A few days ago, we talked about Ford design Director, David Woodhouse, who was responsible for Lincoln styling, leaving the company. Woodhouse has done an excellent job with the styling of Lincoln products with the looks being a large reason the Lincoln brand has been popular. Woodhouse’s departure from Ford was sudden, with little in the way of reasoning.
Woodhouse wrote in a post on Facebook that it was a difficult decision to leave Ford. We now know why Woodhouse left Ford; he has been hired by Nissan to head up the North American design operations for the automaker.
Nissan has stated that David Woodhouse will serve as VP, Nissan Design America leading all Nissan and INFINITI design activities in North America. Woodhouse will also be part of Nissan’s Global Nissan Design Management Committee. Nissan said that Woodhouse brings more than 25 years of global automotive design expertise to his new role at Nissan.
During his time with Ford design, Woodhouse had a direct hand in styling the Continental and Aviator concepts, both of which went into production and have been popular. Ford had only said that Woodhouse had elected to leave the company, now we know why.
Ford has yet to announce who might replace Woodhouse in his role at Ford design. We hope Lincoln can continue to design attractive vehicles with Woodhouse gone. Fuel economy standards for the 2020 Lincoln Aviator recently surfaced, and the SUV is rated for 26 mph on the highway in the rear-wheel-drive version. Buyers who opt for the all-wheel-drive version of the Aviator will see 24 mpg highway and 21 mpg combined. The standard Aviator uses a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 making 400 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque.
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Source: Nissan
Comments
They finally get some decent looking Lincoln’s and seem to be turning the corner and let the guy who designed them leave???
That’s fantastic news, I’m glad Mr. Woodhouse landed another job with a fairly decent auto maker. While I’m not to keen on his designs for Lincoln as I feel they are a bit too European, given the car manufacturer’s long standing AMERICAN history, I feel that his design’s might fare well with Nissan & Infiniti.
As it stands, There aren’t too many American cars that are really worth looking at outside of the Mustang, the F150, the Camaro, the Silverado 1500/GMC Sierra 1500, the Challenger, Charger, Durango, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Gladiator and Ram 1500 pickup trucks. The new Explorer isn’t too bad but lacks the proper drivetrain same with the Expedition. I have high hopes for the F150 Bronco but to be honest, that’s really it. Cadillac is starting to go in a weird direction with it’s new cars. While the CT6-V is fine all the way around, the CT4-V and CT5-V are not designed properly with a poorly executed fastback design with an inexcusably flawed design with that obscure rear quarter window design. Not to mention that the current CT4-V and CT5-V don’t deserve to wear the V-badge, they should be more of a sport package with the twin turbo black wing V8 being under their hoods, or at minimum the 465hp 3.6L twin turbo V6. Of course, the escalade still rules as king as far as looks and equipment go and it is the only full size American luxury SUV equipped with an engine with the Proper amount of cylinders in a V-engine configuration. Full size SUVs and trucks should have NO LESS THAN 8 CYLINDERS FORD!
Although I like Ford, The company as a whole misses the mark on a lot of things. For instance, the CD6 Chassis should have the new mustang, a Falcon sedan and the Explorer with a V8 option. Ford’s other vehicles should the Ranger, the Bronco family (no FWD variant) the F150, the Expedition (with a V8 option) and the Super Duty chassis.
Chevrolet should have the Alpha platform with the Camaro, the Malibu and the Blazer with a V8 option. Above that the Blazer family should grow with a Colorado based Trailblazer, and a Silverado based Blazer, the Colorado truck, the Silverado 1500, the Tahoe and the Super Duty.
The Dodge lineup is the only one that currently gets it nearly right with the Challenger, Charger and Durango. they need a Dakota, a Ram Charger, Ram 1500 and the Ram HD and their lineup would be near perfect. I say near perfect because both the Charger and Challenger are running out of ideas and options. What I would do Is I would actually turn the Challenger into the Dodge Dart (like the Muscle car Dart from 1971 which was a seductive, swoopy muscle car equipped with a 340ci 5.7L, a 318ci V8 5.2L or the GTS nomenclature from ’68 with the 383ci 6.3L V8. The Charger needs to evolve into a sportier 4-door coupe with the coke bottle design styling of the ’99 Concept, which took alot of cues from the ’68 Charger. The Durango could stand to be a bit more chiseled like a hot rod ’73 Coronet Station Wagon (a bigger Dodge Magnum with better visability). The Dakota needs to have the same muscle car mindset that the current trio has but with a bed
Ford needs to redo Lincoln and bring out the Mark ten CD6 Coupe, a CD6 Continental sedan and the CD6 Aviator, Other than that, they need a Zephyr, the Nautilus, the Corsair and a newly redesigned Navigator with a proper V8 engine. Ford Also needs to resurrect the Mercury lineup, bringing back cars like a CD6 Mustang based Cougar, a midsize performance sedan called the Cyclone, a CD6 Mountaineer and a mid level luxury truck that would allow Ford to go back to making trucks that are trucks and not super luxury vehicles, leaving that to the Mercury lineup. No Mercury ranger or bronco type vehicle needed but I would bring back the Mercury Mariner SUV.
As far as GM is concerned, turning Buick into the electric/hybrid line would be the way to go. Give the Corvette to Cadillac and remodel GMC, bringing back Pontiac as the car lineup of GMC with vehicles including the Firebird, the Grand Prix and the Bonneville all on the Alpha-2 and VSS-R platform, Bring back the GMC Syclone with the Canyon and the Typhoon with the Acadia with the twin turbo 3.6L V6. The Sierra is fine, drop the Yukon and bring back the H2 Hummer with a Denali package, and give the Suburban name back to GMC. Cadillac needs to redesign the CT4 and CT5, the CT6 is fine, bring out the El Miraj and the Escala, drop the XT SUV lineup (the whole thing) and redesign the Escalade.
Chrysler would bring out a new Chrysler 300M with the swoopy style and shape that the 300M was known for and yes their would be a hurst edition with a 392ci V8 engine pushing 500hp through a RWD based AWD system like the Jeep SRT Trackhawk. The Pacifica would be redesigned with the same exterior (or similar, with a RWD based AWD powertrain) the Aspen would return as the stablemate to the Durango and Chrysler would bring out the Barracuda as a fastback luxury stablemate to the new Dodge Dart V8 muscle car. Jeep would keep the Wrangler, the Wrangler unlimited and the Scrambler, adding a more rugged Renegade back to the mix. the Grand Cherokee would remain just as it is in the lineup but above that would be the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, removing any front wheel drive based Jeeps from the lineup. If Jeep wants to do something smaller, then bring back the AMC Eagle (just call it a Jeep Eagle) and bring it out in a hatchback coupe, a four-door hatchback and a full four door wagon just like back in the early 80’s.
The point is, there would be no front wheel drive vehicles, vehicles would return back to American styled vehicles with modern technologies, power and everything else that American cars were. Yes some of the vehicles would be electric or hybrids but just not the Muscle cars and trucks. Chrysler could run alot of hybrids, so could Lincoln and Buick. Those should be the hybrid/electric branches of each automaker, while still leaving enough real cars for the rest of the world who want good old V8, rear wheel drive powered cars, 4×4 trucks, street performance trucks and diesels. We should not be punished because other people want hybrids and electric cars. we still need to have our cars as well!