The front-seat passenger in a new Mercedes-Benz C220 shyly asked how he could lower his window. The power controls, he was told, were on the center console, not the door.
Auto writers chided Saab for putting its ignition key slot on the floor between the front seats of its 900 models. And then they had to learn to put the Swedish-built cars with manual transmission into reverse to remove the key. Saab said its owners never complained.
An American on holiday in England in the early 1980s was near panic as darkness closed in and he couldn’t find the headlight switch on the Rover 3800 he was driving. The owner’s manual directed him to a button on the steering column.
Though there still are some real eccentricities, today’s automotive interior design, particularly instrumentation, seems to be moving toward standardization.
And the word ergonomics continues to surface. Designers say they want drivers to be able to see the most important controls and reach them with ease.
“We are trying to zone where we put things like the headlight switch,” said Ford Motor Co. spokesman Rex Greenslade. “On most of our U.S. cars, light switches are to the left of the steering column.”
The things a driver needs immediately should be on the column, close to the wheel, he said. “Second-tier” instruments should be reachable without most drivers having to move or stretch. These are followed by less frequently needed switches-radio, heat controls, trunk release-which may require some exertion.
“The hazard button is in the same place on all our cars and trucks: on the top of the steering column,” Greenslade said.
At least as important as the hazard button to today’s drivers are the cupholders. With Americans’ proclivity for taking a mug of coffee on that pre-dawn trek to work and our infatuation with fast-food drive-thrus, we have become cupholder-dependent. Woe to the designer who puts them where they can’t be found.
“They are like indoor plumbing-they’re standard,” said Jon Albert, Buick studio chief at GM’s Design Center in Warren, Mich.
But finding cupholders often requires ingenuity and perseverance. The center console area between the front seats seems to be the favorite location. Cupholders also pull out of the instrument panel. Some flip up from the front-seat frame and a few are slight indentions in the map pockets on front doors. (The little circles on the inside panel of a glovebox door do not qualify!)
Backseat passengers more often than not go without cupholders. The exceptions are those second and third-tier folks in mini-vans.
When it introduced its fiberglass-body front-wheel-drive vans in 1989 for the 1990 model year-Chevrolet Lumina APV/Pontiac Trans Sport/Oldsmobile Silhouette-GM provided more than enough molded cupholders-14-for the seven passengers they were designed to hold.
Now multiple temperature controls are finding favor. Passenger vans have had to accommodate folks in the back for some time, and rear-mounted heaters and air conditioning units are well established in those vehicles.
A couple of years ago, top-of-the-line GM cars such as the Buick Park Avenue began offering a separate temperature control for the front-seat passenger. He or she could then have snoozing-warm feet while the driver might stay more alert with chilly ankles. Or if the sun is heating one side of the car more than the other, each can make a personal adjustment.
Some GM products, especially the Buick Regal and Century, are featuring larger buttons and knobs for radio and temperature controls. They are easier to find and use, said Buick’s Albert.
Despite the move to utility, however, stories still abound about seats, light switches, fuel gauges, speedometers and gear shifts that have bemused or delighted drivers. Many seem to be have been devised to set cars apart-apparently with little attention to practicality or serviceability.
The headlight switch on the Buick Park Avenue and LeSabre, for example, is on the drivers’ door.
Not to be outdone, there are two switches on the Oldsmobile Aurora-one on the stalk on the left side of the steering column and another on the dash.
“We have close to 30 now-indicators for air bags, traction control and anti-lock brakes in addition to low fuel, low oil pressure and engine temperature,” said Bob Luyckx, chief designer for Oldsmobile interiors.
“It exacerbates our packaging efforts,” he said. “But people want more information.”
And steering-wheel-mounted radio and temperature controls have proven successful, he said.
“I was in Los Angeles recently, on my way to the airport,” Luyckx said. “It took me 2 1/2 hours to go 42 miles. Many people are regularly spending this kind of time in their cars, so we want our designs to make them as comfortable as possible.”
That doesn’t mean that these efforts will be successful, as some earlier innovations show.
“Early (1960s) Peugeots had the turn signal on the right and the headlight/horn stalks on the left, just the opposite of what you’d expect,” said Don Morton, of A&M Specialists, which delivers and prepares vehicles for promotional purposes, in Detroit. “So you’d be flashing your lights at someone when you were trying to signal a turn.
“Not only that,” he continued, “you would flip the turn signal stalk up for a left turn and down for a right turn.”
Morton also notes Chrysler’s mid-’50s push-button gear shift, a design preceded by a short gear shift lever mounted on the dash.
He recalled speedometers that turned colors in acceleration and horns in the steering wheel rim on Cadillacs that blew anytime the driver exerted pressure, such as when going around a corner.
Then there was the Chrysler driver’s seat that swiveled out when the door was opened so one could exit the car more gracefully. But those ’50s wrap-around windshields tended to knock one’s knees in the egress. One story tells of a Chrysler big shot whose wife was dumped from her swivel seat into the gutter when the couple arrived at a auto show.
A modern option that would quickly bite the dust was the small computer screen on some specialty vehicles, such as the Buick Riviera, in the mid-1980s.
It was laid out for someone familiar with computers, Albert said of the computer screen in the Riviera from the last decade. “The user had to page through so many functions through the touch-activated screen that it was hard to use while driving.”
Another idea from the 1980s that faded was the voice warning systems that ordered the driver to “Fasten your seatbelt” or insisted “Your door is ajar.” Be still that silken voice.
