The internet collectively lost its mind when Elon Musk rolled out his Cybertruck last week in California. More polarizing than the ends of two magnets, people either loved or hated the thing. But — and this is key — regardless on which side of the fence a person stood, it seemed that everyone was surprised by how the thing looked.
Today’s QOTD is easy: what other vehicle debuts caught you off-guard?
Most people’s jaws were set agape when Ford rolled the then-new GT on stage back at the 2015 Detroit show. Keeping a secret like that under wraps in this day and age when all hands have a camera in their pocket is nearly impossible. Yet, at the time, Ford pulled it off.
Your author will confess to being surprised when Jeep announced the name for its pickup truck we now know as the Gladiator. It’s a good job I’m not a betting man, as I would have lost untold riches wagering it was going to be called the Scrambler.
Surely there has been at least one product announcement that caught you off guard. Chime in below.
[Images: Tesla/Mecum/FCA]
“The internet collectively lost its mind when Elon Musk rolled out his Cybertruck last week in California. More polarizing than the ends of two magnets, people either loved or hated the thing.”
One of the FB groups I’m in (Motorology) had to remind members to keep their comments regarding the Cybertruck civil and free of profanity.
I was ‘taken aback’ a the Cybertruck styling at first. But now I find myself almost ready to order one. For $39k starting, it’s a bargain.
Forget the working truck functionality; that matters little for half the sales.
Talk about drawing attention:
Parked by the other traditional pickups, they look obsolete in comparison.
Mid-engine Corvette? Who cares?
Not only does this make GM/Ford/FCA look ‘okay boomer’ foolish, but it blows past Rivian’s expensive, minion-looking, rich man playthings.
my issue is I don’t quite understand the kind of person who would *want* to be seen in one of them.
I could draw a lot of attention if I walked around with my wang hanging out. I’m not sure that makes pants obsolete or out of date though.
There will be no $40,000 truck. They didn’t really do a $35,000 Model 3. Add years to it’s scheduled date. Styling is ’50 sci-fi comic book! Around here in MN with 10,000 lakes and millions of boats, how protected are the batteries? Sometimes you get a little wet launching the boat.
Very likely it’ll be a year late and the projected base price will come with asterisks — but it will come and it will meet expectations. I’m pretty sure they’ve considered the possibility of boat launches.
What flavor would you like for your next pitcher of Kool-Aide?
The True Believers like their Kool-aide “Musk’s musk” flavored…
There is the real possibility that this will be the third or Fourth electric pickup to market.
Additionally there is the possibility the Mach-E will beat the model Y to market.
Whatever you think of it, Tesla is going to have to start behaving like an actual car company and launch cars on time.
Hey on a serious note, where I this going to be assembled? I know they were standing up model Y production at Freemont, but I hadn’t heard on this.
Up early so I am going for the Low Hanging Fruit:
The Pontiac Aztek
Yes, we’d seen a concept drawing (and not paid much attention)
https://www.motor1.com/news/75889/weird-car-of-the-week-this-pontiac-suv-concept-was-the-better-aztek/
but when the actual concept vehicle ….oh dear
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IByCyXWT5YA
Annnnnnd, of course the production vehicle was much worse than the concept….
What surprised me was how radically different the Aztec was to the Rendezvous.
The Aztec has actually aged well compared to the Rendezvous with its Billy Bass mouth grill and contorted D pillar.
Many random associates and neighbors I have work for GM. Many had told me that during the public release of the Aztek, a secret verbal directive went out to the managers drones stating do not allow/encourage negative comments by the working GM monkeys on the Aztek. Now, boy, that’s a red flag!
The Aztek was a great idea, fantastic and timely even. But among other things, it was styled wrong, and bankruptcy aside, it is perhaps the pinnacle example of unquestioning, tangible, GM Executive Stupidity in my generation.
The HMN Daily blog published a very good piece last month about the journey of the Aztek from concept to production vehicle. GM management ruined it, mainly by decreeing that it be built on the GMT200/U-body minivan platform, rather than the S/T truck platform.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2019/10/25/how-the-pontiac-aztek-became-the-pontiac-aztek/
dukeisduke,
Excellent article – thank you. (Made a presentation once to Don Hackworth – it was not fun.)
Wow, small world. The HMN Daily blog is another of my daily must-read sites.
Oddly, the Rubbermaid garden shed styling has grown on me over the years but then my tastes are far from mainstream.
I find they just don’t look that weird anymore. There are certainly worse things on the road today than the Aztek.
Great article, and it backs up my sources, both on the Aztek and the culture problems at GM (that exist alive and well today, FYI).
Some excerpts:
GM Exec: “I don’t want any negative comments about this vehicle. None. Anybody who has bad opinions about it, I want them off the team.”
“Design would be by committee”
“Even though GM submitted the Aztek to plenty of focus groups, GM brass discounted the criticisms levied at the design and at the same time encouraged the designers, engineers, and product planners working on the Aztek to focus on meeting internal development goals and timelines.”
“GM started offering rebates to move the Aztek off lots and reduced its annual sales forecast from 75,000 to 50,000. Just 11,200 sold in the short 2000 model year and no more than 28,000 in each of the next three years.”
I recall the sales forecasts for the HHR were up/down/all over; these GM guys clearly don’t have a clue.
Isn’t that typical with any new product around public release?
I dont like the Aztek much myself, but you can still find traces of it in recent CUVs like whatever Mitsubishis putting out. Yet, its not an angry gaping maw PoKemon thing like everything else.
regardless of your personal opinion of Elon, he is a master of sucking an audience into his PR vortex.
I watched the livestream of the Cybertruck like a good clickbaitee should. but I have no idea where I was when I first saw the Aztek or even the Mustang Mach-E
mmreeses;
I FULLY agree with you.
Elon knows instinctively how to attract attention. Good or bad PR, the web pages were set ablaze. That is what matters.
And 10 years from now, people will still be able to recall this event, much like when Steve Jobs first introduced the Iphone.
BTW, good ‘ol Steve was also a master of promotion.
“BTW, good ‘ol Steve was also a master of promotion.”
yes, and like Elon he became enamored with his own brand and started to believe he knew way more than he did. Like when he tried to explain to the CEO of Corning Glass how glass was made.
Detroit-X
You have real information and I have only stories, but the -story- I heard was:
Chrysler had a big success in the PT Cruiser concept, which Chrysler took from concept to production pretty quickly, and very successfully. The GM Executive office was jealous, and said, “Why can’t WE (GM) do that? It was therefore decreed that the Aztek was to be pushed through as a rapid development showcase example. However, in order to meet this self-imposed schedule too many compromises had to be made… the biggest being that the cured sides of the concept were too wide to go down the assembly line (which was chosen because it was the soonest available). Therefore the decision was made to go to flat-slab-sides on the production car…. and so it went… with everyone afraid to say anything that would cause failure to meet the schedule… the emperor was thus clothed.
How true this I I have no idea…
My limited understanding is that the Aztec vehicle was moved from one platform to another partway through development. Mark Reuss could give you the whole story. (My lowly cubicle was fairly close to his office at that time, but I was on a different vehicle team.)
[see dukeisduke link above for a better summary than I’ve ever seen before]
The Aztek was assembled in Ramos Arizpe on the same line as the Buick Rendezvous which looked pretty conventional. So I’m not sure if that story is legit.
Lokki:
At the vert least, your story sounds true for other GM mistakes, for sure.
I thought the HHR was GM’s “Me-Too” moment for the PT Cruiser.
Even hired the designer?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Nesbitt
I consider it a practical joke. It has specs that mutually exclude one another and is thus unbuildable. In order to bring it to market it would have to change in so many ways that it will be a completely different vehicle. I’ll wait to see that one, if it ever comes. This thing will certainly not be produced and is just a concept and design exercise like so many other show cars.
Meanwhile, Tesla needs to spend some money in order to tool up for the Model Y, assuming it’s next to be produced.
The Semi? The Roadster? Delayed indefinitely, if not cancelled all together.
Can I interest you in some solar shingles, always six
months away from production?
NEXT?
I wish they’d go private so they didn’t constantly have to dangle the Next Big Thing to keep the wolves satiated. The Y will be their bread and butter and should be their sole focus until it’s done. The Roadster would probably be a big spend with a dubious return, and the Semi and solar shingles are probably both a case of enthusiasm outrunning technology. The pickup is pretty damn exciting though, and buildable. I don’t see how they can build something so innovative for ten grand less than the average transaction price of a full size truck, but even if all it does is make people hold off on buying the Big 3’s limp electric conversions of existing trucks until they can try a Tesla truck, that protects Tesla’s EV market share.
How can they build it for $10K less than ATP of full-size pickups? Easy! Tesla is REALLY good at losing money!
When the price of the C8 was announced it was a surprise. Given all the test mules, renders and spy shots its rare to have a car revel sneak up on you these days.
Now I can’t get the sound of Ed Bassmaster as Emilio saying “Would ya look at that? Just LOOK at it!” over and over.
“The internet collectively lost its mind” No, the “internet” didn’t. I was on the internet and I didn’t lose my mind.
OK I’ll pile on. “…people either loved or hated the thing.”
I do not love it. I do not hate it. I welcome the general level of innovation (if real and achievable). I am still adapting to the idea of the styling. :-)
Yeah. I hated it the day it was introduced. I was impressed by it as I came to understand why they made the design decisions they did — form following function due to the ramp, rolltop, thick body panels etc. Now I’m actually starting to like it.
“what other vehicle debuts caught you off-guard?”
The modern GTO, although I bought one.
Mustang-II. I knew it would be smaller, that was in all car mags, but I seem to remember it would only scaled down to Maverick size, not Pinto. Like the Aztek it was panned by the faithful, but it’s timing couldn’t have been better and it sold very well despite all the negative predictions.
The new 4.3L V6 that GM came out with in 2013 was surprising. I did not expect a brand new pushrod V6 to exist.
If only they had made more use of it.
The Dodge Viper concept (in a good way). 1990-ish. More cars are looking like slightly rounded boxes with small, underpowered engines. The Viper was a huge middle finger to the establishment and the styling, seeing it with my 15-year-old eyes, was breathtaking. There it was at the Philly Auto Show…and they let you sit in it!
The fact that very little of it changed between concept and production showed that Chrysler was at the top of their game at that time and was willing to take a chance.
Citroen SM, as in: the future is now.
The ’75 Chrysler Cordoba, as in: The parts bin collection that looked way better than it was.
The ’81 Chrysler Imperial, as in: The parts bin collection meets Blade Runner. Still to this day a modern classic, electronics and fuel injection systems notwithstanding.
Agree 100% with your first two examples.
The 6th generation Imperial however involved taking a Lincoln Mark front end (grille and hide-away headlights) and a Seville bustle back and grafting them onto a Cordoba.
I think the RWD Chrysler 300 caught most people off guard. If the quality had been better Chrysler would have had a lasting hit on their hands. When they updated it, the 300 lost most of its basic character and is now nothing special.
The 2011 Volt concept caught me off guard.
I’m one of the few people who thinks the production version looked way better than the concept.
The Chevy Volt. I didn’t expect GM to take an early leadership role in EVs (which they’ve mostly squandered over the last couple years).
The early LX-based Chrysler concepts. I didn’t think there would actually be mass-market RWD full-size sedans anymore.
The BMW X6. I didn’t get it at the time and still don’t get it or any of its imitators.
The Lexus RX L. I really thought they were going to do the proper three-row crossover the Lexus brand has been needing for more than a decade. Instead they put a literally unusable third row in their two-row crossover in the cheapest and most awkward possible way. So damn cheap. Sales would easily have justified the cost to engineer a five- or six-inch wheelbase stretch.
The 2nd gen Volt is sexy, 1st gen is actually not too bad as you are buying it for functionality.
“The Chevy Volt. I didn’t expect GM to take an early leadership role in EVs (which they’ve mostly squandered over the last couple years).”
Agreed…..They did a great job making improvements with the Gen 2 but why they didn’t try to stick the Voltec in a CUV chassis is beyond me or just
“The 2nd gen Volt is sexy, 1st gen is actually not too bad as you are buying it for functionality.”
I prefer the exterior looks of my 2013 Volt over the 2nd Gen, but not the interior. Maybe it’s just those polished aluminum wheels on it…… I love those wheels!
Honestly – the 1996 Chrysler minivans. I was about 13 at the time, and it was in the days before 24/7 internet coverage of car news. We had a 1990 Town & Country in the family at the time (itself a rare one-year model). Completely unaware that ChryCo was even introducing a new model, I was BLOWN AWAY by the ’96 models that were on display at the San Diego auto show.
So smooth, so modern…what the GM Dustbusters were trying to be IMO. There was a huge crowd around the booth and people were buzzing. Probably first and last time a new minivan intro got such a response.
Believe the 1996 Chrysler minivans were the first integration of the sliding door track into the rear glass (*much* cleaner appearance). Also dual sliding doors.
Still one of the most beautiful and logical underhood layouts I’ve ever seen (clearly accessible and color coded).
No ’90s interior aged well, not even in the luxury segment, but the interior of the ’96 generation T&C really did feel ahead of its time at the time.
When I was 10 or 11, I saw a newspaper ad that pictured (in black and white, of course) the radical new front end of the 1968 GTO. I was stunned. At the time, my parents owned a ’67 GTO hardtop; suddenly it looked like an antique.
The 1992 Toyota Camry was the first vehicle that Toyota made that was engineered for American tastes. Compared to its predecessor, it was larger, more stylish, more powerful and more substantial. It vaulted Toyota (and paved the way for Honda) to be true competitors to any domestic brand. There was a lot of build-up to the introduction of the 1989 Lexus LS400, which foreshadowed the Camry by 3 years, but the Camry took everyone by surprise.
2020 Subaru Outback
I’ll nominate the 1999 Mercury Cougar. It was quirky and gorgeous to 17yr old me and tried to get my mom to buy one in melina blue. She got a black ’00 Neon instead.
I’m with you dude. Through mostly blind luck, I was able to find myself daily driving a 1999 Cougar in 1999. That car really stood out at the time; got so many comments on it. People thought it was all sorts of things — lots of people guessed the “New Jag??” (maybe because of the cat emblem up front). A lot of people thought it was the “New Audi” as well…I’m thinking the styling vaguely reminded them of the TT.
Either way, a gorgeous car that I remember fondly.
The thing is, you can make an angular shape truck that looks great. Lamborghini Huracan is angular and sexy. But this cybertruck, the flat vertical door, the sharp edge that isn’t easy on the eye, I mean you can easily make it just as strong and much better looking, instead of this boxy cardboard mess.
1991 Chevy Caprice.
The previous model Caprice (1980-1990) was so close to perfect in terms of packaging [maybe add some additional second row legroom]. I still enjoy looking at that trunk opening.
Many many many people thought GM had jumped the shark with the 1991 “Shamu” restyle. And by approving the fender skirts, the senior management team had started the clock on their own demise (would be out by 1992).
[But during the first Gulf War, the restyled Caprice was praised as the “ship of the desert” – apparently very capable on sand dunes. And then there was the 1994-1996 Impala SS…]
Citroen DS caught the entire world off-guard, when it was presented in Paris in 1954.
C’est l’histoire de l’automobile, baby…
1986 Taurus. Detroit just didn’t build stuff like that.
I can think of quite a few that disturbed me. Maybe not as much than the Cybertruck does. These are some of the ones that came after I started driving in 1972.
Just about every ford car made from 1970 until 2000.
1974 AMC Matador. WTF is with those giant wheelwells?
1974 Mustang II. Even as someone who didn’t really ever like Mustang styling, this thing was just sad.
1975 AMC Pacer. Oh boy.
1980 GM X cars. It had to be drugs.
1990 Chevy Lumina “Dustbuster”. Yikes.
2000 Pontiac Aztek. More drugs.
2003 Dodge Durango It was just wrong. The previous gen. was decent looking.
2010 Chevy Camaro. W-T-F?
2016 Chevy Camaro. Made it even worse looking. I don’t understand.
I like the photo on top ~ it looks like the usual desert road testing out by California City .
I don’t hate this truck, it just doesn’t talk to me, I’m old so mayhap younger folks who’ll actually _buy_ a new light truck will like it ? .
The 1964 Ford Mustang ~ I didn’t care for it but it sure was a big thing when it came .
-Nate