Driven by Mediocrity

Acura’s latest grasp at retaining a sliver of the luxury market is a new advertising campaign called “Driven by Reason”. It is anchored by a Television spot that showcases several apparent money wasters talking obsessively about a watch and hi-fi stereo equipment with ridiculous statements like, “it produces frequencies only a dog can hear”. It then goes on to close with the punch line, "There are excuses for spending money on luxury ... and then there are reasons”, apparently suggesting that since Acura builds the cheapest so-called “luxury car” it is therefore by default the best value.

What an offensive load of horse-shit.

Actually, using the words “best” and “Acura” in the same sentence is almost as bad as “smart” and “George W.” So let’s get something straight: Acura has never and will never be a luxury product. A luxury good is defined economically as something that’s demand rises as income level rises. Value isn’t part of the equation. Real luxury customers (not the retards who just want the badge on the front of the car) learn and appreciate what goes into the build process of the product. If it’s a watch it is the lifetime of practice it takes to master the creation of a world-class hand-made timepiece, and the craftsmanship required to make one last for several more. In the case of high end audio, it is the craftsmanship, design, and ability to produce a listening experience that surpasses in most cases even a live performance. With cars, they appreciate the immense amount of thought, imagination, innovation, engineering, craftsmanship, attention to detail, and flat out hard work from thousands of individuals that it takes to create a world-class automobile. But possibly most importantly, I have found that the luxury buyer wants ‘the best’. Being the best means that you have pushed yourself and your product farther than anyone else, and risen out of a sea of mediocrity. For a lot of successful people, being the best at something, anything, is of utmost importance, and it is reflected in the top four luxury brands:

BMW builds the best driving, best performing lineup of luxury cars in the world.

Mercedes Benz has built a legacy for producing the most powerful, well-built and safest cars in the world.

Audi sells cars because they have the finest interior build quality, best all-wheel drive system, and best compromise between agility and comfort in the world… and if you’re the type that wants it all? They build the best all-around vehicle.

Lexus provides the best customer service of any auto manufacturer and builds the best road numbing snooze-boxes. (There is a huge market for this over the age of 90… Going to a Lexus dealer is like going to visit gram and gramps at the retirement community.) Oh yeah, they also have the best marketing department.

Acura produces kinda comfortable, kinda good-looking to some, pretty reliable cars with a bunch of gizmos and gadgets designed to pad the “features” list when a customer is comparing cars on Edmunds. Those who fall for this crap are as gullible as the guy who gets ripped off by the used car salesman who claims the car is ‘like new’.

The brand was conceived in the mid-80’s as a solution to the problem of low markup on Honda’s, and to this day have never been sold in any significant volume anywhere else on the globe, including Japan. Why? …Because in other countries they are called Hondas. Since its inception, the brand has not only failed to produce a single class-leading vehicle, but have not even been able to build one that leads in any single area of a cars makeup: Not, performance, design, safety, comfort, durability or quality. It's no suprise that they lose market share every year; the product comes in at the middle or back of the pack just about everything that matters about a car; the benchmark for mediocrity!

It's no suprize (to us anyway) why they rank dead last in consumer perception, and it's well deserved if you ask me; Being in the Auto industry, just about every brand I knew found Acura to be the laughing stock of the luxury segment. Even Infinity salespeople laugh when a customer says they are considering a comparable Acrua.

“No sir, I know the Hond- er Acrua is cheaper, you get what you pay for.”

“You're looking at the Acura? Isn’t safety is a concern of yours? Did you know that the MDX doesn’t even pass Germany’s minimum safety requirements?”

So in conclusion, it’s not that I think there is something wrong with value, or even think that this won’t be a successful campaign for Acura. What I don’t like is that they have created a brand for stupid idiots whose biggest requirement of a luxury car is the badge on the front. Just cut the bullshit and call them what they are: Honda’s.

Bob Lutz, 78, (unfortunately) open to future career opportunities

Autoblog posted this today about soon-to-be-retired GM Vice-chairman and figurehead Bob Lutz. Bob Lutz; who seems to enjoy the spotlight, always seems to drum up controversial opinions the comments sections, and this one irked me in particular.

The gist of the interview is that even at age 78 and facing retirement (a retirement which was announced shortly after he claimed he had no intentions of retiring), Bob is still confident, bordering on cocky with his management abilities. He claims, "I don't play golf, never have never will. And secondly, I have no desire to go to Hilton Head, or Naples, Florida, or any place like that", instead chatting about being in demand to be a board member of various companies, writing a book and starting on the 'lecture circuit'.

Thats lovely. While you can't knock his ambition, being a 30 year old perpetual job-seeker I'm starting to feel these successful old guys are taking up positions at the top that could filled by more talented youths. While logical, my opinion is hardly one that can be backed up, and and easy counter-argument is to simply suggest that if the younger employees were so talented, they would be able to earn those jobs anyway. ...But I don't think it's that simple.

Now, it's in the comments section that I always get riled up, and this time it was a guy who says "Team up with John McCain. 150 years experience between the two." that was backed up by a high count of people agreeing with him with the autoblog star system. My first response was, "yes 150 years of experience and none of them relevant in the 21st century", which undoubtedly is being voted down to zero right now by zombie-like republicans/teabaggers who only can understand the negative tone, and that their beloved "maverick" was in the post.

I'm sorry, but Bob Lutz has been a poster-boy for mediocrity.

Born of an "Affluent Swiss banker", Lutz traveled frequently with his father, and was given a top-notch education. Despite this, it took Bob until he was 22 to get his high school diploma, when his father gave him an ultimatum: join the military or I'm not paying for your school anymore. (I pulled this out of a "cigar aficionado" article)

The guy started his career already three-quarters of the way up the ladder, which we can only speculate was helped by his father's "affluence". While it's easy to find a laundry list of his supposed "accomplishments" online, every single one of the articles is talking about his career as a kind of tribute to the man. I haven't come across one article that talks about his performance without first noting his pedigree.

Now I'm going to intentionally stop there because I have no intentions of smearing the guy, but what I am suggesting is that this guy ain't all that talented. He presided over GM during its recent bankruptcy and lead Chrysler during the early 90's when they invested heavily in minivans just before the SUV craze hit, and skimped on product quality just as it was becoming the most important criteria to consumers. While I will tip my hat to him for approving the Dodge Viper's production, he followed it up with the Plymouth Prowler: a pathetic attempt to recreate the buzz the Viper had. He's not exactly a guy with Vision.

These days, competition for EVERY job is fierce, and in the spirit of free market capitalism, there is ZERO room for mediocrity at the top. The top is for the brilliant, the dedicated, the hardest working freaks, and those with vision. If it wasn't for his daddy, Lutz would still be a general sales manager at a GM dealer, praying to god that it wasn't his dealership who's franchise was getting revoked.