Re: SP merger

Posted by Mahoning63 On 2015/3/22 16:41:57

This is where careful study by product planning would have revealed the best course of action. The study needed to show advanced concepts in customer clinics.

We know from how history played out that had these clinics been accurate they would have revealed that a majority of buyers would have preferred vehicle lowness over chair height seating and hat room. Mercury tapped this future market with its 1955 Montclair. That year's brochure said that all Mercurys had a 119" wheelbase, 206.3 inch length and 76.4 inch width but that the heights varied greatly. The sedans were 61.2 inches high, the Monterey and Custom coupes were 60.3 inches and the Montclair was 58.6 inches or 2.6 inches lower than the sedans. And yet sales of the Montclair, which was the most expensive Mercury to date and a few hundred dollars more than the Monterey, were strong. How did Mercury shave 2.6 inches off the otherwise same car? What got compromised? That's what Packard and Hudson would have needed to figure out when planning their '55s... how to take 3.4 inches off the step-down to go from 60.4 to 57 inches. Maybe they wouldn't have gotten all the way there but to have gotten even 2.6 inches out would have been a win.

Check out this image of a '56 Montclair. These are mature adults! Now, we don't know exactly who bought these cars but given the price, they had to be folks of some financial means, which means they were probably folks of slightly higher age.http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Mercury/1956%20Mercury/album_002/1956%20Mercury%20Hardtops-01.html

We also know that by 1957 the gig was up, lowness was in for good. Well, almost. In the 1980s the revolt started, not with taller sedans but SUVs even though most were truck-based and thus very tall. They didn't replace cars but did become mainstream. Now, 30 years later, crossovers of somewhat lower height are the in-thing. Height may well come down another tick as the modern passenger vehicle continues to evolve.