Automakers hope love for car equals love for brand
Posted 6/19/2006 12:38 AM ET
By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY
For Anne deVille and Lloyd Kinnett, it was love at first sight.
No, not for each other. They did fall in love, but that process took a few weeks. Rather, their hearts pitter-pattered from the start for the Pontiac Solstice.

It was the new little sports car that led them to meet, online through a website devoted to Solstice. And the car — they each have one — has propelled their social lives ever since.

"People stop you and want to know all about the car," says deVille, 48, a medical receptionist from Homewood, Ala. "I've met so many new friends."

For deVille, Kinnett and thousands of others, the Solstice isn't just a car. It's a must-have. A 177-horsepower fun machine. An emotional statement on wheels.

Solstice is, in auto-industry speak, a "halo car."

It's one of those rare models that can draw a halo around a brand, bringing into showrooms potential buyers who, ultimately, may drive off in a totally different vehicle from the same nameplate.

Halo cars are hot and sexy. They generate buzz even before they go on sale. They often pack a wallop under the hood. They may echo hallowed automotive names or conjure up happier days.

"It has to have meaning, and it has to be beyond cool, timeless in its appeal," says Ford Motor's design chief, J Mays.

Most of all, halos have drop-dead good looks capable of stopping traffic. They are the cars for which "kids would drag their moms out of grocery stores" for a peek, says General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. Almost always, would-be owners have to endure waiting lists to get one.

By now, just about every brand has produced a model with the magic touch. The New Beetle revived a fading Volkswagen. Miata sexed up Mazda. Viper ravaged pavement for Dodge.

But the halo is no recent creation. Just ask anyone who bought a Corvette in the '50s or a Mustang in the '60s.

Automakers test out their best halo ideas by introducing candidates as concept cars at auto shows. Jaw-droppers get built. Yawners don't.

Not all halos succeed. Chevrolet never scored with its SSR nostalgia pickup. Ford's Thunderbird redux saw so-so sales. Pontiac's latest GTO became a fallen angel when it failed to quicken younger buyers' pulses.

Yet, there's no stopping the search for the next big halo. Officially, GM is weighing whether to build a splashy new version of the Chevrolet Camaro that was the hit of Detroit's North American International Auto Show in January. The outlook appears bright. Similarly, DaimlerChrysler is deliberating over whether to let loose with Dodge Challenger, another 1960s throwback.

If Camaro and Challenger are put into production, the goal will be to project a golden glow on the whole lineup. Witness Nissan, which plays on the mystique around its Z line of sports cars — the latest incarnation being the 350Z — to hawk everything from Sentra compacts to Quest minivans. "We want people to think there's a little Z in everything," says Vice President Robert Bradshaw.

In the '60s, Ford Motor's Cougar became such a hit that the single model became the advertising hook for every Mercury dealership. Buyers were urged to visit "the sign of the cat."

A successful halo car "brings in looky-loos and serious buyers alike, people who would never otherwise come there," says Gordon Wangers, an auto industry marketing consultant. They "generate word of mouth, excitement and buzz ... for the whole line."

That's what Solstice is doing for Pontiac. In the first three months of the year, the one car alone accounted for nearly half of all visits to Pontiac dealers. For a brand that has had trouble attracting younger buyers, the average age of showroom visitors coming to see Solstice is 41. Before the car arrived, the average age was 54.

"Just to get somebody under 50 to go into a Pontiac showroom