Concept Cars

It's a dog & pony show where manufactures show off what their design department is capable of while on LSD, their marketing division is drunk on their @sses, and the accounting department is not invited.

Shows what cars could look like without safety regulations or profit motive....

The car in the foreground looks almost exactly like my '72 CORVETTE.

The other one looks like cars I've seen too.

Like AH said, they are to get the attention and whet appetites of potential buyers.

Maybe some RD involved somewhere in there?

At a car show I think they're also intended to be marketing research conversation starters.

My 2001 Audi TT Quattro looks exactly like this 1999 Car Show Concept car they did. They did add a trunk lid whale tail because they found it lifted it rear about 125 without it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xo6W1ytdoA

To make you drool and somewhere to drape the pretty girls....

mmmmm pretty girls..... drool (to be read in Homer Simpson voice)

Del

Usually that would be proof of concept.

To gauge consumer response to the effectiveness of the particular brand of LSD the designers are being rationed!!

Case in point, the well received Pontiac Banshee show car most definitely influenced the design of the following generation of Firechicken (OK, Firebird...) and by extension Chev Camaro.

Why should one own a car at all? Why should one use the same car to travel 1000kms from one city to another and use same car locally? If in London / Newyork- you can travel by underground and cover the last lap by some convenient means? Question the concept of owning a car? Is a bigger good looking car going to add to ones personality or prestige? Does one respect xyz by the car he/ she owns?

Like beauty paegents- where one looks at the exteriors of a lady, is a car similar? I suppose concept car should go beyond jsut exterior looks. Note nothing is mentioned about the engine!! If one is so worried about having a good looking car in your portico- buy a hollow car without interiors, windows shahded and no engine Ha,ha ,ha !!!! May be even a 2 D version will do!!!!

At least in the USA it is not required to travel in kilometers.

Is a bigger good looking car going to add to ones personality or prestige? Does one respect xyz by the car he/ she owns?

Yep! Its biology, impressing the opposite sex leads to a greater chance of copulation which in turn leads to longevity of your blood line. Then you get married/ divorced and the whole theory goes to hell in a hand basket.

But at least you still have the car!

Ah think your doin it wrong.

Dr. Phil

To attract punters to their stand, especially if their offering of production models is mundane or not much changed from last year's model. For those firms too Presbyterian to supply LSD to the design department, a few fully clothed girls (they are after all Presbyterian) draped over the bonnet is regarded as an acceptable alternative. Personally I think that it could be counter productive. Serious buyers want to look at the car they are considering purchasing, which almost always will compare badly to the concept. I don't go to car shows but at other engineering design shows I tend to avoid stands loaded with dolly birds as having little new to offer. (a concept circuit breaker or hydraulic pipe fitting would not really work as a marketing tool)

Like others have mentioned, there are any number of reasons for Concept Cars, but most generally they are presentation formats for new technologies and/or styling's and to gauge potential market interest.

I wrote a paper for a Marketing class, many moons ago, that focused on giving the consumer what they need before they know they needed it. One of the sections was devoted to the automotive industry, I used the Lancia Megagamma as a main example for that section.

So sometimes the Concept Cars actually drive a change in consumer buying patterns by introducing new forms/functions that fit well in the current period, and other times they are just the byproduct of a new design team set loose that never really amount into anything.

Without the concept car, we wouldn't have the turbine powered cars so popular today. Oh geez, my pants have caught fire again!

If you didn't have concept cars like the Chevy corvair actually go into production then authors like Ralph Nader wouldn't be needed and the girl working down at the doughnut shop wouldn't have a job selling pastries and coffee to all the critics.

Don't you remember the Dodge concept car? It took a standard Coronet, added a fastback and some trim. Looked good enough, so they put it into production. Called it a Charger.

Let me try to give new twist to the discussion. Does one buy a car for its exterior looks or interiors (meaning seats, a/c, music system etc), does anyone know or care so much about the engine, its power / performance etc? If this is understood, one can actually try a new business strategy.

The trucks/ buses are sold as chassis with just engine fitted over it. Then a buyer can take this chassis to a body builder and specify what he needs and get a new one done as per his/her wish.

Does one like Mercedes for its engine or its body or total solution? May be Merck and Volkswagen can start a new business line where they sell only engine fitted on a chassis with just 4 wheels may be minus tyres too.

Then you have many companies- who need not invest in R&D in engine design just make an offer to assemble the car. Even to assemble, there can be many more sub assembly suppliers offering many options and so on.

So specialization / expertise can be far more focused. For example seat or cushion manufacturers can standardize on a variety of dimensions etc. Ultimately it should boils down to DIY- if one is young and energetic

Does the client have to build two cars and then send one to be crash tested before he can get a certificate to say that it can be driven on a public road. Forty years ago your business model might have worked, but today there are so many standards and regulations to pass that your concept would be buried on paperwork.

Most people buy a car to get to point B from point A.

Buying factors for most men are how it looks in the driveway, parked at work, rolling down the road, at what their friends think. In the US that usually means a pickup truck. Specifics about engine displacement and performance are simply bragging rights at the company coffee machine.

Young men are seeking machines that have a "Look at me!" factor. IF they can't find it at the lot there are endless specialty stores to make their ride as ostentatious as their wallet can afford.

Most women want reliability, economy, safety, and room. They call it practicality. Color matters more than body shape; comfort more than performance.

Your suggestion of custom bodies would be a throwback to the old days when cars had a frame. That was abandoned once new manufacturing techniques allowed uni-body construction, which lowered cost and greatly improved body strength and safety (crumple zones).

Even if uni-body were abandoned it would be a legal nightmare for automakers as the exterior body plays a huge roll in safety. Attorneys, like water, always seek the deepest pockets and automakers will not get off the hook.