Baby boomer nostalgia still a factor in automakers' new model offerings

[Mr.DJ]

Baby boomer nostalgia still a factor in automakers' new model offerings

By STEVE MERTL

Judy Wheeler, DCX Canada's new marketing vice-president, says enthusiast feedback for the Challenger has been unprecedented.

VANCOUVER (CP) - Nostalgia still plays a major role in an automobile market filled with well-off baby boomers, Canadian auto executives say. A sentimental yearning for a fuzzily remembered past is universal but when it comes to cars, it's especially strong in North America.

Foreign manufacturers have fielded retro-styled cars such as Volkswagen's New Beetle and the British Mini, now built by BMW.

But the Big Three domestic automakers have really embraced the trend in their struggle to hold onto their shrinking share of the North American market they once dominated.

General Motors displayed its Camaro concept at the Vancouver International Auto Show, which opened Friday.

The show car - which evokes the classic 1969 Camaro Z28 - debuted at the Detroit auto show in January along with DaimlerChrysler's Dodge Challenger, an evocation of the 1970 muscle-car icon.

Neither car has been confirmed for production but both will likely get the green light. Company executives say the show cars pushed all the right boomer buttons.

"Baby boomers coming through the market right now grew up with those cars," says Frank Trivieri, general director of marketing at GM Canada. "It just brings back some very, very fond memories for a lot of people."

GM killed the last Camaro in 2002, ending production at its plant in Ste. Therese, Que., which then closed.

Judy Wheeler, DaimlerChrysler Canada's new marketing vice-president, says enthusiast feedback for the Challenger has been unprecedented.

Both companies might look at Ford Motor Co.'s success with its latest Mustang, with its strong references to the original pony car's 1960s' heyday. Ford is upping the ante this year by introducing a 450-horsepower Shelby Cobra GT 500 as a 2007 model.

Old muscle cars now dominate North American classic-car auctions, with some prime examples selling well into six figures.

Performance cars aren't the limit for retro, a label some automakers avoid, preferring the heftier term heritage.

Chrysler has been especially successful, starting with its PT Cruiser, a pastiche of 1940s styling cues. GM paid its rival a compliment by producing a similar model, the Chevy HHT - for Heritage High Roof.

Other popular offerings from Chrysler include the Chrysler 300 sedan, which evokes the chopped and channelled hot rods of the 1950s, and the Dodge Charger, which references the late 1960s.

But Wheeler says the desire to look backward hasn't distracted the company's designers from seeking new directions.

"The majority of our new vehicles have their own DNA," she says.

"Even the new Charger, even though we looked at the original Charger, is a very modern interpretation of that vehicle."

With a worldwide overcapacity in auto production, competition is fierce and companies can't afford to overlook any nook or cranny of the market, says Trivieri.

"The market has been segmented more so in terms of all these different niche segments and we have to make sure we have people working on each segment," he says.

"If you miss one of those niche markets, potentially you could be out of the market and lose a lot of volume."

The retro trend actually started in Japan in the 1980s when automakers produced limited runs of their micro-sized city cars - comparable to today's Smart car - in high-style old-fashioned shapes.

But it has not caught on as intensely as in North America. Most Japanese designs are evolutionary.

There are exceptions, such as Toyota's new FJ Cruiser, a rugged off-roader that honours the original Land Cruiser, one of the pioneering products of the world's No. 2 automaker.

"It's harkening back to the truck that really launched us in North America so many years ago," says Stephen Beatty, Toyota Canada's managing director.

The FJ was started as an auto-show concept and was propelled into production by public reaction, he says.

"The reaction to it though was so extreme and immediate that we realized that, oops, now we have to go build this, and the result is the vehicle that you're seeing here," says Beatty.

But like its North American counterparts, Beatty says Toyota won't fixate on the past, even if it sells well.

"We're touching on a lot of design cues that are inherent to Japanese culture, as well as reaching out to North Americans," he says.

"But it is unique, it is forward looking. You're not going to see a lot of sort of heritage-mobiles in our lineup."
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Source: CANOE Money
by Steve Mertl
Sunday, April 02, 2006
1346 hours