[DML] Re: Volvo's new female designed Gullwing Sports Car

["therealdmcvegas" <dmcvegas@xxxxxxx>]

--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Gus Schlachter <gus@xxxx> wrote:
<SNIP>
The Delorean doors use dual striker-pins, but that does not mean a
single
striker-pin cannot be
made safe.  All my other "normal" car doors use a single pin.  You're
right that there should
be more safety catches, but isn't this car a prototype?
<SNIP>

You're right, it is a bit wrong to be so critical about prototype
designs. But I've not seen much progress in this car's design over the
past couple of years. Let me explain.

Even with traditional side mounted doors that are horizontally hinged,
you still have a door that is tethered by two points horizontaly
(hinges & striker pin). So with a side impact, you're going to see the
door pull on the A & B pillars on the car keep the door sides from
intruding in (and side impact beams to prevent it from folding). With
a singe striker pin on the bottom, you just can't get this protection.
With gullwing door/hatch doors where the securing points are mounted
verticly, they could inadvertantly act as an axis for the door to spin
on, and allow the front and rear portions of the door to flex too
much, and dangerously intrude into the passenger compartment, and/or
allow the opposite ends to open. In a word, it would extremely suck to
have the front portion of a door to intrude in and cut into my legs,
just as it would for the rear to open up, and allow my arm or head, or
worse yet, that of a child whom was not secured properly in the front
or rear seats to be caught in the door as it rebounds back after an
impact. Or perhaps the latching mechanism fails, or is just plain
sheared off from the rocker panel, and the door opens.

Chrysler had the same problem with their Caravan line when they used a
single striker pin, in the center of their rear hatches, whereas Ford
was using double striker pins on both sides of the hatch. Low speed
collisions would allow the latch to loos grip, and the door to open.
Looking at photos, Chrysler has since switch over to looped latches
for their rear hatches. Not even the Bricklin used striker pins for
it's gullwing doors, and while the DeLorean prototype did use a
striker pin mounted to the rocker panel, it still countered with
another pin mounted to the A pillar.

And while this is only a prototype, the other problem with with lack
ofover lap on the doors. As you'll always see, auto manufacturers
design all doors, and hatches to overlap, which also help teather the
door in place. In every stage of this car being a prototype, they've
yet to intergrate this overlapping.

So you can see, the time and effort that went into the DeLorean was
quite a bit, and you can really appriciate it when compared to other
car designs.

<SNIP>
As for the marketing, well that's up to the marketing people.  This
can be
tailored without
changing the nature of the car's design.  I don't see why age is a
valid
demographic but gender
is not.

Anyway, the Pontiac Aztec was ruined not by bad marketing as much as
crappy design.  :-)  And
what about the failure of the Delorean?  Was that bad marketing?  Bad
design? (Personally I
think it was bad timing...)
<SNIP>

Marketing can be pretty tricky. The DeLorean is an example of how
you've got a great product, but you've poorly marketed it. Save for
the US Tennis open, my parents never saw a single ad on TV. And almost
every single shot of the DeLorean used in their marketing campaign was
of the car just sitting there, looking pretty. Action shots of a car
with wheels spinning, and a blurred background can do allot to inspire
a buyer.

I cited the Aztek, but didn't word my statement properly. The Aztek is
an example of where instead of developing a marketing campaign to sell
a particular product, you create a campaign, and then develop a
product to try and match an unwaivering campaign. Which is what this
Volvo is comming to. More emphasis is being placed on proving that
this is a car "by women, for women", than is on function. And the
"functions" that are included are actually controversial. While most
women are not mechanics, a good number of them have quite a desire to
learn, but have been shunned away from it. And if you watch any TV
shows about Sport Compact Cars, you'll notice that more and more women
are starting become mechanics, and are wrenching on their own cars.
While Volvo is trying their best to market themselves as a hip,
progressive company that wants everyone's input, their logic here is
goning to come back and bite them, as it can also be percieved as
being quite narrow minded, and has the potential to offend quite a
few.

-Robert
vin 6585 "X"




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