Quote:
Originally Posted by xrs
I think most people use the term "ricey" nowadays when an item or part feels like an afterthought (aftermarket). The main thing with all the interior lighting features were that they didn't do a great job integrating it into the rest of the scheme that the car had going. It became a mashup of a bunch of different colors. What makes it frustrating is that it would've been an easy fix. To me that just says they really didn't care to think things through and it was last minute job.
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Things only become "ricey" when somebody other than the owner doesn't like them.
There is no such thing as a "last minute job" in the auto industry. As much as they may seem to be an afterthought there would have been a pile of work that went into the planning of those light up badges.
The marketing people would have to say "we need something to make it stand out"
A team of design engineers would have drafted several proposals and mock ups.
The marketing crowd would then look at all these proposals (there may have been hundreds) and perform research as to what would probably be in demand from the public.
The list would get narrowed down to a few that would be deemed to be the most acceptable.
The design engineers would now go into greater detail in specing those actual parts.
The proposals would be sent to purchasing to determine costing and production for a review on the impact on the assembly line (yes even something as small as some lights can cost time and time is money in assembly).
The final numbers would be sent to a management review team to decide what proposals would give the best ROE and approval. The rest of the ideas would be scrapped.
The Purchasing people would now put the manufacture of the parts out for tender, determine a supplier and make a contract.
The line changes would be made for that particular part(s). These changes although they seem minor will impact the whole assembly process.
The marketing people would put together the promotional materials to hype up the change and try to sell more cars.
All of this would have happened years before the car was even being made.
So in summary, there would have been a pile of thought put into those light up badges and the mash up of different colours was exactly what they thought people would want. They may have been wrong but it wasn't that they didn't care or threw them on at the last minute.