The latest round of compacts at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show were well received; frankly, many looked exceptional. From Ford, the winner of the the North American Car & Trcuk of the Year, to Chevy, Hyundai, KIA, Mazda, Fiat, and the new GMC Granite - younger, the younger at heart, and urban drivers will have more attractive choices mid-year when looking to buy.
Many of these models will be coming standard with the latest in connectivity. From Bluetooth, to navigational GPS systems, to SIRIUS satellite radio. Ford has introduced the most innovative MyFord Touch Driver Connect Technology, powered by SYNC and the Microsoft company. With voice recognition, the commands are followed easily and the system even will speak-out-loud text messages that are received. Which begs the question -- how does this technology curve the human desire to send text messages?
The fine line questions are these:
-
What impact will this instantaneous and soon to be standard (on many models) have on driver attention and safety?
-
What will the cars go-to-market price be and will those affected by the recession or the younger buyers be able to afford these models that used to be thousands of dollars cheaper?
Most of these cars are so 'technologized' on the inside. Frankly, they look like a small aircraft's cockpit. While that is appealing, we are not flying planes. On any given day there are an estimated 87,000 planes in our skies versus 240,000,000 million cars on the road.
It's fun, productive and enjoyable having all of our gadgets. Americans now expect nothing short of instant connections and 2010 is a line of demarkation for the auto industry. While going smaller, they have have added big costs and advancements to our social 'studies'. Let's see how it plays out at the dealership and in consumers actual driving behavior.
Drive Your bargain,
www.twitter.com/womendrivers
