what other manufacturers are doing with their cars.
I can see what other manufacturers are doing well
and what they are doing poorly.
You, like me, hate spending time in car dealerships.
It's true. I've been to car dealerships more times
than I care to count, mainly as growing up my
family liked changing their cars once every few
years. Most people don't know that they can do that
but most often you can keep your payments roughly
the same on a newer vehicle with little to no money out
of pocket.
Anyway, it's very curious that I got in the car business
particularly as I never thought in a million years I would
sell cars.
However I wanted to go into sales and I really like
cars. Their is simply inherently beautiful, sexy, and
cool about a car.
For this reason, that and being the competitive consultant
that I am, I went to the Washington DC Auto Show this year.
Instead of "mystery shopping" dealerships and spending
hours learning about the products they carry and potentially
(ok ok inevitably) being subject to "best practices" (read:
what everyone else does which is why they're average)
sales practices by either pushy or idiot salesmen (hint:
most dealerships don't care about who they hire) I
realized spending a few hours at the DC Auto Show
would help me learn a lot about the competitive makes
and models out on the market and see how they stack up.
Here are my experiences. The good, the bad, and undoubtedly
the (coyote) ugly.
I should start this off by brands.
Volkswagen
The first brand I walked to was Volkswagen. Why? It was near FIAT's display and I decided it would be a good place to start. I was somewhat sorely mistaken by the drunk guy who followed me around and kept asking me questions.
I looked at some of the models including the New Beetle and the Jetta and the Golf.
I must say I like the exterior look of the New Beetle; it's more masculine and will clearly appeal to more men compared to the previous "New" Beetle. The last one was way too effeminate.
The interior is still typical of most cars out there ... a bunch of square buttons and hard right angle lines slapped together. The major disappointment: The BlueTooth button is mounted to the ceiling ... not on the steering wheel where it would make the most intuitive sense.
Alas Volkswagen has had kitsch appeal for decades, not because it's built into the design ... but more out of marketing.
If it wasn't for the ad agencies that they had worked in the past, it wouldn't be kitsch or hip. It would be any other ordinary european car. But again I digress.
I looked at the Jetta and the Golf and I can see why when I first started selling the FIAT 500's we occasionally got people also looking at the Golf but they haven't in a very very long time interestingly enough.
For the record I rented a VW Jetta a few months ago. I liked the "Sport" mode, but the ergonomics didn't cut it for me. Again a case of engineers taking precendence over the designers.
Mini
Those lovable folks at Mini. They even got cool people to staff their section. I sat in one and played dumb. A younger gal with a purple stripe in hair who was a contracted rep (they pretty much always are at these auto shows - they don't work for Corporate - just a contractor or promotional modeling agency) talked to me about the car while I was in there. The Mini has personality but frankly it's not my kind of car. I will say I think the materials are actually decent for the interior but I probably wouldn't buy one. It's just not my kind of car at all.
They do get points for being one of the few brands out there that have put personality into their cars. You can see it in the design.
I like how the brochure fit into my pocket.
I think MINI going into the SUV segment is a bad idea. Sounds like the suits are worshipping at the alter of market share to appease board members.
Productivity itself is proof of productivity; activity only temporarily suffices until a lot of activity is accomplished with low returns. Then the suits will have to explain for their lack of proof of productivity; Again my MINI should stay out of the SUV segment.
Nissan
I somewhat like the Nissan brand. My family has owned some Nissans and my previous car was a Nissan Sentra Se-R Spec V ... what sold me on it was it was a top of the line Sentra, it was a 6 speed manual, and (get this!) it had red seat belts, a red inner lined driver side mini glove box, and red stitching on the steering wheel!
If you couldn't tell I love the color red.
Anyway I looked at a few of the cars. Namely the Versa and the Leaf. The Leaf next to the FIAT 500 had easy to reach steering wheel controls.
I can see what people like the Versa, it's inexpensive and it's simply a steering wheel and a seat if that's all you need. Pretty basic car and you can't wrong with it. But it still doesn't have the personality of say a FIAT 500 or a Mini.
Coda
I felt so bad for the people working this brand. Coda is a brand new well brand. It's based out of Los Angeles. The car is a fully electric car and the folks at the Coda booth even have a map showing where all the charge up stations are in the US. Kind of nifty. They even show you what sort of tax benefits by state for buying the car ... I can imagine electric car customers highly appreciating that kind of information being given to them.
The car from the outside has a European look to it, and is somewhat boxy trying to display curves. Almost an older eastern bloc type look. Sitting inside the car confirmed that feel to it; it must have clearly been a prototype with lousy fit and finish, the carpeting not properly tucked in. It literally looked like it was put together / slapped together ... but not by a machine.
I really hoped it was a prototype or a display model because my thought being in there was ... if this is what it looks like on the inside, I hope this doesn't portend things to come mechanically (i.e. suddenly catching on fire for no reason).
I was starting to feel a little bad for the investors too, but I hadn't met them yet.
Again no sense of style to the design, forget about ergonomics, this is really an electric motor on wheels put into a box.
Nonetheless there were people genuinely interested in the car and requesting more information on it.
Electric cars could really catch on in our lifetime. Could.
Toyota
Nothing excited me too much about the Toyota brand and never really quite has. I liked the Toyota Celica but that is now the Scion tC.
Honda
You know the folks at Honda did get one thing right and that is making the USB Port a lot more accessible compared to its more succesful sibling the Acura where it is inexplicable tucked away in the center console without a way for any connected cables to escape.
Sometimes simpler is better.
The two-seater CR-Z (the rebirth of the famed CRX) is ridiculously overpriced. Try a 22,000 price tag. For a 2 seater with limited features.
Scion
I went to the Scion booth where like Mini (Surprise! ... ok not really) they also staffed it with younger hipper looking contracted reps. They were real friendly (points) and gave me free swag (points again). Again brands like Scion and Mini and FIAT get it ... it's more than about the car itself ... it's about the experience. The overall experience. (Apple gets it too but they're not in the car business ... yet).
If the Scion hat they gave me is anything like the Scion saddle bag I got 6 years ago at an audio engineers convention that I atteneded in NYC (in a former life) it will probably last me a long time. That Scion saddle bag Simply.Wont.Die.
It's true. Two things drew my attention ... the Scion iQ and the Scion tC.
The Scion iQ may be a competitor for the FIAT 500 in the for strictly-a-commuter-car-only segment. It's about the size of a SmartCar but it's a 4 seater and has apparently has loads of features on it but it starts around the same price as a FIAT 500 (the Scion may be a tad overpriced in that respect).
But this is for sure ... it looks a lot better than the Smart Car and appears to have a lot more features. In other words ... the Scion iQ will very possibly kill the already struggling Smart Car (have you seen those TV ads they put out for the Smart Car? I doubt people will go in droves to Smart Car dealerships. They started advertising and marketing the car a little too late ... not everything that is popular in Europe is popular here).
Acura
I have had the luxury of owning two Acura's in my lifetime. One of my favorite cars was the Acura Legend ... the name truly fit the car well.
I stepped into the Acura section even though I don't think most people looking at the FIAT 500 will be comparing this to any of the Acura's out on the market today (It's a shame they did away with the RSX but I don't blame them).
I was unfortunately a bit disappointed. While comfortable and clearly a luxury car I saw something extremely disburbing on each and every single one ... feature creep.
In attempt to categorize themselves as luxury cars, the Acura's I looked at were filled with chiclet sized buttons en masse on the center section of the dash board. The steering wheel was over cluttered with chiclet sized buttons that would leave the driver having to look away from the road and squint to see what they're pressing - this does not bode for well for safety or convenience. It looks like a NASA astronaut designed the car more so than a designer.
Ultimately all that feature creep takes out some of the convenience in "luxury."
At least they look a little bit better than the way they used to.
Hyundai
I can also see how the Veloster can be potential competitor to the FIAT 500. Not too excited about the Hyundai brand. The Genesis Coupe looks very nice and it's fast. I drove a Genesis sedan about over year ago and it was nice.
Ford
The Fiesta can be seen as a competitor to the 500. The little things make a big difference like how easy it is to open and get out of the door or reach for the door handle. The Fiesta (or was it the Focus?) were alright but had some quirks to them ... I think it was with opening the door ... easy to get in ... but then a tad difficult to exit.
Conclusion
I can't possibly remember everything I looked at. I did take away this with me. FIAT does a lot of things right. They make it easy to reach the steering wheel mounted controls ... easily within reach of your thumbs while you're driving or with the tips of your fingers. You never have to look at the steering wheel - you get to enjoy the road more and will have a safer ride as you don't have really ever look away from the steering wheel. The buttons on the steering wheel are big enough so you don't have to guess what you are pressing.
The position of where the beams connect to the steering wheel itself make sense ... it's in the perfect position to comfortable place your hands and work with your thumbs and fingers to easily work with the steering wheel mounted controls.
Stepping in and out of the car is easy unlike some other brands. I think it was one of the Ford's I looked at but don't quote me on that. The door handle inside the car is placed where it is grab onto and easy to open.
The FIAT 500 has a lot of personality to it and is much less quirky than some of its other competitors with "personality." The seat controls are closer to the center of the car so it is easy to adjust someone else's seat if you have to. It is clear the designers of the FIAT 500 worked with the engineers to make a stylish and ergonomic car with a lot of convenience designed into it.
Unlike other manufacturers convenience and comfort is designed into the car, it is not tacked on like an after thought.
