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THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
| Auto designs for the ages
Marketers appeal to boomers, young drivers By Royal Ford, Globe Staff, 3/5/2000
An ad you will never see would feature the same compact car pulling
into a handicapped spot, its broad driver's side door opening and a cane
pushing out for support on the pavement. The stiff legs of an elderly
driver would swing out through the extra-wide, extra-high door, and the
driver, sliding down from a high seat, would emerge smoothly.
The new Focus is a car aimed at the young, but it is also emblematic of
a subtle but powerful challenge in today's auto industry: How do you sell
to a young, high-tech generation, but also produce cars that will meet the
physical challenges that confront aging baby boomers?
Rather than design distinct vehicles for the separate groups and plunk
them at opposite ends of a linear design continuum, the industry has
responded in an inclusive way, striving for an unbroken circle that boldly
appeals to one group while fulfilling the needs of another.
This approach is necessary because of a long-held truism of auto
marketing, said Karen Stewart-Spica of the Lear Corp. in Southfield,
Mich., a leader in automotive design and engineering: ''You can sell a
young man's car to an old man, but you can't sell an old man's car to a
young man.''
Further, others in the industry say, as today's boomers age and
maintain lifestyles that are healthier and more active than those of
previous generations - and insist on clinging to the sort of youthful
attitudes that can be symbolized by something as personal as the cars they
drive - it can also be said that you cannot sell an old person's car to an
old person.
So the industry has responded with what Stewart-Spica calls
''transparent enablers'' - unobtrusive features that help people use their
vehicles. For instance, night vision systems, in which a camera on the
grill sees into the darkness and projects images to a space on the
windshield - like picture-in-a-picture on some TV sets - are making their
way into the market. They appeal to the young as an extension of high-tech
life; they are a boon to aging boomers whose night vision is
deteriorating.
The new Chevrolet Suburban has vertical interior door handles with
thick L-shaped grips that you can get your entire hand around - great for
those with hand or joint problems. The Saab station wagon offers a rollout
platform in its rear storage compartment - appealing to picnicking
tailgaters at football games, but also to elders with bad backs for whom
reaching in to unload groceries could be painful.
Also crossing generations are systems such as OnStar, which uses
satellites to track vehicles and alerts service centers if the car's
airbags deploy.
And available in just a handful of cars now, but certain to become
popular, are voice-command systems that could replace climate-control
buttons, hand-operated telephones, and myriad other switches, from lights
to windshield wipers to sound system controls.
Safety studies have found that many accidents involving young people
happen because the drivers are distracted while fiddling with their sound
systems. For some aging drivers, the plethora of fingertip controls can be
confusing, and, for those with arthritic hands, physically challenging.
Voice controls would aid all these groups, said Ashok Boghani, vice
president of automotive practices in North America at the Arthur D. Little
research firm in Cambridge.
But with all these features making their way to the market, you still
will not find any manufacturer that will advertise, ''Here's a car for old
people.''
Older drivers may want comfort and convenience, ''but we're much more
interested in things that make us feel active, make us sense sportiness,''
said Freeman Thomas, vice president of design and advanced product
strategy for Daimler-Chrysler.
''If you said the Buick LeSabre is for people with arthritis, nobody
would buy it,'' said Paul Ulrich, manager of General Motors' Paragon
Project, which develops vehicles for people with a wide range of physical
challenges.
Ulrich calls aging boomers ''a gray wave that's coming ashore.'' In
fact, the number of people in the United States between 55 and 74 will
almost double in the next 30 years, from 40 million to 74 million. That
alone poses a challenge to automotive designers and manufacturers. Add to
that the 77 million members of what is called Generation Y born since
1979, and the design demands are likely to tug in opposite directions.
The industry response has ranged from adding simple features to cars
already in production to developing full-blown concept vehicles,
incorporating a host of transparent enablers, that could be the basis of
future production cars.
The Ford Focus represents the simple touch, yet it came about in a
high-tech way. It is the first Ford to benefit from the use of the
company's ''Third Age Suit,'' a cross between a hockey goalie's outfit and
something an astronaut might wear. The suit restricts agility, adds bulk,
and limits movement at the knees, elbows, stomach, and back. Its gloves
reduce the sense of touch. Its goggles simulate cataracts. In short, it
artificially ages young designers and shows them the challenges
confronting older drivers.
In the Focus, the Third Age Suit resulted in not only that wide, high
front door, but also a raised ''H-point'' (the point at which the hips
swivel) through higher seats, which give better leverage when rising as
you exit the car.
Other manufacturers have recognized the same need for easier exits and
applied it to cars other than entry-level compacts. Ulrich of GM pointed
out that Chevrolet, aware that buyers of the hot Corvette sports car are
often aging boomers, made the doors on the latest model 11/2 inches wider
and raised their opening height 2 inches to make rising up and out of the
low-slung car easier.
In Chevrolet's Impala, designers have put the ignition on the
dashboard, eliminating the need to twist the elbow and the wrist to reach
around the steering wheel before then twisting the wrist again to turn the
key.
The Impala also comes with oversized knobs for climate control, bigger
inside door latches, large outside mirrors, and an inside gauge that
reports tire pressure, a definite aid for those for whom bending down and
attaching a pressure gauge would be a challenge. The key to these
features, said Ulrich, is that while they help those who need it, they are
also a convenience to those who don't, and that is part of the secret of
transparent enablers.
''Any feature you make easier to use, it gets used across the board,''
said Thomas of Daimler-Chrysler.
Chrysler's new minivans, for instance, offer a power rear gate.
Necessary for those whose physical limitations make these heavy,
up-swinging gates difficult to use, the power is convenient for simply
unloading groceries without wrestling with an overhead door.
Perhaps the ultimate crossover vehicle to be developed thus far is the
Lear Corp.'s TransG - for transgenerational - van. It is a concept vehicle
filled with real-world aids for aging drivers, but whose features would
appeal to young families, as well, said Patrick Murray, Lear vice
president for product analysis and industrial design.
Its steering wheel, dash display, and foot pedals move toward the
driver, aiding with vision and making it unnecessary for short drivers to
crunch themselves dangerously forward near the dash and airbag. Seats
swivel 45 degrees for easy entry and exit - helpful to aging drivers and
to young families moving children and groceries in and out of the vehicle.
The interior front-door handles are glistening steel poles that run
nearly the width of the door. They closely resemble grips you might find
in a shower and make it easy for those with limited flexibility to open
the doors.
The top of the steering wheel is open like the yoke in an airplane,
offering racy appeal to young drivers. But it also provides a clearer view
to gauges on the dash, where data such as speed are digitally displayed in
large numbers, and where computer graphics, such as maps or other
information, can be electronically overlaid atop analog gauges, all
features that older drivers might find helpful.
''The big gauges are not only good for those whose eyesight might be
fading,'' said Lear's Murray, ''but they're also good for young drivers
who might not be paying the attention to driving that they should.''
Another feature of the TransG cited by Murray is its seatbelt system:
four-point belts that buckle at the midpoint of the torso and eliminate
the need for the odd reaches back and around that standard belts require.
Again, physically helpful for the less abled, more comfortable because
they eliminate the strap-across-the-lower-neck sensation of standard
belts, but notably a feature that young drivers might notice as similar to
the harness system found in race cars.
The TransG, Murray said, is a classic example of a generational
crossover from which manufacturers could adapt features for production
autos, the sorts of features you will increasingly find in virtually any
vehicle - if you take the time to look for them.
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on
3/5/2000. |
ETROIT
- In a current television ad, a Ford Focus pulls gingerly into a slot
between two cars, a parking spot so tight its doors cannot be opened. The
occupants appear trapped - until you see the trunk lid popped from inside
and a group of 20-somethings climb over the folded-down rear seat and out
through the trunk.