Audi At Home in U.S.

Several Audi AG Staffers from Germany literally made themselves at home with five American families, living with them for six weeks to get consumer information for the development of the upcoming redesigned Audi A8.

The U.S. hosts are Audi owners, and “we wanted to see not only how they lived, but how they interacted with the product,” Audi head of design Stefan Sielaff says in a keynote speech during the Ward's Auto Interiors Conference, held May 21 in Dearborn, MI. “It really helps when you learn people's wants and needs.”

The house guests included a designer, engineer, marketer and production representative. Their stay in California helped the German luxury auto maker better understand American automotive tastes, such as a preference for roominess.

“The relationship to space and size is different here than in Germany,” Sielaff tells Ward's. “We try to be careful not to forget lifestyles are different here. It's important not to look at your belly button as the center of the world.”

The Audi designer who made the U.S. trip has become an ambassador for American customers, Sielaff says. “He'll say things like, ‘The graphic on this switch is too small.’ He also notes that we want to be careful not to make it an engineering game to operate a switch.”

Attention to detail is what has earned Audi in general, and its interiors in particular, a reputation for excellence.

A conference participant from a competing auto company says Audi interiors are the industry benchmark, excelling in harmoniously bringing together hundreds of different elements.

If the devil is in the details — such as making sure all 36,500 upholstery stitches in an A8 are perfect — Sielaff has no problem taking the heat.

“This daily working of the details is enjoyable,” he says. “We experience a lot of joy working the details out.” Attention is paid to the tiniest things, such as a little needle on an instrument panel gauge.

But he concedes that's not unique to Audi. “Every designer in this room probably has had the same experience,” Sielaff tells the conference audience.