JBarraxJr

Nice Job Detroit. I like it better than the current HHR.

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I'm a product manager for a wholesale distributor of sign equipment and supplies. I have a bachelors degree in commercial art, so I have some formal art and graphic design training. Unfortunately I graduated in 1983 before the desktop publishing revolution took hold, so I'm still trying to teach myself photoshop and CorelDRAW and such.

Nice job Kowalski

Here's mine. A Buick Wildcat roadster. Sketched, then redrawn in CorelDRAW. original sketch. The headrest fairings flow back and meld into the CHMSL and the triple oval chromed tailpipes echo the trademark Buick portholes on the front fenders. finished rendering of the front 3/4 view. The bright strip along the beltline is chrome that flows from the front fog lights and wraps the entire vehicle. It can't be a Buick without a little chrome.

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Ooooo Swoopy. Cool sketch Peugeot.

Thanks Scarlet. I like the overall appearance of the current Soltice, especially the back. But the front end lost the beveled look of the Grand Am and GP grilles, which, to me, makes it look a little flimsy. And when they announced the Solstice GTP, I expected some sort of ram air look to the hood and was a little surprised and disappointed when all they did was widen the opening around the fog lamps. So this is kind of he Solstice GTP I would like to have seen from the beginning.Except I forgot to draw the foglights. D'oh!!

Very nice design SS. It's got that concept car flair and looks low-slung and fast. Well done.

Mine is a Solstice Coupe concept. I wanted to work on a more traditonal roadster as well, but I'm travelling today and ran out of time. My FTP setup is out of whack as well, so this one is uploaded to photobucket. Hope it works....

Can we get a deadline extension? I've been trying some new rendering techniques and my design's not ready yet...

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KEWL I love the Sky. Looks like a mini Corvette. But I was dissapointed in the design of the Solstice and, you're right Brian, those ragtops look sloppy. This will be fun.

Very Cool burns. I haven't come up with anything I like, so I think I'll pass on this one.

Looks like an Audi.

Nice start Peugeot

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I doubt that I'll have anything for this one. I've done about a half dozen sketches, but they're all boring. Designing Chevy's is a challenge because they're sooooooo simple. And with such a specific target as the El Camino, there's not a lot of room for imagination.

You make a good point about the exchange rate Toes. About their top executive pay, I have read several times that Japanese companies make much less at the top than their American counerparts. The ratios of the CEO pay are more like ten times what the assembly line workers make vs 200 times the same for Detroit brass. I'll have to research it to get the exact figures. Of course, since Nissan is now owned by Renault, it's a Japanese company in name only (much like Chrysler, the red-headed stepchild of Daimler Chrysler). One of the things that irks me about the Japanese manufacturing in America is that they are proving that American workers can build excellent cars and do it profitably. The primary obstruction, imo, is the winner-take-all attitude of the unions vs the domestics. Back in the early 20th Century, unions were necessary and they did a helluva lot of good for American workers. But they have grown fat and lazy (not to mention corrupt) becoming not much better than the greedy CEO's they used to challenge. When an assembly line worker gets paid triple time for working on his birthday, and workers are able to make laziness the s.o.p. we got serious problems. Not all union operations are lazy though. Ford's UAW run Atlanta plant was quite productive in the Taurus' heyday because the union management worked with the plant managers to put forth a good effort. (Too bad the Ford brass were too interested in building it on the cheap rather than letting them challenge the workforce at American Honda's Marysville plant and Toyota's Georgetown KY plant). You said your GM cars have never left you stranded. I wish I could say the same. I have been stranded several times, by my Pontiac 6000 STE and by one of the Mercury Sables. And my current Aurora hasn't stranded me but has persistent C.E.L. and transmission issues. Otherwise, it's very well appointed, has a wonderful DOHC 3.5l V6 and is a gorgeous vehicle (see my sig). But I must disagree with your assessment of the "boring" nature of Japanese cars. I did have a boring, utilitarian Corolla, but our Accord is delightful. The steering feel and handling are the "purest" of any car I've driven. I don't drive it much because it's my wife's transport, but on the occasions that I do, I'm always pleasantly surprised at how it makes me feel connected to the powerplant and how much road feel it communicates and how solid it feels. And that's with over 120k on the odometer. It's actually more engaging than the Aurora, just not as large or comfy. One more word about imports. Domestic companies have been telling us to "buy American" while they close U.S. plants and open new ones in Mexico and Canada, so I don't buy that rap. Also, I think most European imports are overrated. The VW Jetta is built in Mexico and most Audi, BMW, and Mercedes models are just as unreliable as Fords and Chevy's. The only German import that actually has better than average reliability (according to Consumer Reports) is Porshe. All the others are overpriced status symbols.

Well, I'm getting into a conversation that's a few days old, but, as a long-time auto enthusiast and owner of several GM cars and one Accord, I'd like to add my two cents' worth. About media balance; When it was reported last month that Toyota was on pace to outsell GM for the first time this year, there were repeated references to recalls and slipping quality. So you guys are not accurate in alleging that 'the media" covers up their errors. However, I am also a CarandDriver subscriber and I got a chance to talk personally to several editors at the 50th anniversary bash in June of 2005. Patrick Bedard admitted that when it comes to brands, some of the editors "have their favorites". It doesn't take a genius to figure out that most of their favorites are imports. Having said that, I think a HUGE reason they favor imports is because many of them have worked as engineers at domestic auto companies and they know firsthand how decisions are made at the Big Three. More on that later. About comparative quality. GM is getting better. Everyone who studies automotive quality acknowledges that. The problem is, Honda, Toyota, and Nissan are getting better too, and the domestics are chasing a moving target. According to JD Power & Associates, the top brands in initial quality are still Asian. If I remember correctly, the #2 brand in 2005 was Hyundai, which used to be a dog. They committed themselves to matching Toyota and they actually beat them. They came in second behind Lexus. So someone can outdo the Japanese in build quality. Unfortunately, it seems that Ford, GM, et al don't have the will to do it. More on that later... Firsthand experience: I usually don't buy brand new cars, so I have a somewhat distorted view of this, but, imo when you drive a car from say, 40,000 miles to 100,000 miles, you get a very good idea of the quality of the engineering and the parts used. I have owned a Pontiac 6000STE, a Pontiac Phoenix, a Pontiac Bonneville, two TransAm's, a Chrysler LeBaron Turbo, two Mercury Sables, a Toyota Corolla, Nissan Hardbody pickup, a Ford Taurus, and I currently own and drive a 2001 Oldsmobile Aurora and a 97 Honda Accord. All but the Taurus were bought used. The most reliable cars of this lot--by far-- have been the Corolla and the Accord. Necessary unscheduled repairs on these cars are so infrequent that they are hardly worth mentioning. In 6 years with the Accord, we've had to replace a radiator and an exhaust part. That's it. With my domestic cars, I generally have had to replace worn out parts so frequently that I keep a running list in my mind of things that need to be fixed. I generally have to sell the domestics as they age because they become to expensive to maintain. Not so the Accord. This is the first used car I've ever bought that I paid off and kept for a significant length of time because I didn't have to keep pouring money into it. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. The imports are engineered and built to higher standards. Period. End of story. You can argue about all you want, but hundreds of thousands of drivers with experiences like mine will tell you you're insane or in blind denial. The inside stories: Now why is that? In my opinion, the drastic difference between the long term reliability of Japanese cars and American cars is the way they're made from the top down. That is, the criteria used to decide what goes into the vehicle and what comes out. Specifically, how much testing and engineering goes in and how much profit comes out. Many books have been written bout the auto industry. Two that are quite revealing are Car, by Mary Walton, and All Corvettes are Red by James Schefter. Both of these were based on inside access to Detroit development teams as they worked on the 97(?) Taurus and C5 Corvette. (The End of Detroit is informative too, but it's written from an outside perspective so you don't get any insight into how decisions are made). Walton and Shefter had access to meetings with product planners, designers, engineers, etc and were present as decisions were made on what concepts to choose, what features to leave in, and how many test mules to use. They talked about how the domestics were aware that Toyota and Honda use test fleets with hundreds of vehicles to work out problems before they release the cars. Chevy and Ford use a tiny fraction of that number and many bugs aren't even found until the cars are in the hands of disappointed consumers. They also give you a glimpse into the pay scale and lifestyle of these execs and the amount of money they must squeeze out of each car to support those lifestyles. To make a long story short, and to make my point, the basic difference between the way Honda and Toyota develop products and the way the Big Two do it, is greed. Ford and GM could compete and win if they would only follow the Asian example and stop trying to maximize short term profit out of each car and make a larger commitment to R&D and quality. GM gripes about the cost of their union contracts and tries to blame their inability to compete with Japan on health care costs. To be sure they pay higher costs and wages than the Japanese do. But they also pay themselves much higher salaries and benefits than their Japanese counterparts. Domestic auto execs rake in MILLIONS in compensation, even when the companies they run are losing money. There's only one word for that ladies and gentlemen: Greed. Naked avarice. Ford and GM can't compete because they would rather live as Princes of American Industry than produce good products at a fair price and earn their customers' loyalty by offering a better car for the money. Case in point: How much do GM and Toyota invest in product quality? Toyota invests about 80 BILLION /year on research and development to support about 20 cars spread out over 3 brands. GM markets...what, 30, 40 models sold by 6 brands. They invest less than 7 billion a year on R&D. Toyota invest 11 times as much money to produce good quality vehicles with about 2/3 as many products to support. They take a long term view and believe that if they provide customers with vehicles that give them their money's worth, they'll get repeat business and sales based on word of mouth advertising. Does it work? If it didn't, we wouldn't be having this discussion. But since it obviously works so well, why don't Ford and GM copy the formula? Because they don't friggin want to. They'd rather make prettier cars that aren't as reliable and bet that people will buy stylish vehicles instead of bland reliable ones. That was the thinking that led Ford to market the all-oval Taurus. They made a conscious decision NOT to try to build as good a car as a Camry. They figured we'd rather spend $27,000 on a pretty, swoopy car with persistent parts failures than buy a less bland old "vanilla" Camry that runs reliably for years. If you don't believe me read the book. Until Ford and GM give up on the scheme of selling pretty cars with inferior quality and accept lower salaries (how about a $200,000 salary cap all the way up to the CEO's office?) in the interest of long term viability, they will not be able to stem the tide of Japanese market share gains. They can complain all they want about Unions and health care costs, they can accuse the Japanese of dumping, hurting the economy, whatever. All that matters to consumers is getting their money's worth. And until the domestics can PROVE that their cars are More reliable than the Japanese brands, consumers will continue to give their dollars to the companies who've earned them. Those companies are almost all Japanese. Let the flaming begin.

You're supposed to vote for four Bimmer.

Revoting (not sure why though...) 4 8 10 3

Nice sketch yellowjacket.

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Not gonna make the deadline on this one. I'll just wait for the next one.