| ...instead of knee-jerking hyberbole because I just poked a huge hole in what you thought was reality. First you need to define your terms, because "flagship" does not necessarily mean "most expensive" or fastest or whatever measure you may have.....it is typically a term used loosely just as I described it before. SO I ASK AGAIN.....What part of the Z33 made it a "flagship" car in 2003?
What was more "flagship" about it than a fully equipped '03 Maxima?...a fully equipped '03 Pathfinder?
What was the "flagship" from 1997 to 2002?? The 240SX? please....
"Flagship" cars are not marketed with language like "back to the roots". Again, you build a "flagship" to SHOWOFF what your company is capable of.
The Ford GT, the Dodge Viper, the BMW i8, the R35 GTR, the Z32TT, the Corvette, the Stinger GT, the G80, the LFA, NSX, etc etc. If Bowling Green is wiped off the face of the earth by a meteor tomorrow, the Camaro does not inherit the status of flagship car, it is not inherited, flagship cars are inherently designed to be the flagship car before a single concept sketch is even scrawled into place...now maybe the ZL1 model fills that role because it showcases what Chevy engineering is capable of...but it is a murky area because GM offers very wide variants of the exact same chassis/platform across nearly every chassis/platform. The Corvette isn't really the flagship, it is the ZR1. Hard to claim a standard base Corvette is their flagship car, when a Camaro ZL1 is packed with way more tech and engineering prowess. The Z was only a FLAGSHIP car when the "ZX" became part of the equation. 280ZX, Z31T, and finally the Z32TT. The Z ceased being the "flagship car" after that. The Mustang has never been Ford's "flagship car"...it has been a variant that Ford produces, Flagships typically do not come with bargain basement models that fill airport rental lots. The GT has been Ford's flagship of late, but this role may also have been at times other vehicles that may not have even been sportscars...and manufacturers may not even decide to pursue a "flagship car" strategy at all for various reasons even if only temporarily. Ford also engages to a lesser extent in what GM does when it comes to wide variants on the same chassis....you could say the GT350/500 INHERITS the role, but clearly the GT is Ford proving its mettle and that is what FLAGSHIP cars do. Consumer groups and media may decide that the most expensive model is the "de facto" flagship, but that does not make it so. You just have this weird perception that sounds very heavily dealership and/or automobile media influenced. I cannot think of two groups full of bigger dunces than those two to mold thinking/perception with.
  "I torch my soul to show the world that I am pure deep inside my heart...."
--William Patrick Corgan |
