Kaban

Nice documentary of the "flop". Man, just looking at it makes one go ZZZZ....

[QUOTE=1SICKLEX]Lets see here, "how to flop for 15 years".....
The most striking model, the original. No grill, drivers oriented interior. 278hp V-8 from 4.5 liters. The car was great, the bad thing, the LS 400 was perfect. It fared well in comparisons but didn't connect with buyers. THe ROcks and Trees ads didn't help.



When Nissan finally figured out after 5 years "hey, people are not buying this car, a big reason is we need a grill" they decided to slap this one on from Jaguar. The interior gained wood.


Well it was time for the revamp. "We HAVE A GRILL"!! exclaimed happy execuatives!! People will surely buy the car now. Here is a BETTER idea too! The 2nd gen Q45 was still named the Q45 but the engine LOST DISPLACEMENT!! It was a new 4.1 liter V-8 good for 266 hp. PROGRESS!!!
So technically, they sold people a Q41, not a Q45. But that is between us They also decided to make the 1st and 2nd gen look nothing alike inside and out. This car fared very poorly in any ranking. As a matter of fact, when the LS 400 whooped it one on one and they couldn't compare the Q to the S/7 series, they started comparing it to the next class down!! Where the GS and 5 whooped it left and right in comparisons.


Well Ghosen came along and said "damnit, the Q45 is supposed to be the crown jewel of the company" So with this CURRENT model, more money than ever was spent on making the Q45 a winner. They slapped a class leading back to 4.5 liter 340hp engine inside!! But they wrapped it in one of the worst styled large cars in recent memory. THe ad campaign read "The Q45, the car with the worlds brightest headlights'"!! No joke, that was the main thing the showed!! The interior is very nice but small and odd compared to the competitors. The new Q45 was to be the car to put Infintii on track, instead, it fared poorly in reviews again, it was compared to the GS/5 again (its not even included in its own segment, comparisons) and the G35, the entry level car, started the turn-around.

The Q45 also gained its THIRD grill since its inception. Identity crisis.

Very good interior
QUOTE]

Kaban

And Avalon lights is a knock off from BMW. Man, making a copy of a copy...one bad move after another.

Kaban

I just don't understand why Germans keep letting the Japanese get away with knocking off their designs. If someone copyies a design I labored to create I would sue their pants off.

Koma

iTrader: (3)

The business thrives on "stealing" others designs.
Um Hyundai Sonata is almost a complete rip of the new GS. Everything but the separate high beams. Everything looks way too similar.

GFerg

heh....I always liked the 2nd gen Q45 the most despite its decrease in HP. Had a big bulky design that for some reason I loved. Not the most luxurious, fastest, or greatest quality at the time, but it was an all around okay car. I liked the 2.5 gen the most with teh redesigned front and rear.

I like the interior of the current Q, but the exterior is hideous including those stupid projector headlights. It looks better in a modded GS. HAHAHAH.

flipside909

The difference here is, Toyota/Lexus products sell. The Infinti/Nissan line is struggling to catch up.

flipside909

If that was the case, every car manufacturer would sue each other for design cues and etc. Obviously it wasn't thought of it in that sense as the whole big picture.

Kaban

But the thing is, if someone copy another artists music either lyrically or musically they would be in deep legal trouble even if it's just a partial copy, there was a case where a game company made a game with characters that only resemble Marvels comic characters and they got in deep legal sht, ie, a bulky green guy with only pants on that does not even look like the Hulk is deemed illegal by the court. Germans and Itilians seems to be able to keep their designs original, but not the Japanese.

It just annoys me that a Camry would look 80% identical from the side as my 65k E class, and they are allowed to keep getting away with it. Something should be done to protect a creator of design or soon cars will all look like crap because there are no more designers just copiers.

Variance

What does that have to do with the fact that the Avalon uses the 3-Series style lights? Also, I wouldn't say Nissan and Infiniti are "struggling". Both brands are expirencing great sales on most of their products.

flipside909

Hmmm...take a look at those spy shots of the new upcoming E-Class. there are a few floating around here. They have an almost Japanese look to them...almost GS-like if you wish to call it. Free enterprise, without it, there would be no such thing as competition or choices out there.

flipside909

Well in comparison to Toyota and Honda, Nissan has done a complete 180 degree turn from 10 years ago. Nissan was on the verge of bankruptcy at that point in time. Toyota and Honda 10 years ago have been on a growing trend selling strong...Nissan only has done this turnaround with the aide of the Ghosn Method and Renault. But let's leave that to another discussion.

A model above the Q45 wouldn't work for Infiniti. There is too much overlap in their products to do this. The Q45's popularity has dropped now that the new M45/35 is out.

Kaban

Yeah I've seen those fake photoshops of the GS by some bored individual. The E won't be updated untill 2009/2010, they don't even have a chassis yet. You seriously think they have a completely finished/unmasked version which looks just like the GS running around for magazines to take pics of?

Free enterprise does not equal to infringement on intellectual property, actually knockoffs are a better fit to describe it.

flipside909

Well if that's the case, Lexus should put a lawsuit on MBZ, Cadillac and a few other manufacturers for blatantly copying their electroluminescent guages they pioneered. I hope you see where i'm coming from.

Please keep this on topic before it gets locked.

Thanks.

Kaban

Who actually has the "patent" on those electro gauges, I bet Lexus pays a pretty penny for licensing fees for using those gauges? Does MB gauges look like Lexus? Nope.

Remember who actually has a patent on "car". Over a century ago


Using patented technology is not the same as knocking off designs.

MB gauges does not look like anything else out there. BUT Toyota designs looks like a knock off of everything else out there.

flipside909

Does BMW or MBZ have a "patent" on their exterior styling? Nope! MB did adopt using electroluminescent guages on their vehicles. Years ago they never used them. Now they are. So who is really copying who here? Sue Kia for building the Amanti...because it looks too much like a Benz and Jaguar.

If you want to discuss something other than Edmund's topic on a model Q45...please take it to another topic. I've asked you once to keep it on topic already. Please respect it.

Thanks.