> The Japanese sports car industry has been shot through with sythesized
> idea-cars.
> You may remember the Datsun 1600......You remember, the one that had an
> engine that would take an MGA cylinder head.
>
> Or how about the 240Z? The Datsun people were only too happy for the press
> to refer to it as a 'Japanese Jaguar".
>
> When the Miata was being considered, the Mazda folks took a Lotus APART in
> Japan in order to study the car. And bragged about it in the press.
>
> I DON'T think that EVERY Jap car is a knockoff, but if it walks like a duck
> and quacks like a duck..........
>
Ray,
I defy you to find a single car that was developed in a vacuum.
Elements of any car can be found in earlier cars, the only
difference is how public the automaker is about admitting it. Not
that I think it's necessarily a bad thing. I dont' want to deal
with an automaker that tries to totally re-invent the automobile with
every new model they build.
I think that the Japanese have given us a lot of improvements in
terms of safety, reliability and fuel efficiency. And for the rest
of the sour grapes, you have to ask yourself who's still selling cars
in LARGE numbers, and who isn't?
It's kind of like Bill Gates. Everybody likes to bash him, but
with $35 billion, he must be doing something right. With the sales
figures Japanese car companies have, they might be somewhere on the
right track. As for the Miata being an MG knockoff (Not that you
said it, Ray, but others have.) Where was the MGB when Mazda
released the Miata? I think that a Miata is about as close to the
essence of an MGB as you're going to get, while still keeping in all
the federally-mandated bells and whistles, as well as the level of
reliability most people have come to expect. I think the fact that
they're still selling so well after nine years with the same body
should tell you something.
Don't get me wrong, I love my MGB, but I don't think automotive
design had its birth in England, nor do I think it ended in 1980.
Scott
Scott Gardner
gardner@lwcomm.com
www.lwcomm.com/~gardner
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