Interior motives

Although the passenger compartment of a vehicle is where customers spend the most time, manufacturers are still at odds over whether it should be the car's showplace or a cost-cutting target.

Exterior styling gets understandable attention because of its importance in attracting customers to buy cars, but long-term satisfaction with a vehicle may be more dependent on interior accommodations. The interior is the part of the car owners touch, see, and smell for as long as they sit inside the car, and the style, quality, durability, and comfort of the interior appointments determine how pleasant is the occupants' stay inside the cabin. Recently, interiors have begun to attract perhaps overdue attention.

“There has been a much stronger focus over the last couple of years to bring more styling and luxury appointments into the interior,” said Bob Drury, Director of Engineering for Passenger Car Information Systems at Siemens VDO Automotive. “The Europeans, especially Volkswagen, have understood for some time that the styling doesn't end at the exterior.”