Making Financial Headlines · Page 4
Car Buyers Request Affordable Technology, Industry Checks for Typo
· New York time
Car buyers want lower prices and better technology, according to Bain's assessment of purchase priorities. Price remains the leading consideration in the United States and Europe, while technology leads in China, adding pressure on Western automakers to satisfy more than one definition of value. For U.S. manufacturers, the tradeoff is not simply whether to install another screen. Technology has to compete for a place in a purchase whose total cost still dominates the buyer's decision. An impressive feature can lose its charm when it arrives attached to an unmanageable payment. The industry's dream customer apparently wants an affordable car, useful software and no lecture about how expensive it was to arrange that combination. Different regional priorities also complicate a single global product strategy. A feature package that helps win attention in one market may not answer the first question asked in another showroom. The practical challenge is delivering technology customers value without allowing the technology story to swallow the affordability story. That requires choices about design, cost and usefulness, not merely a longer equipment list. A car can contain an extraordinary amount of computing power and still fail the most basic consumer test: whether the household can buy it.
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