Motoring. It's a dog-eat-dog world.
Problems in the Modern Motoring Marketplace:
I’ve decided to try something a bit different this week. Instead of the usual review, I thought I’d share a few of my thoughts on the modern motoring marketplace.
When I’m fed up of looking at my research project, I often find myself sifting through car manufacturer’s websites and playing with the “design your own car” tools they usually offer. It’s great fun, you should try it next time you’re bored at work. Anyway, after visiting the websites of Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini and Range Rover, I spotted a trend which struck a nerve:
Car makers don’t stick to what they’re good at any more.
Cast your minds back four decades, to the late-1970s/early-1980s. The world was a simpler place, and so was the motoring market. Back then, manufacturers used to make two or three types of car reasonably well, rather than catering for every sector with underwhelming mediocrity.
If you wanted an off-roader, you bought a Range Rover. If you wanted a big, expensive, comfortable saloon, you bought a Jaguar XJ12 or a Bentley Mulsanne. Need a dinky city runabout? Buy a Mini. Got too much money and want a car which actively plots your fiery demise? Find your nearest Lamborghini dealership and swap your sanity for a Countach.
Alfa Romeo made sexy sports cars, Nissan made economical, reliable saloons and Kia made cheap, crap hatchbacks. All was well in the world, with each manufacturer operating within their own sector, building the types of car they were best at.
Now, it’s a mess. Instead of being driven the merits of each brand, the automotive market thrives on underhanded business tactics and targeted diversification, with car-manufacturers muscling-in on customer-bases which don’t belong to them. Brands are losing sight of their roots, purely in the interest of increasing revenue, and it drives me mad.
Jaguar, Bentley, Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo all now make SUVs. And all of them make my blood boil. MINIs now have four doors, Nissan sparked the plague of the “crossover” with the Juke and the Qashqai and the Koreans suddenly think they know how to make a sports saloon. And to top it off, Range Rover are building hatchbacks which can’t go off-road.
The F-Pace and the Bentayga are hideous. The designers of the Stelvio and the Urus need horses’ heads in their beds, followed by a firm backhand from a ring-laden mafia boss. Kia needs to wind its neck in, Nissan needs to go back to making the 210 and Range Rover should bloody-well stick to making proper off-roaders instead of pandering to the sodding Qashqai’s vacuous customer base.
Buyers can’t rely on a brand’s reputation when buying a car anymore, because each brand’s reputation is gradually being diluted by their obsession with profit. The only reason Alfa Romeo started making an SUV is because an executive at Fiat-Chrysler Group got greedy after spotting a sector in the market which they thought they could financially exploit.
We’re rapidly approaching a period in which the only manufacturer that hasn’t lost sight of itself is Dacia. They’ve been building cheap and cheerful cars for decades without any corporate expansion, targeted market research or invasive business methods. To build one type of car well is more than good enough for them.
Car manufacturers of the world. Please, take Dacia’s leave. Stick to what you’re good at. And for Christ’s sake, leave a bit of meat on the bone for your competitors.
Luke Wilkinson 2018 ©
Free-use pictures sourced from www.newspress.co.uk