Jalopnik: Dave

2010 Honda Hybrid Up Close, Wearing Ford's "Dave" Smile

Ben Wojdyla — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:20:00 EDT

Honda seems to be lifting design cues directly from Ford on its new Honda hybrid — you know, the one definitely not named Insight. We thought that grille looked familiar when we first saw it a few weeks ago, but this up close and personal image confirms it — Honda, meet Dave... Dave, Honda. Hope you two can get along after the cease-and-desists start rolling in.

[Burlappcars]

Chicago Auto Show: Toyota Corolla, Meet Dave

Ben Wojdyla — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:30:00 EST

We don't remember seeing this at SEMA, because if we had, we would have made fun of it there as well. Nonetheless, the placard claims this Toyota Corolla SE Prototype was first shown at the infamous tuner show, and we claim it was first seen somewhere in a Ford studio run by Dave "Big Balls" Horbury. Seriously — check out that grille, somebody falling in love with the Ford Fusion much? Perhaps this is a new salvo in a developing grille wars. Whatever. We feel like maybe we should be on the look out for a restyled Ford Taurus sporting a Klingon forehead grille.

2008 Ford Crown Victoria Special Edition

Ray Wert — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:00:00 EDT

According to some shots procured by Popular Mechanics' Jim Dunne (he's still alive? Really — who knew?), Ford's gone Dave-alicious to the 2008 model of Ford's cop-car. That's right, the three-bar grille that screams "Hi, I'm An American" is the extent to which FoMoCo's changed the exterior of the 2008 Crown Vic. Oh wait, no, they've also dropped a special "Special Edition" chevron on the side of the front quarter panel and an odd little strip of chrome below the Dave look. We're going to go and vomit in our mouths a little bit. [Popular Mechanics]

Peter Horbury presents Ford "innovation." ...

Ray Wert — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 08:15:00 EDT

Peter Horbury presents Ford "innovation." We would have gone too except we had a thing. Namely, picking our navel lint. [Freep]

Peter Horbury: Still Has Big Balls, Now Believes In Magic

Ray Wert — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 16:15:53 EDT

Peter Horbury, FoMoCo's designer of the now infamous Gillette-like "Hi, I'm Dave!" grille is not only a designer with the "big balls" necessary to design FoMoCo out of their Nasser-created product design nightmare, but now he believes in magic. That's right, the always lovable, huggable and eminently quotable Horbury dropped this little tidbit on Phil Patton when asked about the doors of the Lincoln MKR concept

"In the future you will simply touch the car and the door will magically open."

What will FoMoCo think of next? Maybe Horbury's next design will be based on a Nimbus 2000. We can only hope to see a car shaped like a flying broom coming out of the next Detroit show. – Ray Wert

Look, Ma, No Handles [NYT Wheels Blog]

Spy Photos: Mini-Dave Caught In Trashy, Peekaboo Camo

bwojdyla — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:31:13 EST

The folks at some noob site called Edmunds Inside Line posted spy pics of what they purport to be the '08 Focus. Cue fevered responses from the Focus forums saying "the interior is better but the outside is meh" and "the IP looks Volvo-y." If you can't get the people who are enthusiastic enough to join a forum about their own car excited about the next model, things may be a bit rocky. That said, the nose appears better designed than the current horrifying iteration, and the lights are pretty spiffy. On the downside, audio enthusiasts everywhere will again curse Ford, which, not having learned its lesson from the DN101 Taurus, are putting in a non-DIN radio. I guess that means it will be SO GOOD nobody will ever want to replace it. – Ben Wojdyla

"Focus" spy shots [Edmunds Inside Line]

Related:
Spy Photos: 2008 Ford Focus Coupe [Internal]

Ford To Show Employees And Retirees Everything But Kitchen Sink From Now Until 2010

Ray Wert — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 07:45:00 EST

Mark "Movie Star" Fields is making one hell of a "Bold Move" for the weekend after Thanksgiving — showing off something he's calling the "Showroom of the Future" at Detroit's Cobo Hall. The little post-turkey extravaganza is a curtain pull on FoMoCo's future product plans for Ford NorAm from now until, you know, whenever they run out of ideas — which apparently will be 2010. The two-day event is open to current and future Ford workers only, allowing them to see the automaker's product development plans aren't totally full of shit, "Dave" and fourteen Mustang variants. As Fields explains,

"Through our North America 'Way Forward' plan, we've spoken a lot about reducing our uncompetitive cost structure, but we have not yet fully explained our accelerated product plans...

...it's time to change that — and to show our full team of employees and retirees how this transformation truly is product-led."

Basically, this little exhibit will be an auto buff's dream — including new designs and concepts for everything from a new front-end to the Ford Five Hundred to a new front-end to the Ford Focus, all the way up to a new front-end to the next redesign of the Ford Mustang that isn't a Shelby-Saleen Boss whatever variant. To accommodate the time schedule, FoMoCo chief designer Peter "Big Balls" Horbury's probably busy applying a whole hell of a lot of "Dave" on platforms as we speak. We'd love to find out for ourselves, but despite 25,000 potential attendees, we're not among them. None of us are former or current FoMoCo employees. Given our Bruce Dickinson-like need for "More Dave" — we're putting out a call to would-be spy photogs: Now is the opportunity to get us the mother lode. First one to bring us pictures from inside the event of FoMoCo's Ford brand "Dave-ness", Mercruy's "MetroSexyBack" or Lincoln's "whatever" — will win one of them new t-shirts we talked about (and you talked about, given the comment load) yesterday. So yeah, that's right — let's tear this mutha down! – Ray Wert

Workers peek at future Ford cars [Detroit News]