. Those Legacys really lost the magic of the previous models, and also Subaru canned the twin turbo engines by then. The earlier B4 from '98-'03 looks flasher than the later model.
franc123,
Aug 4, 6:17pm
Taurus a sales failure? Not in the US it wasn't, it actually was an important cog in Fords machine. Ford Australia used it as a reaction test, not that it stopped the AU Falcon looking like it did. But thats a whole other story.
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