Posted on 12/02/2004 4:46:02 PM PST by Lorianne
Our correspondent ignored the hype to test the Volvo from the all-woman design team
THE new YCC car from Volvo is the first to be designed entirely by, and for, women, but at first glance they needn’t have bothered. It looks like they got the fat bloke propping up the bar to think of every sexist joke about female drivers, and build it into a vehicle. Women, you know, can’t park, so this car has an autopark function, that lets you know you whether you can fit the space, then steers the car into it.
We all know that traffic jams are caused by silly girls adjusting their hair in the rearview mirror, or ferreting for their handbag in the back, so the YCC — Your Concept Car — has a groove in the headrest for your ponytail and incorporates the gears and handbrake into the steering wheel so as to provide a storage locker close to hand.
And, despite the fact that women are statistically safer drivers, that’s not what White Van Man thinks, so the entire rear end of the car is a specially toughened bumper.
It’s only a surprise that it doesn’t go all “moody” and try to run over male pedestrians every time it needs a service — but hey, that’s why the car automatically contacts the garage when it needs fixing (how could a woman tell?), and the bonnet is sealed shut to stop women meddling in what they don’t understand.
I was not predisposed to like the YCC when I took the wheel. The result of two and a half years of market research, I believe, hadn’t got much closer to answering the age old mystery: what do women want? They now account for nearly 40 per cent of car sales in Britain, forcing manufacturers to chase after their cash. But the pursuit has been down blind alleys. Of course, they won’t go for the same “mid-life crisis” red sports car or, even more tragically, Saab convertible as middle-aged, male middle-managers.
But why, for instance, is the Ford Ka the girliest car in the country (69 per cent of purchasers are female), but models directed specifically at them, such as the Lotus Elise or the Ford Focus Elle, leave them cold? If women outnumber men in buying the 4x4 Suzuki Jimny and the sports car Mazda MX-5, why do they universally hate mass-market estates? Designers are so confused that Ford, Volvo, and Land Rover have all installed “women’s panels” of engineers and pollsters to try to incorporate female-friendly features.
But this is where they are going wrong. The YCC is in fact a beguiling creation. The interior is made of pale wool and blonde wood, the silvery roof fabric interwoven with fibre-optics to create pulsating mood lighting, and the seat covers are as changeable as those for mobile phones.
These are not feminine touches, unless that it how you would describe Apple’s abandonment of the greys and blacks of computer technology for the tactile white of the iPod and the iMac.
The appeal of the gull-wing doors has nothing to do with not getting your new shoes wet, they are just extremely cool. Women and men buy the new Mini in almost equal numbers because it is well designed. We should all put our foot down — to be pleased, not patronised.
I've never had any trouble parking, parallel or otherwise. In fact, I have great Parking Karma.
Gag me. But the women who actually like Lifetime television will probably love it.
Doesn't look like a chick car to me. Can't explain why, it just doesn't. Unfriendly looking beast.
I love my Disco. Lots of windows, I can sit high up, see the world, leather seats, moon roof, great stereo system, cool cup holders. If I run into anything like a deer or another car, odds are in my favor. Room for the kids, the dog, and lots of shopping.
We call the Lifetime channel the disease of the week channel.
Before all the hype, I got a Chrysler 300C car which I've since found out is considered a "macho" car. So much for car dealers knowing what women want in a car. LOL
obviously not for women with CHILDREN. well maybe changeable seat covers, as long as they are cheap.
Your karma ran over my dogma.
Looks like a Saab Sonnet with all the crisp corners worn off.
If you want to design a car for women, the first thing that you do is copy what Chysler did back in the 1960's with its swivel chair.
You open the driver's door and the driver's chair swivels to turn from facing the steering wheel to instead face towards the door opening...making it easy for a women in a long dress or skirt to enter or exit the vehicle.
The second thing that you do is embed a very, very good speaker phone into the vehicle, with voice dialing and voice-activated ansering, so that the phone is *only* usable as a hands-free device.
The third thing that you do is add a GPS moving map into the vehicle to display all roads and current position.
The fourth thing that you do is to make the tires half-width, but double them. So instead of 1 tire on 1 wheel at each corner of the car, you have 2 tires on either one wide wheel or two thin wheels at each corner. In this manner a flat tire never strands the driver, as the car can drive on 7 tires with no problem. 4 Run-flat tires are also an acceptable option.
The fifth thing is to add a 2nd, small car battery that is backed by a solar trickle charger such that the vehicle is never unable to start.
Add in appropriate color combinations and you've got yourself a car that *functions* well for what women want out of their daily driving experience for that particular model of car.
Should be fun opening those gull-wing doors in a crowded parking lot.
Needs a coating of that new Testosterone medicine on the seat and steering wheel
I refer to it as "The men-hating channel".
Mood lighting? Why on earth would you have mood lighting in a car?
I would like my wife to have a single barrel 12 ga. that doubles as a shifter (with quick release). She'd dig it too.
Actually, a swivel chair would be a great idea for many elderly people. My mom for example has a hard time getting in and out of her car. Are there any cars today being made with them?
It's macho only with the Hemi. Ain't manly lest the fuel needle moves left as the tach needle moves right.
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