Cup holders that chill drinks, interior lights that turn into flashlights and sound systems that hook up to iPods are just some of the new perks car makers are unveiling at this year’s Detroit auto show.
Americans are spending more and more time on the road and many treat their vehicles like a second home.
Toyota took that trend to an extreme this week when it showed a concept minivan at the Detroit car show equipped with stylish, modular seats that rotate and swivel to transform the car into a lounge equipped with two track-mounted flat-panel video screens.
Nissan introduced a roadster concept car with a fully-integrated Xbox system that allows the driver to play Project Gotham Racing 3 using the car’s own steering wheel, accelerator pedal and brake pedal while viewing the game on a flip-down seven-inch LCD screen.
Neither car is slated for production, but they show the extremes car makers will go to in order to capture the imagination of consumers.
“Paying attention to the changing lifestyles of the consumer is very important,” said Jeff Schuster, an analyst at JD Power and Associates. “When you have so much competition differentiating your product over others with a little tiny thing that suits [the consumer’s] lifestyle may be enough to sway them.”
The American car market is both the biggest and the most competitive in the world. With sales expected to be either flat or somewhat weaker in 2006, car makers used the Detroit show to jumpstart their efforts to expand — or in the cases of struggling Ford and General Motors — recapture their market share.
More than 40 new vehicles were introduced during press preview days this week as car makers vied for the attention of the 6 800 journalists from 63 countries.
Car makers spent $200-million on the displays and presentations filled with pageantry and promises.
Ford used a two-level stage in an arena to present an operatic dance of its new Aston Martins.
General Motors surrounded its new hybrid-electric vehicles with dozens of smiling children to emphasise their concern for future environmental health.
The biggest splash came from the Chrysler Group, which was trying to draw attention to the fact that it was the only US car maker to post solid market share gains in 2005.
DaimlerChrysler chairperson Dieter Zetsche served up drinks during bustling press receptions held at an old firehouse across the street from the show.
Chrysler Group chairperson Tom LaSorda drove a Jeep through the glass wall of the convention centre.
Analysts and journalists were literally overwhelmed by the presentation of Chrysler’s new Aspen sports utility vehicle which included performances by comedian David Spade and the popular Slava’s Snow Show clown group and culminated in a blizzard of confetti.
But the smoke and strobe lights at the Detroit auto show this week could not mask the dire financial straits facing Ford and GM as they struggle to regain market share from an onslaught of Asian competitors.
“The domestic auto industry’s sector is not stable and, simply put, we expect it to get worse before it gets better,” Merrill Lynch analyst John Murphy wrote in a research report on Monday.
Both Ford and GM said they hoped the new models introduced this week would give their sales a boost.
Many analysts contend it will take more than a few popular vehicles to help the two companies recover from the multibillion-dollar losses they are posting in their North American automotive units.
GM has already announced plans to shutter 14 facilities across the country resulting in a loss of 30 000 jobs by 2008. Ford is expected to announce on January 23 plans to close a number of plants and lay off as many as 30 000 workers. – AFP