http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/news/default.asp?storyId=20167

Shame that.

Less and less character being built into modern cars :(

i never knew karman did the escort cosworth! many a wet dream over that car as a school boys

tbh tho mate how many cars these days have character? in fact most of the ones that do are just remakes of old cars that had character. maybe its just because new cars still look modern at the min, but could you really imagine some thing that any of the major car company's produce these days as being described as having character or even being called iconic in years to come?

even such fails as the Morris Ital and Austin Allegro could be described as iconic and having character but could you ever imagine saying that about a ford focus?

I didnt even know they were still building/working on cars whooopsies

i never knew karman did the escort cosworth! many a wet dream over that car as a school boys

Did they do all of them though? Or just the odd one, like the karmann corrado iirc they didnt work on all of them.

tbh tho mate how many cars these days have character? in fact most of the ones that do are just remakes of old cars that had character. maybe its just because new cars still look modern at the min, but could you really imagine some thing that any of the major car company's produce these days as being described as having character or even being called iconic in years to come?

even such fails as the Morris Ital and Austin Allegro could be described as iconic and having character but could you ever imagine saying that about a ford focus?

That's what I said, in less words

Most manufacturers, including VW keep within certain conventions and keep with current trends, resulting in many similarities between manufacturers and models. While I suppose this was true 30-20 odd years ago they seemed to have more 'defining' features, whereas now they just copy each other

Not saying ALL modern cars are like this, but certainly most of them...

very sad news they've been involved with some pretty cool cars over the many years. No one seems to want niche cars with a touch of class anymore, people seem more interested in plastic coloured bodypanels that you can swap over like mobile phone covers and daft shit like that.

i never knew karman did the escort cosworth! many a wet dream over that car as a school boys

Did they do all of them though? Or just the odd one, like the karmann corrado iirc they didnt work on all of them.

They built those cars - or parts of them, e.g. the BiW for the 968. Doesn't mean that they did the engineering work - and presumably with something like the Merc CLK they were just an out-sourced production line and not much else.

With modern manufacturing processes and equipment it's not that difficult for the OEMs to accomodate relatively niche models on their mainstream production lines, or at least part-build their niche model(s) on the main lines and then complete them elsewhere. Couple that with the increasing electronic complexity of cars needing expensive and ever more complicated end-of-line test/configuration/setup equipment, it makes sense for the OEMs to keep it in-house where possible. They already have the kit and the trained staff, and in times when everyone's stuggling to sell cars they need to keep their manufacturing staff busy - and out-sourcing becomes a dirty word!

Plenty of other tier 1 suppliers have gone under, or are seriously suffering - it's just that Karmann is/was a more widely recognised name.

Karmann wasnt really a supplier. As far as I'm aware they did coachworks and design. Specialised heavily in sorf tops. Karmann cars were always special edition sort of things, like overfinch range rovers. Modified to a higher spec.