I'm guessing many of you have noticed a clear shift in automotive tastes over the years, where products no longer attempt to reflect the idealogical impressions we had of cars when we were young (unless you were born in the 90's, in which case, you are still young).
I remember when I was about 13, being stunned at the sheer speed of my mates fathers VL Commodore. When he asked me to push the overdrive button on the shifter, all he did was floor that (Nissan) 3.0 litre straight six and make a face like he was fearing for his life. The NVH completed the illusion. I also thought my 1974 HQ Kingswood was fast, but in reality, it was just my first car and therefore accelerated like the space shuttle and cornered like TRON. None the less, I still chase that same feeling of exhiliaration, these days attained by nailing gear selection and apexes through a series of favoured twisties.
Look at vehicles these days and the advertising and product seems more focussed on connectivity to electronics rather than the road. Vibrating, heated seats, Follow-me-home puddle lights and on board golf ball cleaner? A Jedi craves not these things.
How could this be? The very pastime, formerly viewed as a demonstration of adulthood, a freedom reserved only for those having achieved the state determined age requirements and skills to the satisfaction of the local assessor, has become nothing more than an opportunity to obtain a larger Smart Phone docking station.
The content of the product has shifted dramatically from the primary function. "It is what the market demands" I hear you shout. That may be true. No doubt, endless focus groups have already defined your next car for you. Social Media updates available through your GPS narrator, automatic restaurant bookings based on the smell and frequency of your personal emissions, triangulated with your current location. All the "essentials" for modern life.
Most of the input comes from people whom are as interested in cars as I am in the discography of Lady Gaga. Why? When you are building your house, do you ask the garbage man to knock up some blueprints? No longer do most people care about the functionality of their vehicle, with respect to the act of actually driving, thus, their input is inevitably detrimental to such qualities. The result is the slow decay of real cars and therefore a thinning of real car culture.
I am sure that not many people will even care about the atrophy of automotive communities (after all, cars are evil and they kill baby whales), but they should! Why? Because driving requires care and attention. Every road user that is checking their facepic status, is not watching the road, and, despite the bad wrap, [whom I believe to be] real car fans are very attentive drivers who focus more on honing their craft than impressing their buddies.
Manufacturers should take note too. The more they push features that take the focus away from driving, the less important their core expertise becomes to customers.
Do I have an answer on how to stem the tide? No. All we can do is hope that eventually all motor vehicles will become so saturated with features, that everyone has the same superfluous crap. Only then can the focus return to where it should be; on driver involvement and satisfaction.
Has anyone noticed the fundamental problem with social media? It is pretty easy to cite examples and even easier to summarise. Some members of society are complete wankers! The general understanding is that social media provides an avenue for society to interact, yet just like reality TV, the society that you see is influenced by the environment in which they reside.
For example, I have been managing my own brand for the last few months, mainly to understand how the social media environment operates. I would like to apologise in advance to those of you from whom I have tried (rather shabbily) to hide the fact that I am @mikmakGMI, @misterquality and @beltedradial.
Most of you knew the two former were one in the same. @misterquality came around to address issues not perptaining to motor vehicles, but yours truly @beltedradial, came about in order to allow me to say "cock" every now and again when it was warranted, with out damaging the brands to which I was attached.
The penny dropped shortly after my watching Bob Lutz on @autoline After hours describing how an absence of brand clarity at Pontiac, resulted in the ultimate demise of the General Motors performance arm (despite its self inflicted atrophy in the preceding decade or two). Essentially they denied what they always should have been: passionate with grunt to spare.
That is not unlike my own [d]evolution upon becoming a moderator on GMInsidenews. I still love GMI. It provides a great service, and the Brand Management of that site has seen it go from strength to strength. More importantly, the GMI crew have discussed what type of environment we want, decided upon it and focussed therein to great success. But it is not me. I will still contribute there (if they'll still have me), but continuing to restrain myself is like sticking your finger in a dyke. Sure it sounds like fun, but eventually there will be more holes than you have fingers.
Then one of my favourite tweeters @millionsofmyles mentioned recently how he was going to start a blog. A personal blog.
Honesty; what a concept! Surprised I never thought of it because I spent too much time reading e-books about what I'm supposed to do. (dickhead!)
Which brings us to me (the other me). I will be giving @mikmakGMI an electronic bullet in the head in the next few weeks and taking over the account of @beltedradial as my primary personal account. It will be my honest personal feelings about everything. I will be posting all manner of analysis, critiquing and general noise about what ever I feel like commenting about (but mostly cars!).
@misterquality shall be maintained as I'm sure many of you don't give a rats ass about AILs arising from your annual mangerial reviews.
So allow me to introduce myself. My name is Michael McWilliams. I am a conceptual analyst and technical communicator, a dad, husband, car nut and aussie.
I've also been around the track a few times making me feel (and look) like a belted radial.
Please feel free to post eulogy suggestions for mikmakGMI (note: must be <140>
MORAL OF THE STORY: be honest or your brand will die a slow and boring death.
