Which drivers do car makers prioritise?

Surely young, middle-aged and elderly people have different lifestyles and very different needs and preferences in the cars they drive. Do car manufacturers make different models for each of them, or which age group are designers catering for?

Mass production car manufacturers have only one target. Wallets. Who and where are the greatest number of customers with plenty of purchasing power? And what car design features and details will persuade those people to spend?

The answer varies from place to place, and from one decade to the next.

In the 1950s and 60s, the most money moved fastest among mid-career professionals, family men in their 30s and 40s, breeders of the baby boom with three children each. Cars were designed for them.

In the 1970s and 80s, the cashflow tsunami swung towards “yuppies”, fast-laners in their 20s and 30s hitting it rich with fewer children, and car design priorities were adjusted accordingly.

Traditional car design

By the 90s both these groups were getting older, and the next generation was less affluent and smaller. The baby boomers were now 40! Manufacturers knew where the future big money was going to come from, and needed to know what would make a car more desirable to people aged 50, 60 and above.

In several parts of Western Europe and the US, the average age of the entire population (men, women and children) was going to pass 50 for the first time in history. And it would be people over that age who had the greatest volume of established wealth.

The motor industry did considerable research to establish what areas of traditional car design older people would find most challenging, and what features might make them feel more comfortable – the size and shape of doors and the height of sills for getting in and out, grab handles, steering rack ratios, pedal pressures, rear-view blind spots, window winding and door locking, steering column controls, dashboard dials and knobs, the firmness and anthropometrics of seats and belts, gear changing, and all sorts of things related to visual acuity… like how the older eye adjusts focal length from the dashboard to the road ahead, or from bright light to shadow, and also how older limbs affect flexibility, older hands affect dexterity and older brains affect reflexes, and so on.

Next evolution

Everything in modern cars has addressed all such issues to some extent, and the current answer to your question is very clear: since the beginning of this century, older people have been prioritized by car designers.

Think about it… think rear view cameras instead of a twisted neck, central locking, electric windows, power steering, anti-lock brakes, cruise control, voice-activated buttons, self-triggering lights and wipers, footwell lights when you open the door, refined seat adjustment, hill-start assist… 

Older drivers might not know how these things work but they are glad that they do. Younger drivers do not need them, but they are techy junkies and like gismos. A win-win for the designers. 

And the next evolution is going to take that to the ultimate extreme: cars are being taught to drive themselves, and the wallets will be passengers. Stand by for serious changes to car interiors; “back seat” driving is going to have a whole new meaning.