I wonder if all cars go thru a clinic before going ahead with production? What sort of approval ratio is required to proceed? Where do they find these people that participate?

Especially like to know where they found the people who thought the Aztek and Avalanche were what we ALL wanted and would hapilly make payments on. I think GM mistakenly went to the Betty Ford Clinic to get those respondents.

Maybe the Aztek was never even cliniced? (sp?)

What about a car like the Soltice. It seems all Pontiacs will be looking like it eventually. Was that particular design run thru any clinic? Something as important as the styling direction for a whole car line should get a lot of input from all over, wouldnt ya think?

We know the GTO was not clinic'd with any group of current GTO owners.

Anybody here have any answers?

IMO, I dont think the system as a whole is working, but I know that Red Planet is at enough Camaro shows that he at least in the GM empire knows exactly what his customers want. I know the Corvette people are the same way, participating at a lot of events.

To me, the Camaro/Corvette team seem to be the exception rather than the rule within the GM scheme of things, and the Corvette has turned out pretty well lately.

So I think talking with actual owners is the way to go, and the Camaro will turn out well too.

Any comments?

 

I think the Avalanche looks bad ***, the only thing I don't like is the squared off wheel wells, it could use less gray plastic also.

Aztek on the the other hand is the ugliest car built since the Mustang II. (although the Aztek interior is very cool looking, they did one thing right)

 

I'd like to know how one gets to be part of one of these events!

 

Darth, for GM products - I couldn't tell you.

For Ford stuff, just join a club for that model, or buy a new one. You'll be blitzed with offers to voice your opinion or even test drive mules on tracks with designers/engineers as your passenger. That simple.

 

Where do they find these people that participate?

I was paid $100 in ~1990 to participate in a clinic to evaluate many different manufacturer's cars American/***/Euro.

The reason cited was because I was an active new car buyer.

At that time I had these:
'88 Mustang GT
'90 IROC Camaro

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One day at a time
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[This message has been edited by ronssito (edited July 02, 2002).]