Women bring cars for a good hair day with practical touch

GENEVA – Machismo dies hard in the male-dominated motor industry and carmakers still pepper their stands with pretty young women to show off their latest models at the Geneva motor show.

But slowly the cash-strapped industrialists are realising that women might be better at making the cars we want to drive and buy. “Women want all the stuff the guys want and then some, they’ve got a longer shopping list basically,” Lena Ekelund, deputy technical project manager at Volvo said as she gave the rundown on the company’s latest concept car.Far from being the old boxy carry-all associated with the Swedish car maker’s past, the YCC – ‘Your Concept Car’ – presented at the international show opening on Thursday is a sporty coupe with swoops and curves.And since the project was run by an all-woman team of executives, designers and engineers — believed to be a first in the motor industry – it is practical and easy to drive as well, they claim.The car was modelled around a fictitious, independent female professional called E.”We caught her at a moment in her life where she had one specific day, a good hair day,” Ekelund explained.”Everything we put in the car has been against that reference, does she need it, will it enhance her life.If not, it did not come into this vehicle,” she added.That means being able to see the corners of the car when you park, coordinated seat, wheel and pedal adjustment, while the handbag has a place out of sight but within reach.Swappable seat covers add a splash of colour – and cleanability – in a bright interior, and the design was modified to make it easier to step, rather than clamber, in and out.”It has automatic door opening.You just approach the car and they will open, so you don’t have to put your bags on the ground,” technical manager Elna Holmberg pointed out.”The car has easy clean paint, it’s like a non-stick frying pan so dirt doesn’t cling to the car,” she added.”To fill up your (windscreen) washer fluid you don’t need to lift a two square metre lid first then a little one.So why not have it on the outside?” Ekelund chimed in.But the woman’s touch does not mean giving up on driving pleasure, she insisted.”When people see it, they say ‘that’s not very feminine’.And when we ask what they expect to see in a feminine car, they can’t really give an answer,” Ekelund pointed out.”A lot of people have called it a car for women, but it’s not, it’s a car by women for people.”Women traditionally had little input into what cars should be like apart from the occasional marketing clinic.But the glass ceiling is giving way, albeit slowly.The proportion of senior women executives at US-led multinationals Ford and General Motors edged above ten per cent in 2000.Engineer Cristina Siletto led the development of Fiat’s small people carrier through to its launch last year, while French designer Anne Asensio is a senior executive heading brand design at giant General Motors.Women are also a growing body of buyers – 54 per cent of them in the United States for Volvo – which the industry desperately needs to woo.Which might explain why dream cars have taken a back seat to useful gadgets at the Geneva show.Mercedes will be offering scratch resistant paint from this summer, while the “airscarf” hot air blower in a seat will keep your neck warm in a top-down convertible on a cold day.Opel and Fiat hint at inflatable interiors and space for kids or a drawer with a bicycle rack in the future, and most new models offer fold-flat rear seats because owners are more likely to fill them with shopping than passengers.While the women executives at Volvo have split up for other projects in the company, their influence may grow.”The more people can get access to us, the more we can spread the ideas within the company,” Ekelund promised.- Nampa-AFP”Women want all the stuff the guys want and then some, they’ve got a longer shopping list basically,” Lena Ekelund, deputy technical project manager at Volvo said as she gave the rundown on the company’s latest concept car.Far from being the old boxy carry-all associated with the Swedish car maker’s past, the YCC – ‘Your Concept Car’ – presented at the international show opening on Thursday is a sporty coupe with swoops and curves.And since the project was run by an all-woman team of executives, designers and engineers — believed to be a first in the motor industry – it is practical and easy to drive as well, they claim.The car was modelled around a fictitious, independent female professional called E.”We caught her at a moment in her life where she had one specific day, a good hair day,” Ekelund explained.”Everything we put in the car has been against that reference, does she need it, will it enhance her life.If not, it did not come into this vehicle,” she added.That means being able to see the corners of the car when you park, coordinated seat, wheel and pedal adjustment, while the handbag has a place out of sight but within reach.Swappable seat covers add a splash of colour – and cleanability – in a bright interior, and the design was modified to make it easier to step, rather than clamber, in and out.”It has automatic door opening.You just approach the car and they will open, so you don’t have to put your bags on the ground,” technical manager Elna Holmberg pointed out.”The car has easy clean paint, it’s like a non-stick frying pan so dirt doesn’t cling to the car,” she added.”To fill up your (windscreen) washer fluid you don’t need to lift a two square metre lid first then a little one.So why not have it on the outside?” Ekelund chimed in.But the woman’s touch does not mean giving up on driving pleasure, she insisted.”When people see it, they say ‘that’s not very feminine’.And when we ask what they expect to see in a feminine car, they can’t really give an answer,” Ekelund pointed out.”A lot of people have called it a car for women, but it’s not, it’s a car by women for people.”Women traditionally had little input into what cars should be like apart from the occasional marketing clinic.But the glass ceiling is giving way, albeit slowly.The proportion of senior women executives at US-led multinationals Ford and General Motors edged above ten per cent in 2000.Engineer Cristina Siletto led the development of Fiat’s small people carrier through to its launch last year, while French designer Anne Asensio is a senior executive heading brand design at giant General Motors.Women are also a growing body of buyers – 54 per cent of them in the United States for Volvo – which the industry desperately needs to woo.Which might explain why dream cars have taken a back seat to useful gadgets at the Geneva show.Mercedes will be offering scratch resistant paint from this summer, while the “airscarf” hot air blower in a seat will keep your neck warm in a top-down convertible on a cold day.Opel and Fiat hint at inflatable interiors and space for kids or a drawer with a bicycle rack in the future, and most new models offer fold-flat rear seats because owners are more likely to fill them with shopping than passengers.While the women executives at Volvo have split up for other projects in the company, their influence may grow.”The more people can get access to us, the more we can spread the ideas within the company,” Ekelund promised.- Nampa-AFP