Is this Really the Best?

Have you noticed that even industry-friendly publications are ripping General Motors and Ford designers?

The new Buick LaCrosse and Ford Five Hundred sedans are particular targets. Remember, this isn't coming from bellyachers like me; it's even coming from the nice guys.

Is it deserved? You betcha. Someone should line up everyone in the studios in front of their new models and ask, “Is this really the best you can do?”

I just drove the new Buick LaCrosse. The interior is first rate, the best I've seen in a GM car in years, maybe decades. Good looks and no gaps; no crooked trim pieces. But nobody turned a head to look at it in three days. Nobody gave it thumbs up. Nobody knew it was new.

They say the geezers who buy Buicks don't like attention. But who wants a car with a $32,750 sticker that no one knows is new?

My success test: If it doesn't outsell the prior model, it's no success. There can be special circumstances: Markets can change, the launch can flop. But look at the Chevrolet Colorado, the new small pickup: 9-month sales of 96,000 compared with 124,000 for the old S10 the year before. Flop or success? You call it.

Here are some predictions:

Now Ford. Some complain the new Five Hundred sedan looks too much like an Audi. No, it doesn't look enough like an Audi. Audis look classy, the Five Hundred does not. That said, the Five Hundred will be a success, anyway.

Why? There are four, maybe five models off this platform coming out of that one Chicago factory: The Five Hundred sedan and its Mercury sibling, the Freestyle crossover wagon and presumably a Mercury version in a year and maybe even a Volvo version one day. Those are enough to keep the plant running full all year, which means success even if the Five Hundred doesn't meet expectations. The crossover SUV will make up for it because that market segment is growing.

GM and Ford must do better. They have to stretch their designs. They must take some risk, and that goes for the designs of SUVs, pickups and minivans. The competition from Europe and Japan is doing just that.

Enough of Captain Caution! Where is Dick Daring?

Jerry Flint is a columnist for, and a former senior editor of, Forbes magazine.