cars & life blogAnd I met with Tiff Needell. He was very nice person and friendly to chat. It was a great chance to met with him.
Part 1
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Mini, Fiat, McLaren
I am not a fan of old cars. When there is a new model, I usual don’t like the previous one. There are some exceptions! When Mercedes revealed the ugly looking SLS AMG model, I felt the same. It is a retro interpretation of iconic model 300SL from 1954. But it was not the first time, unfortunately it was the second time! They did the same thing with SLR. It was also a retro interpretation of 300SL, but sales did not go that well.
Mercedes thought that, it is like a car similar to estate E Class and planned to keep producing it for seven years, which is very unusual for super car market. And it was not good enough to compete with Ferrari Enzo. They were introduced at the same time. Also Ferrari Enzo was not planned to be sold for seven years and 500 cars per year! With a basic maths, Mercedes planned to sell 3500 SLRs in seven years. This strategy is very normal for a dull E Class but it did not work with SLR!
Anyway, Mercedes introduced the SLS AMG which is cheaper than SLR and boring than SLR and worse looking than SLR and made from aluminium instead of carbon fibre. And SLS something turn into mass production “super” car. You can see it everywhere on earth, Mercedes loves to sell cars to everyone and destroy the uniqueness.
Anyway, I have just saw something in Mercedes merchandise store. I really wish to meet with the person, who is designing the products here. The SLR section offers yoyo covered with leather. What were you thinking while designing this product for SLR! SLR has a fluctuating sales figure and let’s represent this with a yo-yo! I could not find any plausible reason to offer a yo-yo with SLR name on it!
Mercedes did not like the SLR, we all know that but please don’t take revenge like this!
http://shop.mercedes-benzworld.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1541
I don’t really remember many things from 1994. It is just like other years, I was in middle school, and the most interesting thing was attending to school and watching TV. There was no internet involved with our lives. When I think about those times, it was very plain compared to nowadays, but I clearly remember one moment from those plain times, Ayrton Senna.
I was not fan of Senna at those years, he drove McLaren and after Williams. At those ages, you want to be a fan of brands like Ferrari, Mercedes! But Senna driving made all those competitors looked like shopping trolleys in circuit. He was incredible fast, beyond the laws of psychics. I still cannot understand how he was driving like that.
It was the 1st May, one day after Senna’s accident in Imola. Unfortunately, the news was not spreading like nowadays but, his accident was on everywhere. Even people who don’t have any interest on Formula 1 knew his name and started to talk about him. Morning of 1st May, one of my friend at school told us, Senna is dead! I think I won’t ever forget that moment, in my whole life. Actually I was not expecting to hear this, Formula 1 “suppose” to be safe! They had lots of regulations, so how this thing happened. There were many suggestions, review, opinions, expert views, but nothing revealed the real reason. 
Lastly, many people think about why there is a thing called Formula 1? I want to explain basically, if there was no Formula 1, we still have cars more or less safer than a can! All those technologies we have in our cars are the results of Formula 1. From traction control to seat belt technologies. Published at: http://uygarr.blogspot.com https://carsandlife.net
Usually I don’t watch the videos on iPhone applications. They might be boring, too long or I just don’t bother to watch. This time I wondered the Fendi’s video section on iPhone application and watched it. It was an interview with Karl Lagerfeld. As you can imagine, it is all about fashion but I like the last sentence of the interview. Fashion starts with paper and ended up in magazine or newspaper, paper is the starting point and where it ends up. This sentence basically defines the fashion business.
From this point of view, cars stars with paper and ended up in paper also. The design stage, sketches mostly starts on paper, then to computer and later on with clay models. The production is done with metals and finally the pictures are printed on magazine or newspaper. I know the end up product of design is a car and made by steel, however every car built on earth printed on paper. Either it is nice or ugly, you can find a picture of each car printed on somewhere. As Lagerfeld mentioned, starts with papers, ends up with paper! I think cars and fashion have more common aspects than we know!
I don’t like to start writing from a negative side but, I have to start this time. I have always mentioned that, a car should have a proper and pronounceable name! But the perfectionist car manufacturer McLaren produced the most sophisticated car on earth and name it like MP3 player!Engineer, it based on the word engine! And that’s the most important part of the car and made from steel and does not have any emotions at all. Consumer, is based on the word consume. And that means, buy a product, consumer it, and throw it away. When engineer and consumer words intersect on business environment, which is called a car dealer, things may not go that well all the time! Consumers are expecting more than engineering in a car. They want passion, uniqueness, excitement and also a good name. Not something a like a chassis number or MP3 player as a name.
Unfortunately, McLaren’s success in car engineering cannot be observed when they name their cars :( May be Ron Dennis doesn’t like branding. And name their most important not in an appropriate way.
Nowadays; if you are going to reveal a car and planning to make a sensation, please focus on the branding a little bit more. Why? Because, people should remember your car easily, if they are planning to buy one and they should not associate unusual notions! Unfortunately, people might associate McLaren’s new car with something unusual, a MP3 or MP4 players. MP4-12C might sound cool or help engineers to separate it from Formula 1 cars, but it will not help to differentiate itself from its competitors! It is terribly hard to remember MP4-12C! Instead, everyone will call it “new McLaren” or “MP4 something”. They will not have problem to remember MP4, because there are MP4 players currently available on market!
McLaren is created a new era in automotive industry and ignoring the second most important thing after engineering in automotive industry, branding! Remember the Bugatti Atalante! Excellent engineering, state of art design and a unique name.
My suggestion; name this car as McLaren Aether. Aether is the first-born elemental Greek gods. He is the personification of the upper sky, space, and heaven in Greek Mythology. How long did it take to find this name? Only half an hour of reading a book about mythology :)
