The desire to find the next niche is turning the auto industry inside out.
And while the size, shape and price of vehicles bring visitors to the Chicago Auto Show, which runs through Sunday in McCormick Place South, it’s the interior amenities that will bring showgoers into showrooms.
“What it comes down to is that automakers add what they hope people will want so that they’ll buy their vehicle in a market that is saturated with other vehicles,” said Art Spinella, general manager of CNW Marketing Research, the Bandon, Ore., company that studies why people buy the vehicles they do.
“Everyone is looking for that little niche to attract interest, for what it will take for you to buy this vehicle and not that one. The goal is versatility, so that the vehicle doesn’t just have all the comforts of home, but all the items that suit and reflect the buyer’s lifestyle,” Spinella said.
“It used to be that the car dictated what you did. Today you dictate what you want the car to do and it has to be suitable for active people and what they want to do,” he said.
The move toward comfort and convenience began in the mid-’80s, with the Chrysler minivan and its cupholders.
For 2001 the Dodge Grand Caravan is the king of the cupholders, boasting 14 or two for each person who can ride inside, including the driver.
At last count, 271 vehicles offer at least one cupholder.
Saab offers not only cupholders but also a glove box with an air-conditioner duct to cool drinks inside to 42 degrees in its 9-5 sedan. Volvo goes Saab one better with a refrigerator in its Cross Country wagon that plugs into the 12-volt power outlet to hold even more pop and get it even colder.
While cupholders now outnumber map holders in most vehicles, automakers have come up with a variety of devices designed to carry pens, coins and tissues.
The Buick Rendezvous, due out this spring, takes “holders” to a new level with a special compartment under the center console to hide a purse as well as compartments in the console to hold the laptop computer and cellphone.
“The auto industry is looking for differentiators, little touches that will be the key to a sale,” said Dave Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. “For example, a woman buys a vehicle not caring if it has a V-6 or V-8 or slide-open or swing-out doors, but rather that it has a compartment in the console to hold her purse in place when she accelerates or has to brake.
“Or take cupholders. If all things are equal in two vehicles, but one has a cupholder and one doesn’t or one has a cupholder that’s easy to use and one doesn’t, the cupholder could be the differentiator that helps you make the decision as to which vehicle to buy,” Cole said.
“When you have air, you worry about having water, when you have air and water you worry about having food and when you have air, water and food, you worry about having shelter. At a time when all automakers are basically offering the same features and customers take all those features for granted, you have to look for something new and different that people will key on,” Cole said.
By bringing together huge crowds of consumers, auto shows are a perfect venue to judge which items people want or not.
“You use auto shows and concept cars to try things on for size with the public, to see how they react and whether the feature rings a bell. If it does, you quickly execute that feature into your vehicle soon because now you’ve exposed it to all the other competition; if it doesn’t you dump it and try something else,” Cole said.
How soon?
“Better do it in less than three years,” Cole said.
What’s the niche that will attract buyers?
Is it the plastic rings imbedded into the rear seat backs of Chrysler minivans to hold grocery bags, or the plastic picnic table that lifts out of the cargo floor of the Honda CR-V or the removable backpacks in the doors or removable portable cooler in the console of the Pontiac Aztek or “puddle lamps” on the Lincoln Continental to light the ground so you don’t step in water when exiting the car or the video screens that pull down from the roof of the Ford Windstar, Chevrolet Venture and Chrysler Town & Country minivans, to name a few, that allow you to show the kids videos to keep them still on long trips?
“Backpacks are neat. Removable tables are neat. TVs are neat and are things that help consumers verify their decision to buy one vehicle over another,” Spinella said.
And though just about every vehicle offers heated seats, it took Audi to realize the need to warm other extremities by offering a heated steering wheel in its A8 sedan.
Comfort from Audi and convenience from Ford and Chrysler, which in two concepts do away with traditional metal rails in the floor that rob rear seat leg room. The Ford Forty-Nine and Chrysler Super8 Hemi take different approaches to such systems.
The Forty-Nine mounts the front seat on a rail that runs along the center console from front to rear cabin. The Super8 mounts the rail in the sides of the cabin below the doors. Both do away with the metal rail hardware on the floor–and a major irritant.
Of course, in looking for a niche to fill, automakers develop serious innovations as well, such as the General Motors OnStar system, an emergency communication system designed to send medical or mechanical help to the motorist, and which uses global positioning satellites to pinpoint the location of the vehicle.
And Cadillac has adopted Night Vision in the DeVille, an infrared heat imaging system so the motorist can see ahead in the dark or in foul weather.
And, or course, many automakers have added navigation systems to their vehicles, on-board electronic maps that guide them while motoring to pinpoint their destination or redirect them when lost.
“Why a navigation system when most people carry a cellphone so if they get lost all they need do is make a call?” Spinella said.
The answer to offering an electronic map when paper maps have served the purpose for years is easy, Cole says.
“Sometimes an automaker simply wants to create a luster or an aura that will carry over onto its entire product line,” he said.
