You want something beautiful? More artists-less accountants!
This thread made me reminisce about the many car, RV, and yacht dealers I've known and worked with over the years and listening to their philosophy of what sells to what market and why. Basically it boiled down to what market was offered a particular product. If there was a Winnebago(or Gulfstar, Carver, or Bayliner) dealership in an area naturally there would be more product loyalty for those products in those areas. In other words people will buy what's offered them and they retain higher resale values there. Ford Torinos were popular in Tennessee but you rarely saw them in Georgia where the Mopars ruled. ETC.
They didn't factor in anything else in their equations and all their inventory sold. Even with yachts, its rare the buyer who will travel far to buy a new yacht. When a dealer no longer carries a particular line, the dropped products reputation declines rather rapidly. Navigator on the east coast comes to mind. All of a sudden it was "what are they, they any good, must not be since they don't sell them anymore?". Not true-but perception. It's why strong dealer networks are so important for the success of a product.
What rather irks me is how current manufacturers will just stop making great products or even colors. I've been a Benz guy for a longtime, and when one gets close to 50k miles, I go buy another. Remember the beautiful colors they used to come in? Greens, blues, reds, champagne, even an occasional yellow! So I traded in a gorgeous blue over blue-but wanted the same color-"sorry we don't have that anymore" instead bought a white, which at least had a blue top. Couple of years pass, go get another one-now the tops are all black. So I ended up with a triple black car. Didn't want black! I walked into the sales managers office (did I mention I drink a collada of Cuban coffee a day?) And asked rather loudly "why don't you people make colored (actually used the n word)cars anymore?!!! His answer was :"people only want black, white, or silver". I asked "did all your colored cars sell? YES, SO OBVIOUSLY COLORED CARS DO SELL! But if we're only offered black, white, or silver then that's what we had to buy, doesn't mean that's what we wanted and of course you will think that's was what we wanted.. If you haven't noticed Audi offers cars in colors and their showrooms are packed, and yours are empty, give us what we want, or we'll vote with our feet, and you will become Home Depot as Lowes across the street cleans your clock". Since then, I've purchased 4 cars, none Benz (still in the garage) none silver or black! Even bought a yellow Crossfire convertible for the girl at a Lexus dealership that also had no cars of color in the showrooms save the Chrysler. I mention this solely to prove my feet were indeed voting.
Will I go buy another Benz Cabrio when this one gets close to 50k miles? NO. I'm more likely to just go buy a classic car of color instead. They gave me no more choices.
WHY did VW quit making the Beetle, Why did Brunswick quit building a pilothouse? And for gods sake, back in the 80s WHY didn't GM just start building '57 Chevies' again? We would had bought them.
That's it. Rants over. Ron Paul good-Federal reserve bad!