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FEBRUARY 16, 2004
In Pursuit Of Hot Design Car lust, as the auto makers call it, can't be defined. But you sure know it when you see it. It's the buyer who will pay whatever it takes to be first on the street. It's cars-as-fashion and cars that always turn heads. It's the old Los Angeles maxim, "you are what you drive," writ global. Fabulous design in all its iterations is the new secret weapon for global carmakers. Whether in autos, trucks, sport-utility vehicles, or superminis, the "have-to-have look" is what gets the buyer to the showroom and often clinches the deal. To hit this style sweet spot, the big carmakers are investing tens of millions in new design studios, concept cars, and brand-name designers. The truth is, as cars have become more reliable with better quality, longevity, and performance, design is the last big battleground. So who makes the winning look -- and how do they do it? To enter the digital, CAD, fiberglass -- and still, clay -- world of the hottest designers, we asked our two international auto pros, Chester Dawson and Gail Edmondson, to team up with Detroit Bureau Chief Kathleen Kerwin and our Los Angeles-based car reviewer Christopher Palmeri for this week's global special report. LOOKING FOR THE `J FACTOR' Japanese designers love to talk concepts but are paranoid about creative leaks, observes Dawson. Even so, he got a privileged peek inside the new, $40 million "cave" in Toyota City, where boss Hideichi Misono leads a quest for the "J factor." That is, a Japanese mod look that will make head-turners out of Toyota Motor Corp.'s (TM ) high-quality but generally bland fleet of vehicles. New York-based Dawson, who just finished a 10-year tour in Japan and who wrote four BusinessWeek cover stories on its car industry, thought he pretty much knew what was up. But even he was amazed by Toyota's new 3-D lab: "I was inside a virtual prototype car. No matter which way I looked -- up, down, side to side -- the car was detailed, down to the buttons on the dash, the glare on the windshield, the streetscape outside. It put Imax (IMAX ) projection to shame." At Nissan Motor Co.'s (NSANY ) design campus just outside Tokyo, Dawson found shelves of stylishly designed consumer gadgets, from a solid titanium ice cream scoop to a cool espresso machine, all there to inspire the troops. For Frankfurt-based Edmondson, who proposed this report, the European blend of elegance, smoothness, and performance remains the standard for others to beat. That's why Detroit is raiding European designers. Edmondson's 17-year experience covering European business goes back to the days when Europe's consumer-product designers captured the world stage in the 1980s. Later, as European tech editor and Paris bureau chief, she saw the second wave of innovation in the design of mobile phones and handhelds. Today, she notes, "European car designers are celebrated at the big shows like fashion designers. At the high end, when BMW markets its $320,000 Rolls Royce Phantom, the designer meets with the client like an artist presenting his work." The best designers say Tokyo, Munich, and Detroit should rely on their cultural roots. Still, there's plenty of copying -- or should we say, liberal borrowing -- of each other's creations. We hope you enjoy the ride.  By Bob Dowling, Managing Editor, International
BW MALL
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