Ford Vehicle Interiors Gaining Visibility

[Edge Guide]

FORD VEHICLE INTERIORS GAINING VISIBILITY

 

Michael Collins, FCN

 

When the 2006 Lincoln Zephyr was voted the Best Premium-Priced Car Interior of the Year by Ward's Auto World magazine in July it was, in part, the result of an initiative that started three years earlier.

 

Sparked by research that showed the average commute time for drivers had increased to approximately an hour a day, Ford launched a program in 2003 that tripled its investment in interior design.

 

 

"Interiors are a much larger part of the way we do business," said Peter Horbury, Ford's executive director of design in North America. "It's the exterior that can excite a customer, but it's the interior that can seal the deal. Ultimately, it's the interior they look at for long periods of time not the exterior."

 

Horbury estimates that 60 percent of Ford's automotive design efforts are now spent on the interior, and as the passenger compartment's importance has increased so has the status of the interior designer.

 

"At one time the interior designer was considered a second-tier position, but not any more," said Horbury. "Today they are responsible for integrating as many as 400 items that incorporate design, safety, engineering, tooling and manufacturing. And, all those items have to come together in such a way that they exude quality, fit, finish, touch and feel, and all the other things customers expect."

 

The 2007 Expedition and the all-new Ford Edge are examples of vehicle interiors that will likely be strong selling points. Not only does the Expedition boast extraordinarily comfortable seating, but thanks to a new type of acoustic windshield glass, an extremely quiet ride as well.

 

 

Drawing on the influence of urban loft living, the Edge design team has added a Vista Roof for an open-air feeling, as well as a flexible seating environment for extra storage.

 

Horbury describes the interior designer as part stylist and part social scientist. Besides keeping up on the latest social, cultural, fashion and interior design trends they have to forecast what consumers will want in the future. Unlike fashion designers that worry about the upcoming season, vehicle designers have to create relevant ideas that will work in three or four years.

 

"Automotive designers have only their intuition to work with," said Jim Hall, vice president of industry analysis for AutoPacific, an automotive research organization in Southfield, Mich. "The truth is whatever becomes popular is decided by the customer in the context of a future market. Since no designer knows what the competition is doing, they really only have their gut to go on."

 

Kris Tomasson, Ford's chief designer for advanced interiors says much of his decision making is based on the growing sophistication of consumers.

 

"Stores like IKEA have brought a more design-savvy customer into the showroom," said Tomasson. "They've helped to make even entry-level buyers much more aware of good design."

 

In the future, Tomasson sees a greater correlation between home interiors and vehicles.

 

"In the '20s and '30s, transportation interiors like trains and cars related quite closely to people's home environments with curtains on windows and seats that looked like big comfortable chairs," he said. "We're trending in that direction again. We're taking the familiar things from home and putting them in our vehicles, especially consumer electronics like iPods and MP3 players."

 

Susan Lampinen, Ford's chief designer for colors and materials says a greater variety of colors is also coming back to vehicle interiors, with less emphasis on black, beige and grey.

 

"For the new Ford Edge we chose contrasting two-tone interiors, along with real aluminum on the center instrument panel for higher series vehicles," she said. "In the future, you can expect to see not only more color, but more detail as well as higher quality accents."