The WSJ reports that Korean designers are making their mark in the US auto industry:
These days the Motor City seems to have a Korean accent.
In a bid to reconnect with consumers, the Big Three auto makers have been emphasizing bold designs that hark back to Detroit’s glory days. But some of the most eye-catching “American” vehicles they’ve created are actually products of a growing cadre of auto designers born and raised in South Korea that is gaining influence in the auto industry.
Take the new Chevrolet Camaro that General Motors Corp. unveiled Monday. This revival of the iconic late-’60s muscle car is the product of Sangyup Lee, a 38-year-old designer who was doodling in kindergarten in Seoul the last time Carmaros were hot in Chevy’s showrooms.
The Chevrolet Camaro: Cocaine Not Included.
The Camaro isn’t the only Korean-designed car making waves in Motown, either.
Read the WSJ piece on your own — it’s quite interesting, the “Italians of Asia” and forced cultural analysis aside — and highlights Korea’s growing focus on design, something residents of Seoul will notice in their skyline in the years ahead.
(HT to reader)
46 Comments
Praising Korean designers or passing the buck for the gas guzzlers?
“Mr. Rand says that less than a decade ago it was still rare to see an Asian face in the corridors of GM’s main studio in Warren, Mich., a Detroit suburb. That began changing when GM took a controlling stake in South Korea’s Daewoo Motor in 2001. Now there are 43 South Korean natives among the 200 designers working in Warren.”
Regarding this subject, I had said:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/.....ent-156577
… and:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/.....l-save-gm/
… and got A LOT of resistance. Some people here at the ‘hole seem to HATE stories where Korea and Koreans can actually contribute something beneficial to America, American companies and America’s economy. They’d much rather live in a world where Korea produces nothing of benefit or anything of interest and most certainly brings out nothing good in this world.
A very very odd viewpoint to have… and also very very empty one.
Tripod,
How about praising Korean designers AND looking to them to get GM to stop relying on gas guzzlers…
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/.....l-save-gm/
Its an adverse reaction to racism. Angry white alpha wannabe nerd comes to Korea thinks he’s the shit discovers he’s shit and then cries endless on the net.
You also have alot of Asians pretending to be white trying to fan the flames of hate.
Nothing says “I think I’m the shit” than a name like “stacked…”
“You also have alot of Asians pretending to be white trying to fan the flames of hate.”
Yeah, and they spend an inordinate amount of time here:
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/
I find that Asian guys who bemoan the fact that they can’t attract white women and that white guys are taking all the Asian women are just not very attractive to begin with (intellectually or physically or BOTH!) and are lazy asses who still live with mommy and have graduated from a state college at best.
“How about praising Korean designers”
wanker963
“AND looking to them to get GM to stop relying on gas guzzlers…”
Koreans will save the world. What a wanker.
@7 rhouse
“Wanker” isn’t a mature argument. Please go find a web site to post on that caters to puberty-stricken middle school boys.
Well, Koreans at GM couldn’t do a worse botch job the homegrown 1958 model year styling debacle. Lucky for the General, Chrysler’s 1957 line had earned a reputation for rust and rattles.
Detroit needs all the help it can get, but the first favor it should do itself is to listen to its (ex-)customers.
Wanker?
Well, honestly I’ve done my share of deriding and criticizing.
My post here:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/.....or-dinner/
Has been the target of many of Korean netizen spews of anger.
rhouse would be an example of a Jap/Asian pretending to be white.
“Jap”? Really?
Jap flag? really? IR DUM
Hey, fucking ignorant non-American, I meant your offensive racial epithet. UR DUM
Cool it guys.
No, YOU cool it!
Lmao an American who gets offended at the word “Jap”.
This great white liberal guilt must really be kicking in for you user-81 but then why would you feel guilty about calling Japs Japs?
User, Wanky Stacked… Everyone just cool it!
Shiro Nakamura seem right when he called Koreans “emotional and hot-tempered”
Sheesh!
#8,
Look at your nick and enjoy the irony of your comment.
#3,
No, I have reason to be cynical. What happened in the 80’s when American consumers realized that American cars were crap and started buying Japanese-made cars? The press and American car makers started saying that Japanese makers were dumping their cars onto the American market. It wouldn’t be the first time that they’ve tried to bass the buck, tried to blame Asians for the sorry state of affairs.
of course the top korean designers have to work for detroit and japanese car manufacturers - no one outside of korea is really buying hyundais or kias in any signficant quantity are they?
@19 “louse”
As opposed to the emotionally repressed, psychotic Japanese and their common outlets of hentai, burusera,
http://www.snopes.com/risque/kinky/panties.asp
child-on-parent hatchet murder fads,
http://southofreality.wordpres.....s-the-axe/
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap.....d-Head.php
etc.
Oftentimes, we see the Japanese repressing their past tendencies
http://www.users.bigpond.com/b.....okoda.html
through fantasy outlets in their modern culture…
http://www.weirdasianews.com/2.....nnibalism/
@20 Tripod
They’re my initials, Three-legged Beast-man.
Please don’t call my guest bloggers “wankers.”
Thank you for your cooperation.
# 21,
I think we misunderstood each other.
# 22,
Hyundai/KIA is now the 5th largest car manufacturer in the world, after Daimler jettisoned Chrysler.
Hyundai/KIA is the 2nd largest car manufacturer in India and it’s one of the few car manufacturers in the U.S. that’s actually experienced positive sales growth this year…
Good for them. Happy to see they’re enjoying some success. If they can contribute only somewhat to helping stave off a potential GM bankruptcy in the next few years, great!
#24,
Your name is Nintendo Entertainment System?
Let me guess…You parents were 16 year-old stoners when your mom got pregnant, right?
Korean designers can be quite good. In many ways Korea has a design culture.
So I have no doubt that Korean designers could help Detroit. Still…
My… my Godson’s Uncle (I could have described this in a more accurate but wildly confusing way) is in the US taking his last TOEFL.
If he fails that test (you need it to go to school in the US), he will come back to Korea to live with his parents and figure out what to do.
If he does well on that test he will go to a reputable design school in Pasadena, CA. He will then move on to a career.
If he does poorly, he will accept an offer to a in-house design school for a Detroit auto-maker.
I find it amusing that the Detroit/Automaker school is the ‘mediocre’ fallback position in this case.
I’m not sure if you can generalize much from this one case, but to me it is another piece of evidence that (even though Korean designers are quite good) Detroit will never fully get back on track.
oh.. sorry.. I forgot the tone of the thread…
/wanking
#22, Actually, Hyundai-Kia recently passed Honda in sales to become the 5th largest automaker.
http://www.autoindustry.co.uk/news/02-07-08_1
I’m continuously baffled that readers of Korea stuff miss these stories and even more that I remember these from the Boston Globe I read while I take a dump.
#6, I may hint that expats may be suspicious, at least I always am, due to Korea media and ajummas bragging about small achievements. Yet, I too notice the more hostile reactions these days when there are some legitimate global positive achievements. The irony that’s lost in the hostility, which also is what makes it confusing, is when these benefits are actually for the Western nation where they are from and not Korea; confusing ’cause it seems Koreans don’t mind helping foreign competition so long as they’re recognized for it.
Go get em, WangKon936. I too wish to differentiate myself from that bunch. As for the Camero, it’s butt ugly. (was that a value judgement? sorry.)
#29,
Although some Korean designers are great, they aren’t all good, you know.
“I’m continuously baffled that readers of Korea stuff miss these stories ”
Too trivial. Must make room for Dokdo story of the day.
The many sins of Detroit, courtesy of Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/business.....peed=30000
Maybe I am expecting far too radical a design but the 2010 bares a striking resemblance to the 2008 model (transformers movie bumblebee car). It’s not bad - I was expecting something a little more unique.
Just my 2 cents.
Interesting that Korean designers are making their mark in the USA, while Korea itself has some of the lamest, uncreative designs for cars, not to mention the wonderful, rainbow assortment of colors: white, black, and silver.
I suppose this reflects the social conservatism (Big Boss has Big Black Car) more than the designers’ talent.
Tripod - of course not, it’s the Heinlein Law.
Josesiem - A good point.. I think there is a general brain-drain from Korea because truly ‘different’ thinkers don’t fit in so very well. At any rate that is the case with my friend..
@36 You are right. That’s why Hyundai’s in the USA come in a wider assortment of colors. Japan has a somehwat limited range of car colors as well. It’s a cultural thing.
So is the actual design… I’ve seen interviews of Korean car designers when asked why their car designs are so conservative, and they responded that it’s hard for them to design a car that must appeal to the style interests of say, Americans, while keeping it from being too flashy to appeal to the relatively conservative domestic market.
“Korea itself has some of the lamest, uncreative designs for cars, not to mention the wonderful, rainbow assortment of colors: white, black, and silver”
That might be a global trend.
As my flag shows I am in the U.S. Just now I took a quick look into the parking lot in front of my window and I saw twenty-four cars. Only four of them were NOT white, black, silver, or gray. One of the four was dark maroon, one was light gold, and the other two were silver-blue (blue enough not to count as silver).
Make that twenty-five cars, since a gray minivan just pulled up.
#28 Three-Feet
That would be a negative on the meaning of my initials. Apparently you’re a big fan of playing video games (while smoking pot).
Are you projecting your childhood onto others? Don’t assume that others were conceived in the same manner as yourself.
Does “tripod” refer to the number of feet you have or your height?
# 30,
I thought about posting about that when it was first announced, but I realized part of it was smoke and mirrors. Last year Hyundai/Kia was 6th, but that was before Daimler chucked Chrysler so now their car sales are counted separately.
I think it means he either has a really, really long dick, or that he lost both legs in a car accident.
@42
I’ll agree with the former if you change “has” to “is” and “long” to “big.”
josesiem: “Interesting that Korean designers are making their mark in the USA, while Korea itself has some of the lamest, uncreative designs for cars, not to mention the wonderful, rainbow assortment of colors: white, black, and silver.”
This comment is 30 years too late. 98% of Korean cars were black in the 1970’s. At the time, I bought a maroon Hyundai Pony with a black top that made it look like a convertable - an homage to the Mustang.
Korean cars have improved considerably. But the reason for their gains in the US is price vs. value, not design or status, which is still copycat.
As for status, it amazes me that Koreans mistake a Lexus for a luxury car when it’s in fact pretty basic molded plastic, little more than an upgraded Toyota. Still, I’ve got to give Koreans patriotism credits for driving Hyundais, which are pretty much considered the bottom of the line in the US.
Mizar5 — You must not live in Korea. Since I drive to work everday through the congested traffic of Seoul, I can assure you this comment is not 30 years too late.
For amusement, while I’m sitting in my black 97 Hyundae Avante, parked at the five-minute long red lights, I count the number of color cars. It’s about 5%. Every other car is silver, white, or black.
@44, correction the Japanese are America’s xerox machine. Still well known in the country except on the internet where you magically get some notion that Japan is creative.
btw, “bottom of the line in the US” makes no sense in your post. Feel free to learn the idioms of the American language properly.