Audi design guru: interior design is The Next Big Thing
While Detroit is fascinated by emotive
"retro-designs" like the Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger, Walter Maria de'Silva and his design team at Audi
headquarters are looking to the future. In a wide-ranging interview with BusinessWeek magazine, de'Silva gives a designer's perspective on automotive trends, and one area that he sees as ripe for improvement is car interiors. De'Silva is driving Audi's design team to "create a kind of internal architecture and environment that is even more oriented to the customer." This means everything from new, more ergonomic seats to simpler, easier to understand dashboards and instruments.
Certainly, we've seen increasing attention to interior design in our recent coverage of the Los Angeles and Detroit auto shows, with Aston Martin's Rapide, Toyota's F3R and Mazda's Kabura all showing remarkable attention to interior architecture and detail.
Also high on de'Silva's list of interior design improvements is better use of materials, and clear and intuitive information systems in the car. (My guess is he isn't using BMW's iDrive as a role model for the latter.)
De'Silva's favorite (non-Audi) current designs? The Aston Martin DB9, the Porsche 911, and the Fiat Punto. From the Audi stable, the A6 Avant and the Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder. And even de'Silva isn't immune from the pull of retro-design - witness the Lamborghini Miura concept on display at NAIAS.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ETMC 10:58PM (1/10/2006)
He most certainly is not immune from retro.
Wasn't he also behind the design of the Alfa Romeo Nuvola concept?
http://www.diseno-art.com/images/alfa_romeo_nouvola.jpg
I thought that harkened back to some of Alfa's legacy as well, if not so much as an almost line-for-line copy as his Miura looks to be.
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Quinton 12:38AM (1/11/2006)
I think that there are a good number of company's with interiors that are more than adequate. Audi could be considered a leader, but Toyota has perfect interiors for every segment that it is involved in. I that is Toyota's greatest strength beyond their reliability because Toyotas are never the best performing cars in their segment.
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Lithous 12:46AM (1/11/2006)
Are you import fanboys that upset that Camaro is getting so much attention that you decided to exploit it by making it look like Audi thinks future and domestics think old?
Nice brainwashing technique, onanist.
Which current Mazda (or Toyota for that matter) will be a good candidate for retro'ing in 30 years?
American cars really sucked 30 years ago, didn't they? Except for the fact that some bring on prices 10 to 30 times more money than the original selling price and are so emotive.
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Danny Huang 1:37AM (1/11/2006)
ya. Interior design is definately the next improvement car companies need to do. I definately looking forward to some big improvements on interior design. Most of the japanese cars have a lot of nice designs that american cars should have too.
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iQuack 3:25AM (1/11/2006)
You're likely to spend much more time looking at the interior of your car than the exterior, so the interior design should be a major reason why you'd buy or reject any car.
The Honda Accord is a good example: it looks good, but not great on the outside, but the interior (especially in the EX leather model) is a deal-maker.
The dopey interior of the Saturn ION and the cheap interior of the Nissan Altima (until upgraded) were deal-killers.
Yes, the interior design matters in a big way IMO.
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bmcqueen 1:22PM (1/11/2006)
#2 "Which current Mazda (or Toyota for that matter) will be a good candidate for retro'ing in 30 years? "
how about the mazda miata for one?
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Steve J 3:04PM (1/11/2006)
The interior on my Audi A3 was the deal clincher v. my other couple finalists. Interiors are hugely important, and I continue to be amazed by how little attention they are paid by so many car companies. Audi's interiors are already very attractive, with high-quality materials, excellent ergonmics, excellent touch and feel on buttons and knobs, and extremely tightly assembled.
In contrast, GM continues to use a lot of cheap plastics that feel and look cheap (I was very unimpressed with the Solstice interior in that regard: as great as it looks outside, it's unengaging inside). Ford didn't do a bad job with the Fusion interior, but then there's that big block of a sterio just rammed into the IP, with a face that doesn't match the surrounding black, and has huge gaps on all four sides (without measuring, I'm guessing at least a millimeter).
Things like that cause a lot of shoppers to question how much care was put into the materials and assembly of parts you can't see.
There is a problem with customer perception on interiors, however. It's easy to get seduced by the exterior. It takes quite a bit of time - much more than a quick test drive - to really get a feel for an interior and how well it works. That's why I suspect interior will always lose the battle. But it's good to see some manufacturers paying interior design the attention it deserves.
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Dr. Woo 4:06AM (1/12/2006)
I find that a lot of people are just not capable of seeing the difference in quality between, say, an Audi A4's interior and a Dodge Caravan's interior (my supervisor in this case). It baffles my mind...interior trim that isn't secure, weatherstripping that looks hastily glued together, hard, sandy plastic with no sound deadening, buttons and switchgear with as much feedback as a sponge...
It's surprising to me that so many just don't care about interior quality. When I buy a car, I want the whole package. But then, many people consider vehicles to be "just transportation."
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