Re: Packard Motor Company returns...sorta...

Does Bugatti Veynon 16.4 count as ugly "relaunched" marquee? It looked 
pretty exotic.

I think DaimlerChrysler doesn't do excellent job with Maybach marquee 
which is none other than spiffy version of old S-Class chassis. Had they 
 redone the car in its own design rather than borrowing from 
Mercedes-Benz, I might change my thoughts.

Pity about the redesigned Avanti on GM F-body chassis. They ought to 
stick with original Studebaker Avanti with some updates proposed by 
Raymond Loewy.

Oliver

Aardwolf wrote:

> "Daniel J. Stern" wrote:
>
>
> > On Wed, 8 Oct 2003, Brent P wrote:
> >
> >
> > > > http://www.packardmotorcar.com/
> > > >
> > > > The swoopy lines aft of the front wheel and forward of the rear wheel are
> > > > directly off a '77 Olds Cutlass Supreme 4-door.. In fact, so is the front
> > > > door.
> > >
> > > Reminds me of that pontiac that carrie fisher's character drove in the
> > > blues brothers.
> >
> > ...which was the Pontiac version, I believe, of the same bodyshell as the
> > '77 Cutlass.
>
>
> The four-door shared the Le Mans platform.  (My folks had both a '75 Salon, and a
> '73 Grand Am, both sedans--probably the two best looking models built on that
> chassis--the Cutlass was Cameo White with a Cranberry vinyl roof and matching
> velour interior.  Pretty classy, it was, seriously...)  By the way, wasn't _A
> LOT_ of the chassis engineering incorporated in the '77 B/C/D cars based rather
> heavily on the '73 A/G-body intermediates?
>
> Back to the topic, why do those "relaunched marque" luxury cars always end up
> looking like particularly poorly executed fiberglass kits?  Virtually no fine
> detail at all, and this design is better than most in that respect.  A vulgar
> product for a crass clientele, I suppose.
>
>  Instead of straining so hard to incorporate a pin-the-tail-on-the-donky hash of
> retro styling details into a modern body style that it ends up looking like a
> particularly bloated, elephantine parody of a current Jaguar sedan
> [whew--mouthfull!], it could so _easily_ have looked so much _better_...
>
> http://media.gm.com/events/productseminar/images/hires/X02IN_AP009.jpg
>
> --Aardwolf.