The automotive business claims, for good reason, to be one of the most efficient industrial operations on this planet. As we all know, the cars offered to the public got better over the past decades in terms of safety, comfort, ride quality and fuel efficiency. The price of the car itself keeps going up. The costing pressure on all major players of the business strives to bring it down without success. Why have we got sidetracked on productivity?
As most of us, working in the automotive manufacturing and designing field, know, the next generation of the parts going into a car are always lighter, more efficient and more cost effective. The whole put together makes a car that is better than its predecessor. In addition to that, every OEM makes his suppliers to commit to long-term agreements where 2% of price reduction per year is not uncommon. Since today, almost 70% of the parts of a car are bought outside, the next generations’ car should be much cheaper than the one we drive today, but they never are!
There is indeed another negative side effect to improving cars: more features! While some have proven to be most useful in our crowded traffics, like air conditioning, ABS brakes and GPS navigation systems, some are just there because we got used to them. Take for instance such obvious options like power windows. We could very well roll down and up the windows ourselves, but even the tiniest econo-boxes on wheels have power windows today! Another one is central remote locking. Can’t we take half a minute to walk around our car and check if it’s locked? Add to this all the fuzz about optimizing the operating noise of a power seat and you got huge engineering spending and skyrocketing product cost! Apparently, we have become champions for improving what does not need to be improved!
So which options do we really want? RENAULT, through its DACIA subsidiary, has shown an interesting way by launching the no frills LOGAN model. There is no power option anywhere in the standard trim level and just the necessary safety features for it to pass regulation and homologation for road use. 
In my view, that is good but goes a bit too much into the back to basics direction. I’d like to have a basic modern comfort and ride, but I’ll also want to keep the productivity advantages made over the past decades. I’ll even share the recipe with you. Let’s start with a 1979 Mercedes 250 sedan. 
In its days it had room for five with luggage, a solid four-pot engine that allowed it to pass swiftly where needed and it could be ordered with options like air conditioning and ABS brakes. It cost roundabout 25 000 DM (that is Deutsche Mark), which translates into roundabout 18 000 EURO of 2004. Ok, now where is that 18 000 EURO Mercedes?
Please dear OEM’s; don’t make us buy these eggs on wheels! Don’t make the little kids dream vanish in a haze of sound dampening material and seat belt reminder buzzers. Give us the cars we imagined while riding in the back of our dad’s 250 sedan. Just add what we really need and keep the over-engineered stuff for the plush luxury barges. Please give us, for less than 20 grand a big roomy car with ABS brakes, air conditioning, power steering and a responsive motor. Let me just add leather seats, because I like the feel of these, and a GPS, because I want to travel without those famous mom and dad map-reading sessions! If you build it, I’ll come and buy it!
Christophe Schwartz
