The Hybrid Tourer at the Los Angeles show

[bwb3]

With all do respect to the mark, why would Subaru want to associate with a marketing failure?
Gene

[**Ewie**]

I like it.. looks stunning BUT I doubt the gargantuon gullwing door will make it into production for a couple of reasons. Structurly it must be very heavy and secondly imagine the practicality of opening that big door in the pouring rain when you have passengers in the back?? They'd get soacked just so you could jump out at the shop to grab a bottle of milk, loaf of bread whatever.... you get the idea.

[BoxerFanatic]

Originally Posted by bwb3

With all do respect to the mark, why would Subaru want to associate with a marketing failure?
Gene

Why not...

Subaru fails at marketing a lot of things.

Baja
Tribeca
2005-2009 Legacy GT
SVX

Between bizarre product planning, and complete lack of effort to establish awareness, and make a point as to why those products were good in their own niches, Subaru has dropped the marketing ball more often than it has carried it forward.

WRX and STI were successes without marketing, to enthusiasts.

Outback is really the only big product that succeeded with a marketing push, and it has been a long time since Paul "Crocodile Dundee" Hogan advertised the Subaru Legacy Outback.

Originally Posted by **Ewie**

I like it.. looks stunning BUT I doubt the gargantuon gullwing door will make it into production for a couple of reasons. Structurly it must be very heavy and secondly imagine the practicality of opening that big door in the pouring rain when you have passengers in the back?? They'd get soacked just so you could jump out at the shop to be a bottle of milk, loaf of bread whatever.... you get the idea.

That is a show car thing, I highly doubt it would make production, especially that long. But it would be impossible to open one huge door per side any other way. Jack-knife or butterfly would be too tall vertically. Traditional would be far too space inefficient. The car would have to be drastically longer aft of the door to even have the door slide like a van.

Gull wing is about the only way to keep the portal completely pillarless, and have one door per side.

Chances are nothing like that will ever see the production showroom.

Although if the car were to get a fastback coupe profile (with a liftback hatch, please...), I would love to see butterfly doors used, but actually more like the SLR McLaren or McLaren MC4-12C (not a big cut into the roof) than the albeit cooler McLaren F1. It is just that a panoramic glass roof is harder if the doors cut so deep into the roof, and as mentioned, the inherent problems with water intrusion when raining, and the door opens.

After continuing to have people park entirely too close to my SVX, and having to squeeze myself through a mail-slot sized opening since the long door won't open wide, I am interested in alternative door hinge arrangements.

But on the other-hand... the benefit of a nice long door, when there is enough room a nice long portal is nice, not to have to fold up like origami to fit through the door, into the seat. Rear side doors of 4-door vehicles are especially nasty, anyway. Not enough room to fit a pair of adult shoes through at the bottom of the door, usually.

Honda showed a touring vehicle concept at Tokyo, too, with a different door arrangement. Not one door per side, but two... the skydeck concept... mostly minivan... but could be scaled down to a wagon/sedan size.


jack-knife vertical front doors (lamborghini style), and a modified sliding door, without a b-pillar, and plenty of unencumbered portal width.

Theoretically, both doors would open close enough to the body, that people could shuffle into and out of the area, with a vehicle parked in relatively close side-by-side proximity (less than 5 feet away), which is something that can't quite be said for a reverse-open door arrangement, like an RX8, or extended cab truck. I used to get a bit frustrated with my hands full of stuff, trying to manage being trapped between two open doors, and the car parked next. not a graceful solution.

[Bobb]

Hi everyone, The Toyota/Subaru joint venture could take the flat six as it is only one inch longer than the 2.5L four. Take care, BOBB

[SSSVX]

BIG door lol

the new mercedes benz AMG SLS is gonna have
this kind of door but it's a two-seater sport car.

[SubaRyu]

Gull-wing doors are "must to have" for show cars. They attract people.

I saw the new Mercedes Gull-wing at the show as well, I love it.

[icingdeath88]

Originally Posted by BoxerFanatic

WRX and STI were successes without marketing, to enthusiasts.

I think the enthusiasts did the marketing for Subaru, rather than Subaru marketing to the enthusiasts.

And for an awesome alternate door arrangement, the bmw Z1.

[BoxerFanatic]

Z1 was interesting... but the doors didn't drop that far, so the sill was still quite high and wide, and dragging shoes or jeans with rivets, or anything like that over the door sill is actually damaging the paint on the top edge of the door.

Also, since the door has to go down into the car's structure, it has to be short in height, which means that the window glass has to be similarly short in height... I can't imagine that it would be easy to crawl between a low roof and a high door/sill, with the convertible top up. But Z1s probably hardly ever get driven period, let alone in any weather... they are pretty rare.

And yes, WRX, and subsequently STI were basically sold by word of mouth, and sheer performance reputation and rally cred... Not due to any marketing push by Subaru of America to make people aware of the product. Not since the Paul Hogan ads have Subaru really successfully marketed a product to the point of it catching on because of the ad campaign.

Even the newish Subaru "Love" commercials are not all that big of a push, and mostly play on emotion, not specific product information.

So saying that SVX was a marketing failure in it's time, and thus not to be revisited, as Gene above mentions...

Almost all of Subaru's products are marketing failures... it is just that some of Subaru's products have succeeded anyway, despite the failure of their marketing department.

[NeedForSpeed]

Originally Posted by SubaRyu

You know what Paul, I completely forgot to check this car out at the show. Didn't know it was there. Relatively decent design from recent Subaru, it slightly reminded me of Alfa Romeo Brera or 149.

BTW, my car will be ready soon, maybe we should do Mini meet!

Please count me 'in' for a mini-meet . I also attended the LA Auto show.

[DBOZ]

My 2 cents. I personally love the concept design. BTW the doors shouldn't be heavy, my summer car is a DELOREAN and NO they are NOT ungodly heavy, just 2 gas struts and a special torsion bar that does the trick. They also have enough power to just pop them and they open with there own force, best door popper I ever bought! And I only need 12 inches of clearance to open/close my doors yay for me impossible to park me in. Well don't bash the Gull wings until you OWN a car with them yourself.
Darrell

[NeedForSpeed]

Originally Posted by DBOZ

My 2 cents. I personally love the concept design. BTW the doors shouldn't be heavy, my summer car is a DELOREAN and NO they are NOT ungodly heavy, just 2 gas struts and a special torsion bar that does the trick. They also have enough power to just pop them and they open with there own force, best door popper I ever bought! And I only need 12 inches of clearance to open/close my doors yay for me impossible to park me in. Well don't bash the Gull wings until you OWN a car with them yourself.
Darrell

Very cool, I took the SVX to a Delorean meet, great fun. One of the guys drove his car with the doors up, at about 40mph, interesting way to 'air-out' the car. I was following him out a service road toward the freeway.

I saw the Subaru concept at LA Auto show, really just a passing glance. Just didn't do that much for me. The Audi and Porsche Speedsters, different story.

[DBOZ]

Originally Posted by NeedForSpeed

Very cool, I took the SVX to a Delorean meet, great fun. One of the guys drove his car with the doors up, at about 40mph, interesting way to 'air-out' the car. I was following him out a service road toward the freeway.

I saw the Subaru concept at LA Auto show, really just a passing glance. Just didn't do that much for me. The Audi and Porsche Speedsters, different story.

Love the car show story, before I "restored" my svx I parked my Delorean next to a SVX at my local car show up in Appleton, WI. 2 cars with 1/2 cut windows, man did we have a crowd around the cars, people finally got to know the Delorean and SVX a lot better and only negitive comments were from people that cant afford the cars

[BoxerFanatic]

That seems to me like a nice pair of ItalDesign cars to have together.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by BoxerFanatic

Z1 was interesting... but the doors didn't drop that far, so the sill was still quite high and wide, and dragging shoes or jeans with rivets, or anything like that over the door sill is actually da

Also, since the door has to go down into the car's structure, it has to be short in height, which means that the window glass has to be similarly short in height... I can't imagine that it would be easy to crawl between a low roof and a high door/sill, with the convertible top up. But Z1s probably hardly ever get driven period, let alone in any weather... they are pretty rare

Even the newish Subaru "Love" commercials are not all that big of a push, and mostly play on emotion, not specific product information.

Almost all of Subaru's products are marketing failures... it is just that some of Subaru's products have succeeded anyway, despite the failure of their marketing department.

The z1 failed the underwear test on Top Gear

[MadMaxSvx]

Originally Posted by BoxerFanatic

That seems to me like a nice pair of ItalDesign cars to have together.

Oh, i love the Delorean, i ordered one online once, but the car is just to expensive to import to my country, so i couldnt afford it.
On the other hand, new Delorean is around 70.000 dollars!