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I do know what the term "selling out" means..... They sold out KR to try and sell out some Mustangs and it failed horribly. Just about every dam car that got any camera time in the show was a Ford. You could not walk into any Pontiac dealership back in the day and order the Kitt dash and scanner package on your car. I can also direct you to some wonderful walls if you still want to bang your head against one?How about learning what the term selling out means while I go find a wall to smash my head against
I completely disagree. Just because some people (incl me) feel that a T/A would be great for KITT doesn't necessarily mean we don't know how businesses work. Personally, I would love to see KITT return as a T/A but I also accept the reasons he won't be one. However, KITT does need to have an iconic shape whose silhouette is instantly recognisable, a car which immediately invokes KITT, a car that other people would want to make their own cars look like.WIBoomer1 wrote:I first think that people who think KITT should be a TA for the movie have no understanding of how business works.
A major issue with custom cars is going to be cost. Sure you could have a custom-built car but you'd have to have a few (rather than relying on just one) and that would cost £££ (or $$$ in US). A franchise such as Batman has a huge fanbase, and a lot of money behind it. People are gonna (and have) paid to go see the movie and it resulted in huge profits. Trying to do this with a smaller movie, with a smaller fanbase and backing would mean the 'custom' car wouldn't be hugely fantastic.ThomasKnight wrote:custom![]()
And yet that didn't stop droves of people going into dealers and asking for the 'Knight Rider' car. Added to the fact there was at least once incidence where a T/A was involved in a collision because the driver believed he was driving KITT meant that Pontiac got a lot of negative publicity and hence this is why KITT gets referred to as a 'T-top' instead.DevonStyles wrote:You could not walk into any Pontiac dealership back in the day and order the Kitt dash and scanner package on your car.
I first think that people who think KITT should be a T/A for the movie have no understanding of how business works.
Ok then, tell me why NBC partnered with Ford? As I understand it, NBC shopped the project to the Big 3, but only Ford was interested. GM had it's partnership with Transformers, so that nixed the Camaro...and because there was no Trans-Am variant of this body, there's no T/A KI3T. We've all heard the stories about owners wanting a KITT version at the dealers. Ford jumped on this. Is there a direct correlation between KR 08 and Mustang sales? I'd say no, but it still was advertisement neverless, and people knew that KI3T WAS a Mustang, not some other car.Knight2000 wrote:I completely disagree. Just because some people (incl me) feel that a T/A would be great for KITT doesn't necessarily mean we don't know how businesses work.
I totally agree about KITT needing an iconic shape. But you need to have a partnership that make economic sense in order for this to happen. It's not the 80's, where licensing wasn't what it is today. The automobile industry as a whole is a whole lot more protective of their trademarks, and need to make money where ever it may occur. If there is another KITT, you can bet your bottom dollar that it won't be for free, and there's money that changes hands. The producers won't pick a car and stick to it until a deal is made. They might run the risk of getting sued for unauthorized use of the design, no matter now slight the changes are to it.Knight2000 wrote:Personally, I would love to see KITT return as a T/A but I also accept the reasons he won't be one. However, KITT does need to have an iconic shape whose silhouette is instantly recognizable, a car which immediately invokes KITT, a car that other people would want to make their own cars look like.
There's where the money changed hands. Larson and crew gets cars, GM gets Publicity, while writing off damaged vehicles that couldn't be sold at all. A win-win for both parties...until the series took off, and the unexpected requests for a KITT version appear. Then the win turns into a loss, and that's why the change from Trans-Am to T-Top occurred, as you have said as well.Knight2000 wrote:A major issue with custom cars is going to be cost. Sure you could have a custom-built car but you'd have to have a few (rather than relying on just one) and that would cost £££ (or $$$ in US). A franchise such as Batman has a huge fanbase, and a lot of money behind it. People are gonna (and have) paid to go see the movie and it resulted in huge profits. Trying to do this with a smaller movie, with a smaller fanbase and backing would mean the 'custom' car wouldn't be hugely fantastic.
Kitt was originally going to be a corvette (like the one Face drove in the A-team. As I understand it, a train carrying a load of T/As derailed. The cars couldn't be sold to the general public but they were bought for the series cheaply. T/As weren't hugely fancy cars, they weren't very powerful but universal/Larson were able to turn an average 'sports' car into an icon.
The main problem I have with the Kevin Morgan design isn't his take on it...i like it. I (like I would suspect most of us) first noticed the T/A from Smokey and the Bandit. And that was 2nd Gen F-Body, but by skipping the 3rd and 4th styling cues with the 2009 Camaro, there's nothing of KITT here. I'm not going to get technical, but the lines of the 82 T/A are much more slippery that the 09 Camaro. I think that cutting edge aerodynamics have been forgotten in place of making the car look cool, and that's in my opinion is not what KITT is about.Knight2000 wrote:Although I've said I would have liked a T/A, as I mentioned above, any car that invoked the spirit of KITT would do for me. Especially if it was a lot more aerodynamic than the brick that was the mustang.