Excursion turns 100k

Nice job in getting the Chevrolet Malibu the 2008 North American Car of the year. Not a bad looking car from Chevy. My first car was a Chevelle SS396 (Malibu) so the history is good. This is actually pretty impressive, come on this is GM, not Toyota, Honda, etc. I think last year Saturn took the honors, but who really cares about that unless your a Saturn zealot.

So it is two for GM, nice, I have been waiting for the sleeping giant to get off it’s a$$ and get moving. I’ll bet part of the zing that got Chevy into the winners circle was the fact that they reduced the size of the bowtie emblems on the car. I think Cadillac may have also followed suit with the Escalade but will have to check that out. I remember a friend of mine decided not buy an Escalade because the emblem (or cloisonne for the fancy) on the back was too darn big and gaudy, like it was added by Galpin Ford (GAS) and the boys at “Pimp my Ride”. Don’t get me started on GM’s interior design team which for years deemed it necessary to make really large buttons and knobs, almost Fisher Price like, which really bugged me.

I am hopeful that the shrinking of the emblems will be the a sign of change at GM. If I had more time it would be nice to track the size of the Chevy (or Escalade) emblems and map it to the success of the car line. We might just be on something with that type of data. If only GM had this data years ago. I’ll also venture a guess that the folks that styled the Chevy trucks had a hand in the redesign as it looks good like a Chevy Trunk. And don’t get all freaked out I really like the Ford Super Duty too. The trucks have always been ahead of the style curve IMO (well except for Dodge).