Nissan's Designing Cars for Old Folks

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

[Thanks to Beth Tucker at Global Post for the link]


Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Shaker Shaker on Mar 21, 2009

    no_slushbox: "Hopefully Nissan can come up with cars for old people and Honda can come up with robots for old people quicker than Toyota can figure out a way to use old people as a source of energy, otherwise it’s going to be Soylent Green Demographics Synergy Drive." Which will be rated in MPG (miles per grandparent). 50merc: "GM is bringing out a retro Camaro. Try that in an “aging suit.” My great fear is that I'll visit a showroom to sit in a new Camaro, and my hernia-repaired bad backed bad kneed gouty ass will need help getting out. My Elantra is a boring car, but it's easy to get in and out of. I liked the buttons that had the afterglow when you pushed them - a memory aid of subtle elegance.

  • Hal Hal on Mar 21, 2009

    will the turn signals prompt grandma to turn them off after 5 minutes?

  • TaxedAndConfused TaxedAndConfused on Mar 22, 2009
    will the turn signals prompt grandma to turn them off after 5 minutes? yes, and a special road captain mode to make sure nobody behind goes too fast.
  • MagMax MagMax on Mar 23, 2009

    Maybe it's also time to consider the effect of gloves and mitts on being able to use dashboard controls. In large parts of North America including pretty well all of Canada we have a season called winter. Sure we have good heaters now but I'll bet that most people don't take off their winter gloves until the car is warm and in the meantime it's almost impossible to operate some of the tiny pushbuttons that festoon our dashboards and consoles. It's about time the carmakers looked at function and made cars that are functional. I think it's important to consider the aging demographic of much of the world because that's who's going to be buying the cars. For example, I don't know how normal humans can even get into a Lexus GS; I can't. My neck doesn't bend like that. As for rear seats, aside from a couple of Kias, Hyundais and the Toyota Avalon, is there an affordable car that has a rear seat with legroom? I say, let's make cars that fit humans instead of making humans contort themselves into cars. And that goes for visibility too.

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