Our Man Flint is off on a rampage on either vehicle platform design or the design of vehicles, hell, maybe both. We're not really sure what The Car Connection's crusty old man, Jerry Flint, is arguing about because he seems to shift the gaze of his angry rhetoric from paragraph to paragraph. Don't get us wrong, we've got our own issues with the Big Three. Sharing platforms to reduce costs though, ain't one of them. We don't know about you Flint, but we like to keep prices low on Ford Mustangs, Chrysler 300s and Dodge Chargers...
Flints not all wrong. We whole-heartedly agree the design over the past few years of some models have how shall we say this diplomatically, umm, sucked hard. But, it's hard to say that the current incarnations of Ford's American automotive design look and feel anything like their Euro cousins.
When you look at a Ford Fusion, a Ford Edge, a Chevy HHR or a Caddy CTS we doubt you'll see much European in them. With the meaner looks seen in most American models, you almost feel like you'll see the American cars taking their European platform sisters from behind.
Given the models Flint uses from Ford (Contour and Mystique) and GM (Catera and Saturn LS), as proof of his argument, our thought is that this would have been a great article...like three years ago. Recycling the mistakes of the past to argue against the current product line just comes across as lame and vindictive. Get a better and more current storyline...and a better tie, dude.
Flint: Does Detroit Hate America? [The Car Connection]
Related:
Hi, I'm Dave: Ford's New Design Direction; Jerry Flint: We're Technologically Lacking [internal]