|
Your Concept Car
|
| YCC, A kiss to build a dream on. |
|
| Updated |
Jun 10, 2004 22:51:14 |
| Rating |
 119 ( -18 -15.12% ) | | Author | Kate McLeod |
|
|
Description:
Your Concept Car - Volvo
Related Links
Get Pricing
Get E-mail Updates
Consumer Ratings
Vehicle Reviews
Send a Letter
Talk About It
Your Concept Car - Volvo. Using a nice mixture of low tech and high tech solutions, the YCC team has come up with fresh answers to common problems.
Your Concept Car - Volvo. During its debut at the Geneva auto show, the concept attracted derision from some top male executives at competitive brands who called it nonsensical and sexist.
Related Links
Get Pricing
Get E-mail Updates
Consumer Ratings
Vehicle Reviews
Send a Letter
Talk About It
Your Concept Car - Volvo. Safety features like run flat tires and pedals that collapse in a crash to prevent leg injuries.
Your Concept Car - Volvo. Theatre style back seats that easily flip up to make room for big packages.
Related Links
Get Pricing
Get E-mail Updates
Consumer Ratings
Vehicle Reviews
Send a Letter
Talk About It
Your Concept Car - Volvo. Improved sight lines. YCC has a system where dealers can conduct a body scan of the driver measuring height and length of arms and legs.
Is there such a thing as a woman's car? Volvo, that bastion of Swedish common sense, says maybe. Its YCC, meaning Your Concept Car, makes its U.S. debut on April 9 at the New York Auto Show. It's a stunning sports coupe concept car that simply incorporates some of the things women want most in a car: easy maintenance, clever and ample storage, a better line of vision, and computer-aided parking. The concept's development was based on surveys, questionnaires and focus groups given to about 400 women around the globe,
YCC in no way resembles the oh-so-sixties pink Dodge with a white interior called La Femme. That misguided attempt to appeal to women touted a matching umbrella as its big innovation. Nor is it your mother's minivan. The Volvo YCC car has elegant horizontal lines, combined with broad shoulders and a muscular stance, a design, project managers found, women liked. No surprise there.
This is the first car in automotive history to be designed and executed by women, but with the demands of both sexes in mind. "Women customers in the premium segment want everything that men want in terms of performance, prestige and style," says Lena Ekelund, Senior Design Engineer Project manager "but they want more," noting that women vociferously articulate their needs. "Men want the same things but for some reason they don't express their needs as openly."
During its debut at the Geneva auto show, the concept attracted derision from some top male executives at competitive brands who called it nonsensical and sexist. In this male-dominated industry, a car designed by women is hardly either one. Women influence 85% of all purchase decisions and buy 45% of all new vehicles each year.
This is the first time a man who runs an auto company has turned over all decision making to a group of women. And Hans-Olov Olsson, president of Volvo, deserves a lot of credit. This wasn't a few highly-placed women giving notes to male executives who made all decisions. A team of 120--mostly women--was supplemented with men whenever necessary. But men made no decisions.
Using a nice mixture of low tech and high tech solutions, the YCC team has come up with fresh answers to common problems. "It is unlikely that this concept will come to market soon," says Ekelund, "but the best ideas will show up in other models."
"We used gull wing doors and paint and glass that resist dirt. One advantage is that dirt from the car's surface doesn't get on clothing. And the gull wing doors make loading and unloading large items and children much easier too," says Ekelund. Owners carrying large items can set the doors to open automatically.
Isn't opening gull wing doors a problem in a garage or parking lot? The Volvo team says theirs is constructed to avoid typical gull wing problems and that some SUVs need higher ceilings than YCC. The door needs only 23.62 inches to open.
Some other ideas include:
A single-unit, hoodless front end so you can't lift the hood to look at things. "Car owners don't open the hood except to replace washer fluid," says Ekelund. YCC has two capless roller ball-valve openings (borrowed from racing), on the driver's side of the car. These valves eliminate fumbling with caps and with the gas tank and the washer fluid reservoir next to each other adds a welcome convenience.
Servicing reminders. "When the car needs servicing, YCC sends a wireless message to an authorized service center, which will contact the owner and schedule an appointment."
Stylish, colorful, exchangeable seat and floor covers like linen, leather and felt that are easily switched. There's hardly a mouse gray or brown anywhere to be found.
Room for our handbags. The handbrake and shifter were taken out of the space between the front seats. A compartment between the two front seats fits a handbag. The car's shifter is on the steering wheel and the electronic brake was moved to the floor.
Theatre style back seats that easily flip up to make room for big packages. Despite the auto industry's obsession with Home Depot and the occasionally purchased piece of sheetrock, women haul the family and their staples around everyday all year.
A cooler that can be reached from both the driver and passenger front seats.
Computerized assistance for parallel parking. Sensors tell the driver if a car will fit into a parking space. It also takes over steering to parallel park.
Improved sight lines. YCC has a system where dealers can conduct a body scan of the driver measuring height and length of arms and legs. The data is stored in the vehicle's key, and the car recommends a seat position for the driver that provides an optimal line of vision and reach. "I used to have to slide down in my seat to reach the clutch and then quickly pick my head up to see where I was going, says Ekelund."
Safety features like run flat tires and pedals that collapse in a crash to prevent leg injuries.
When the YCC team started this project they adopted a mantra, "If you meet the expectations of women, you exceed the expectations of men". Anyone who cares to argue will find members of the team hovering around YCC at the New York Auto Show.
---Story by Kate McLeod
---Photos courtesy of Volvo
© 2004, Kate McLeod, All Rights Reserved. |
| Similar news: | - 38 reservoirs down to 30 per cent storage - Over half of the country's 71 major water reservoirs have less than 30 per cent water storage, threatening the collapse of the canal irrigation system in rain-deficient areas where standing crops are facing moisture stress.
- GM Bets on Concept That Safety Sells - Placing its bet on the idea thatsafety sells, General Motors Corp. said on Sunday thatit will soon offer its OnStar satellite-based communicationssystem and electronic stability control on all GM vehicles soldin the United States and Canada.
- Six Defendants Convicted in Wash. Tax Scam - A federal jury convicted six people Monday in a tax shelter scheme that helped 1,500 people take $120 million in false income tax deductions from 1997 to 2001.
| | Find all news similar on Your Concept Car |
|
