Who is Generation Y and does this new group of consumers really matter to OEMs? Are they a unique customer segment that requires different market focus and investment, or will they ultimately acquire the behaviors and buying patterns of previous generations?
For car shoppers under the age of 31, the biggest factor in deciding what to buy isn’t performance, fuel economy or comfort, it’s the shopping experience and “cockpit technology,” according to a recent study.
Cockpit technology includes things like Bluetooth phone interfaces, attachments for MP3 players and voice-to-text technologies that can allow people to interact with text messages or emails while driving.
There seems to be an intrinsic conflict between safety and drivers’ desires to stay connected while driving.
Car companies will have to deal carefully with that issue, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, one of four graduate schools that participated in the Deloitte study.
“Regulation keeps trying to say texting is distracting to driving, but for the consumer it is really the driving that is distracting to texting.” the researchers said.