Candid Talk for Women (Men Allowed, Too)

When it comes to cars, women have their game faces on, thanks to a great equalizer, the Internet. They are tuning in to Web sites like Edmunds.com/women, Roadandtravel.com, AskPatty.com and Motherproof.com for advice, consumer reviews and a little humor.

With virtual clipboards in hand, women say, they can shop without being humiliated by insensitive salesmen. Is this model safe, fuel efficient and reliable? Check. Affordable and easy to maintain? Check. Cool to drive? Check.

Linda Michaelsen of Bradenton, Fla., recently went to AskPatty for advice on crossover sport-utility vehicles. Within 24 hours, she said, she had advice on mileage and seating capacity, the name of a recommended model and a list of “women friendly” car dealers in her area so that she could buy from “someone who doesn’t make me feel like I’m stupid,” she said.

While the sites differ, they share a vision of consumers in need — many of them. Jody DeVere, president of AskPatty (a name chosen to represent “everywoman”), says American women buy about eight million new cars and trucks a year.

The sites are part reader service, part trusted friend. Ms. DeVere recently listed her favorite children’s car books. Edmunds asked “What Should We Do About Grandma’s Driving?” while Road & Travel Magazine’s site reported on a promotional event for Infiniti with pedicures and cooking demonstrations.

At Motherproof, the founder, Kristin Varela, and six “mom reviewers” are on a quest for the “quintessential mom-mobile.”

“We’re searching for vehicles that will make our daily lives of grocery shopping and preschool pickup just a little easier,” the site declares. Recent examples included the Mini Cooper, the Mazda CX-7 and the Honda Odyssey.

Whether or not they do their own buying, women wield influence over 85 percent of vehicle purchases, said Joanne Helperin, an editor at Edmunds, citing research done for General Motors and others. Women come to the Internet for advice, she said, because it is easy to get there at all hours and “women are multitaskers who are horrendously busy.”

“We focus on the things we think are most important to women,” Ms. Helperin said, like safety, reliability and comfort.

Deborah Wahl Meyer, the chief marketing officer at Chrysler, says that the Internet is a “wonderful opportunity for us” but that it’s still a challenge to attract women to a culture centered on an engine. “Typically that’s a language that we’re not interested in,” she added.

She said that Chrysler’s goal was to provide information that was “more approachable.” So Dodge.com has a “mom hostess” with tips on how to navigate the site and learn more about the 2008 Grand Caravan. (Dodge is also making 30 Caravans available in six markets this fall to 300 mothers who are blogging about their test-drives.)

After fits and starts, the auto industry is catching on to the power of the purse, said Courtney Caldwell, the founder and editor of Road & Travel Magazine.

In the 1970s, she recalled, she was a single mother with a lot of knowledge about cars. But when it came time to buy, salesmen would offer “a discount for a date,” she said, “which I found pretty offensive.” She started Road & Travel Magazine in 1989 “to empower and educate women on how to buy a car, deal with condescending salesmen, how to ask the right questions, how to avoid rip-offs and scams, and how to negotiate.”

In 2000, Ms. Caldwell converted to an electronic format. Today her site has a staff of six and income from automobile advertising and car-of-the-year-style events. A free monthly newsletter is sent by e-mail to more than a million readers. Five percent live outside the United States, including some in Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive.

AskPatty arrived on the scene about a year ago with advice on car purchases, maintenance and related topics. The site, already profitable, generates revenue from advertising and training courses at dealerships and marketing programs to help them reach women.

Ms. DeVere says she strives for a balance between making practical suggestions and emotional connections, and between content for young women — hence her list of books for backseat riders — and “women like my mom, who’s 84 and concerned about car buying.”

A stable of 50 auto industry professionals field questions from readers, and a sister site, carblabber.com, invites women to write car reviews, as does Edmunds.

AskPatty has even plunged into Second Life, the virtual world, where it recently introduced Dan Dufus, the Clueless Salesman.

How clueless? In a video, he misses an opportunity to sell a convertible to a customer, Grace, by ignoring her until her husband arrives.

Source: New York Times, 10/24/07

Silver Tops Charts as Most Popular Vehicle Color, Black and Blue Are Gaining on Repeat Leader

Around the globe, silver is at the top of the charts as the most popular color for 2007 cars... but other colors are gaining on the perennial leader. According to the annual automotive color popularity data released today by PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG) -- the world's leading manufacturer of transportation coatings -- silver is losing some steam as black closes in on the long-time favorite. In addition, brighter hues such as blue, red and niche market colors seem primed for resurgence.

Globally, silver held the top position as the most popular car color at 31.5 percent (down from 33 percent in 2006). Black jumped to 18 percent (from 15.4 percent in 2006) to take second place, followed by white (12.5 percent), blue (12.4 percent), red (8.8 percent), naturals (gold, orange and brown tones, 6.6 percent), other/niche market colors (5.9 percent) and green (3.8 percent).

In North America, silver also held the top spot over other vehicle colors with 22 percent (down two percent from last year). White, another automotive palette staple, was the second most popular North American color for 2007 with 16 percent. Black came in third at 15 percent -- up two percentage points from last year -- followed by red (13 percent), blue (12 percent), naturals (10 percent), other/niche market colors (6 percent) and green (5 percent).

"Silver is popular with consumers and automakers because it accentuates the styling of a vehicle and looks modern while also having a high resale value," said Jane E. Harrington, PPG manager, color styling, automotive coatings. "We're looking at new interpretations to emerge in tinted silvers and charcoal shades. In addition, hue-shifting pigments can really make silvers look unique."

The rising popularity of black, white and other colors stems from the fashion and interior design industries, Harrington said. "Today's consumers are aware of trends and design, and they expect to see that reflected in the vehicles they buy."

Harrington added that automakers realize the right color "can get you noticed," and said a survey PPG conducted at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit showed more than 65 percent of consumers surveyed said they would select one vehicle over another if more color choices were available. "Consumers want choices, and that will lead to a more colorful automotive future."

Color trends for 2010 - 2011 model years

Looking beyond 2007, the colorists of the PPG Global Design and Color Marketing Team examined cultural and lifestyle trends to create cutting-edge color palettes and special effects that meet automakers' goals for brand identity, durability, workability and cost effectiveness. For the 2010 - 2011 model years, they have developed 105 exterior colors and more than 25 interior color concepts for automakers' consideration. The collection is presented to automakers during PPG's global color show, called "VIEW" this year.

"One of the first things you notice about a vehicle is the color," Harrington said. "This year's color show highlights our viewpoint on color, trends, technology and the global automotive market."

Some new colors in the collection are Cold Stare, a tinted silver with a steel blue highlight; Double Vision, a medium green with a red hue-shifting highlight; Out of Sight, a soft brown with a blue hue-shifting highlight; Quest, a citrus-inspired yellow metallic; and Gleam, an icy green with an intense gold flash.

In addition to color trend forecasting, PPG is on the forefront of creating new paint technologies that enhance automotive design and exceed appearance requirements. This year, the company has demonstrated improvements in special effect pigments. The incorporation of Andaro nanopigment technology by PPG into traditional and alternative OEM coating systems is enabling designers to create new color spaces. These pigments offer higher color saturation while maintaining customer-required durability.

"Our focus for this year's global color show explores effect pigments," said Jerry R. Koenigsmark, PPG manager of color design, North America automotive coatings. "To remain a leader in color design, our methods must be outside the normal mode of thinking. PPG continues to create unique ways of using effect pigments that result in innovative looks and add a new dimension to color and technology."

On the forefront of innovation in decorative and protective coatings and environmental application concerns since 1927, PPG helps automakers advance coatings technologies and application processes.

Source: PR Newswire, 10/17/07

Study: Carmakers' Sites Should Max Out on Multimedia

Carmakers are missing a great opportunity to win over online shoppers by not providing more videos and photos on their websites, according to the head of two-year-old CarGurus.com.

Langley Steinart, founder and CEO of CarGurus.com, an auto enthusiast and buying-information website, made the suggestion following a six-month study of new-vehicle shoppers on CarGurus that showed 62% of the pages viewed were of photos and videos instead of articles, user reviews, specifications or pricing.

Connecting emotionally
"The internet is becoming a more visual medium," he told Advertising Age. "Cars are a very emotional and expensive purchase. Automakers have to connect with consumers emotionally."

Online shoppers "first and foremost want videos," said Mr. Langley, ex-chairman and co-founder of TripAdvisor.com, which was sold to Expedia in 2004 for $210 million.

He said he personally visited 15 auto brand sites he linked to from online ads elsewhere. On the landing pages, he was dismayed to find charts comparing car models. Mr. Steinart said he also found lots of text and lists of vehicle features on the linked landing pages. "You have to fall in love with the car visually," he said. "Are you going to fall in love over braking power?"

Automakers generally do a good job with their online photo galleries, although Mr. Steinart said he would like to see them expanded. "Instead of just five photos, I'd have 50 of the interior and 50 of the outside of the car."

CarGurus.com reports nearly 500,000 unique visitors monthly for all areas of its site, which includes blogs, editorial content and shopping for new or used vehicles or parts and accessories. Mr. Steinart said he had "no way of knowing" the demographics of the shoppers on his site who were covered in the research, saying they "cut across all ages." He also did not reveal how many of CarGurus.com' unique visitors were shopping for a new vehicle and thus counted in the research from March through August 2007.

Different types of sites
Ian Beavis, VP-marketing of Kia Motors America, said consumers have different reasons for visiting enthusiast sites and carmakers' sites. He said visitors to third-party auto sites are generally in the very early stages of buying a new car. "They're basically grazing," he said.

An "inordinate number of people" are car enthusiasts, and as such they are just looking for pictures. "They are not buying a car," said Mr. Beavis. By the time consumers get to an automaker's site, they have pretty much decided on the brand and are getting into details, he said.

Nearly half the visitors to Kia.com configure a new vehicle -- picking options packages or transmissions, for instance -- or look for a local dealer or want a dealer to contact them, Mr. Beavis said. Kia's surveys showed some visitors want more pictures, while others want more data.

'Balancing act'
"It's a balancing act," he said, so Kia aims for easy navigation so consumers can find what they want.

Kia's site has photo galleries once a visitor clicks on a specific model.

Jenny Howell, manager of interactive marketing at American Honda Motor Co., said carmakers need text plus videos and photos. She said photos have traditionally been one of the most popular sections on Honda.com and Acura.com.

Honda.com was redone in July by RPA, Santa Monica. The new site trimmed text and started video introductions accessible on the home page, she said. While photos and videos have always been important, they are becoming more popular due to increased broadband usage.

Source: Ad Age, 10/10/07

A Comeback for Coupes?

I was stopped at a light on Woodward Avenue in suburban Detroit, enjoying a beautiful fall evening recently in a borrowed, silver 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe. Glancing to my left, I realized that the attractive, 20-something woman in the car next to me had rolled down her passenger window, and was flashing me a smile as bright as the October sun.

"Hey!" she said.

Freeze the frame.

I am a middle-aged guy with a wife, a mortgage, two kids and a cat. I proudly declare allegiance to reality. Still, she had my attention because in 33 years of navigating public streets, an encounter like this had never happened to me. "Dude!" Yelped my inner 17-year-old. "We gotta get a car like this."

Car companies appear to be betting that a lot of people will want to experience moments like mine -- when it feels great to be in a sleek, sporty car. Over the next four years, forecasters at J.D. Power & Associates expect 31 new or redesigned coupe models to hit the U.S. market, including 16 from luxury brands. Among the coupes J.D. Power sees coming are a two-door version of the Cadillac CTS and, maybe, coupes from Italian brands Alfa Romeo and Abarth (an offshoot of Fiat), that currently don't compete in the U.S. market.

Auto makers have had good reason to be wary of the coupe market, despite the affection many car executives have for sporty cars. Since the mid-1980s, demand for coupes has waned significantly, coinciding with the heart of the baby boom's practical family-hauling years. As boomers slogged through their minivan and child-seat phase, interest in low-slung, two-door, midsized, midpriced cars cratered. It didn't help that many of the offerings in the midpriced coupe segment were fairly bland – such as the outgoing 2007 Honda Accord coupe.

In 1985, U.S. auto makers built 3.1 million two doors out of a total of 8.6 million cars, according to Ward's Automotive Yearbook. By 2005, Ward's data shows the number of two doors built in the U.S. fell to 745,058 vehicles out of 5.8 million. Through the end of September, coupes accounted for 4% of the total U.S. market, down from 4.1% the year before, according to data from the Power Information Network.

Now, however, there are some signs of new life in the coupe segment.

At the low end, sporty little cars such as the Scion tC and Honda Civic coupe are attracting younger buyers. At the high end, luxury car makers are courting empty nesters, and those wealthy enough to have a car for every purpose, with sleek new models such as the Audi A5.

I tend to use the term "coupe" interchangeably with the term two-door, because that's how I still think of the segment. But European luxury marques define a category of "four-door coupes." These are cars that have the swept back roofline of a sporty two-door car, but have four doors. An example of this breed is the Mercedes-Benz CLS, which has enjoyed considerable success. The Porsche Panamera will be another of this four-door coupe style when it arrives in two years or so. BMW recently confirmed plans to build a large four door coupe based on its striking Shanghai concept car, the CS.

In the $20,000 to $30,000 price range, the success of the retro-styled Ford Mustang has inspired a "Back to the Future" replay of the pony car wars of the 1960s. Chevrolet has been touting the return of the Camaro in 2009 since early 2006. Chrysler LLC's Dodge brand is expected to field its Mustang fighter, the Challenger, sometime next year.

More striking – because they seemed to come out of nowhere – are the two new designs from Honda and Nissan. The 2008 Accord Coupe represents a significant departure from its bland predecessor. Honda designers created a distinctive profile for the coupe compared with the Accord sedan, and gave it a unique powertrain option – a V-6 with a six-speed manual. For more than a decade, "sporty Accord" was an oxymoron. The new Accord Coupe restores some meaning to that phrase.

The Altima Coupe, which I test drove last week, is lighter and smaller in most dimensions than the Accord Coupe, but it has more power in both its four- and six-cylinder versions. Consistent with its recent product strategy, Nissan emphasizes horsepower and sporty touches such as a push-button start.

The Altima Coupe's exterior profile – with flaring rear fenders and narrow side glass -- hints at the aggressive lines of the Nissan 350Z or the Infiniti G37. Not that you'd mistake the Altima for one of those more expensive models. But it works as a budget-minded alternative.

The Altima Coupe asks you to overlook the fact that the trunk is surprisingly tiny, the back seat is hard to access and rear leg room for anyone you squeeze back there is 1.4 inches less than in the sedan. But with coupes, it's really all about the driver. Given the demographics of an aging population looking for self indulgence, car makers may be smart to put some effort into this segment.

Oh, right. Let's roll that video.

"Hey," the young woman said, beaming. "Are you from Santa Monica?"

Huh? Why no, I replied, unsure how to process this. Then I remembered. My test car had a California license plate. I live here, I explained. This is just a car I'm test driving. I just moved to Michigan, she offered. You'll get used to it, I said. The light changed. I waved and drove away.

It wasn't me. It wasn't even the car. It was just the license plate. I ordered my inner 17-year-old back to his regular job, compelling me to listen to 30-year-old rock music during my commutes. The Altima went back to Nissan.

It's really for the best.

Source: Wall Street Journal, 10/08/07

G.M. Determined to Make Malibu Its Sales-Stalwart Sedan

General Motors solved one problem this week by reaching a deal with the United Automobile Workers. Now it hopes its new Chevrolet Malibu will help solve another: winning sales and market share back from its Japanese rivals.

A new Malibu is intended to end Asian supremacy in midpriced sedans.

For years, family sedans have been a lower priority for General Motors and the other Detroit automakers. They focused instead on big trucks and sport utility vehicles, which earned tidy profits, while letting Toyota and Honda dominate the less lucrative market for cars.

But the best days for the big vehicles have passed, and G.M. is eager to break the Asian stranglehold on midsize sedans by offering a redesigned Malibu. The car is set to go on sale Nov. 2, and the automaker views it as its most important vehicle in years.

G.M. is spending $100 million to introduce the new Bu, as executives call it, significantly more than the costs for any other car in recent memory. It has to invest heavily, experts say, to make a dent in the market led by the Toyota Camry, the country’s best-selling car for the last seven years, and the Honda Accord.

“It’s tough to get the broad American public to reconsider an American car in that price class,” G.M.’s vice chairman, Robert A. Lutz, said at an industry conference in northern Michigan last month. “The Camry and the Accord have established, and justifiably so, such strong brand value, which means that you’ve got to have a really outstanding car.”

While the Malibu may be improved, so is its competition. This month, Honda began selling a redesigned Accord sedan that is bigger, more powerful and more luxurious than previous versions. The Camry and the Nissan Altima were also overhauled last year.

Honda executives, for their part, say they are not worried about the revamped Malibu. Gary Robinson, senior product planner for the Accord, called it “pretty secondary to what we consider our primary competition.”

Chevrolet dealers, who have had difficulty in the past pushing Malibus off their lots without incentives, say they are excited about the 2008 version, even though few have actually seen one.

With S.U.V.’s no longer pulling as many consumers into their showrooms, dealers have been clamoring for a car that they can steadily sell in large numbers.

“It’s that one segment that’s going to decide how successful you are,” said Travis Jackson, sales manager at the Chevrolet of Naperville dealership in suburban Chicago.

There is plenty of room for growth. Last year, G.M. sold 138,110 of the previous version, but about 40 percent of those went to rental companies. In comparison, Toyota sold 417,104 Camrys, and Honda sold 348,843 Accords. Only about 5 to 10 percent of those sales were to fleet purchasers.

G.M.’s quest for a Camry-Accord fighter has been a long battle. Malibu’s sister car, the Impala, sold nearly 290,000 last year. Unlike their Japanese counterparts, G.M. executives want to sell more than one midprice family sedan.

G.M. will not reveal its production or sales goals for the Malibu, but anything close to the current model’s numbers would be deemed a failure. At one point in the development process, G.M. even considered dropping the Malibu name in favor of something new that might avoid any negative connotation for consumers.

Malibu started out in 1964 as the name for Chevrolet’s top-level midsize car, a version of the Chevelle. It quickly became a hit, selling millions before being discontinued in 1983. G.M. resurrected the Malibu in 1997, but the car has never seriously challenged the Accord and the Camry, which have been at the top of their segment since then.

“The Malibu name might be stale,” said James Edwards, general manager of Heritage Auto Plaza, a Chevrolet and Chrysler dealership in Alexandria, Va. “If you put a Honda Accord out, you know you’re going to sell it. But a Malibu, you really don’t how it’s going to do.”

Chevrolet’s general manager, Ed Peper, insists that the new Malibu “will speak for itself” and will not be hurt by its name, which he says is one of General Motors’ best-known trademarks.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with the name,” Mr. Peper said. “We’re going to deliver the finest Malibu that we’ve ever delivered.”

G.M. acknowledges that its position as an underdog in the sedan segment means the Malibu cannot be simply as good as competing models — it has to be better. “We built this vehicle to be the best midsize car in the marketplace, period,” Mr. Peper said. “We’re going to deliver more to consumers in this package than any other midsize car.”

The company has spent months aggressively promoting the car. It released a photo of its two-toned interior late last year, even before it put the 2008 model on display.

The new Malibu, with a low stance and gently curved roof, is sportier than its predecessor. There was even a Web site created to sing the praises of the 2008 version.

G.M. has not allowed critics who have driven the Malibu to publish their thoughts yet, but the car received mostly positive coverage at the Detroit auto show last winter.

“The nice surprise here is the car’s striking styling — something we haven’t seen in a Malibu since, er, the ’64 original,” wrote Howard Walker in Car and Driver.

Another auto writer, Rich Ceppos, said the new Malibu “promises to be everything that the previous model was not: stylishly dressed inside and out and as roomy and smooth-driving as the class-leading Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.”

“Exterior fit and finish, quality of interior materials and driving refinement all take a big stride forward,” he said.

G.M.’s goal, Mr. Peper said, was to make the Malibu look as if it cost double the $19,995 starting price. (That is about $2,000 more than the 2007 model.) A gas-electric hybrid Malibu will start at $22,790.

Mr. Peper said G.M., which lost its long-held place as the world’s largest automaker to Toyota this year, is not intimidated by its position as an underdog in the sedan market.

“We relish that position; we look forward to competing with them,” Mr. Peper said. “They will know by the product that we are going to put in the marketplace that they’re going to have some competition.”

Source: New York Times, 9/27/07