Baby boomers force carmakers to cater to needs

Patrick Garrett, a 29-year-old Ford Motor Co.engineer, pulls a baggy blue jumpsuit over his street clothes, cinches a bulky, corset-style belt around his waist and winces as he tightens the Velcro strap around his neck.

A colleague adjusts the suit’s metal bars that stiffen Garrett’s elbows, knees and feet.

Next, the engineer — a specialist in « human factors and ergonomics » — dons an oversized pair of yellowish glasses marred with scratches that make eyes cataract-cloudy and sensitive to glare.

He then struggles to get into two pairs of rubber gloves designed to reduce the flexibility of the joints in his fingers.

Bundled up and looking like a toddler in an oversized snow suit, Garrett gingerly lowers his frame into a Ford Focus parked inside the company’s design center. He puffs as he struggles to pull the seat belt across his chest. Adjusting the radio controls is an effort.

« I’m not even going to try to look over my shoulder, » Garrett said. « My range of motion is really limited. I guess this is what it must be like to be 59. »

The bizarre outfit is called « The Third Age » suit. It’s designed to add 30 years to the wearer’s age and give automotive designers and engineers a personal, intense feel of what it’s like to age.

The Third Age suit illustrates one way that automakers are striving to create products and features that are more sensitive and suitable to buyers plagued by arthritis, bad backs, poor hearing and failing eyesight.

Designing cars and trucks for aging consumers is critical, they say, because 45 percent of vehicle buyers age 50 and over have median household incomes exceeding $75,000 a year — more than any other age group.

This group is growing rapidly, too, and will consist of about 116 million buyers by 2020 — the fastest growing demographic segment — according to the U.S. Census.

« The industry tends to focus on youth because it’s sexy, » said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific Inc., a Santa Ana, Calif.-based automotive market research firm. But I say ‘Show me the money.’ The discretionary income is with the mature folks. »

Ford, General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. are at the forefront of catering to the aging buyer — and the 2003 North American International Auto Show will be the showcase for some of their latest work.

Ford will test futuristic features like gauges with reconfigurable fonts or type sizes on its Model U technology show car.

The adjustable fonts — which can be made larger or smaller with two touches of a button — are designed for drivers with failing eyesight.

Toyota will debut its first wheelchair-accessible Sienna minivan for the U.S. market.

And GM will unveil the first mobility showcar to make it to the main exhibit floor, instead of being shunted, as past products have been, to the Cobo Center basement or side corridor. ; ;

The GM show car is a sexy-looking, candy-apple red 2003 Chevrolet Venture minivan with a V-6 engine and NASCAR exhaust system aimed squarely at seniors with arthritis.

It has no gas cap to twist and struggle with, just rubber covers that give when the gas nozzle is inserted. A second-row seat pivots out and lowers to the ground.

« It’s not incongruous, » said Gary Talbot, 46, manager of mobility engineering for GM, as he showed off the Venture in a garage at the GM Technical Center in Warren.

« We wanted it to be sexy. Mobility doesn’t have to be boring. Seniors will drive new solutions and new looks. »

In fact, GM and Ford executives privately say they are set to begin discussions in mid-January on how to collaborate on cracking the lucrative senior market.

The two companies will talk — the first meeting is a post-auto show pizza party — to determine if there are ways for them to share ideas about new products for the burgeoning market of aging buyers, while holding down costs.

In February, GM will conduct a landmark study of 500 to 1,000 seniors, made up of GM retirees who will evaluate imports and domestic products.

Toyota says 2003 will mark the start of an aggressive effort to study the 50-plus U.S. market.

Michael O’Brien, national manager of Toyota product planning, says the Japanese automaker will « dramatically increase its studies of older buyers. »

Toyota’s studies have included forays to Boca Raton, Fla., to watch how older buyers going into restaurants use the back seat of cars, and trips to retirement communities in Phoenix to examine things like gear-shift lever location.

A key question: whether or not seats should be wider for a group that tends to gain weight as it ages.

« We’ll at least double the number of studies we’ve done in previous years, » O’Brien said. « The big question for Toyota is how to integrate new technology and make it usable for older buyers. For instance, right now they don’t like navigation systems. Buyers tell us they are too much trouble. We’re trying to find ways to take technology and make it relevant to affluent buyers. »

Automakers are struggling with several issues as they tackle the senior market.

They must avoid pigeon-holing the diverse senior market, which includes buyers recovering from hip-replacement surgery to those taking up snowboarding, into a one-size-fits-all segment.

And they must avoid the tendency to lump seniors into the same group as people with disabilities or even suggest they are disabled — a real turnoff to the 50-plus segment.

This is a challenge, especially since GM and Toyota blend their senior marketing and product development with efforts to create the right products for people with disabilities into general « mobility » initiatives.

Toyota learned the pitfalls of blending the two at an AARP conference attended by 14,000 in San Diego in 2002.

The Japanese automaker displayed its Echo and Camry sedans with new swiveling driver’s seats, features they are considering offering in the U.S.

The seats got lots of positive feedback, but the 60+ consumers were unhappy about the outfits worn by the Toyota personnel.

« We made a mistake, » admits Bob Swaim, the 58-year-old national manager for Toyota’s U.S. mobility programs. « We were wearing mobility shirts with a wheelchair in the logo. That is a little strong for some of the seniors. It turned them off. »

However, Toyota is generally regarded as the leader when it comes to marketing to aging buyers, largely because the Japanese culture focuses on treating the elderly with care and reverence.

Toyota launched its initial effort into this market in 1981 with the brand « Welcab, » short for « welfare cabin. »

There are six special Toyota dealerships in Japan called « Heartful Plazas, » where buyers can order factory-installed hand controls and swiveling passenger seats on new Toyotas.

The company says 98 percent of the devices are aimed at the vehicle’s passengers rather than the driver. And that’s where GM sees an opening.

« It’s a huge honor to take care of your parents as they age in Japan, » GM’s Talbot said. « There’s a tremendous dedication to mobility in Japan. But it’s caregiver-driven. We understand the American market and this market is independence-driven. We are focusing on the driver and they aren’t. »