Experts Urge Center Console Cleanup

oems looking to hike their custtomer-satisfaction scores should focus their attention down and to the right.

Designers who figure out a better center-console configuration will win the hearts of car buyers, panelists agree at a session on “Consumer Wants and Needs.”

Mike VanNieuwkuyk, executive director-vehicle consulting research for J.D. Power and Associates, says consumers bring lots of stuff into the vehicle, and the center console isn't doing a great job of storing and providing easy access to them.

“The center console is the object of least satisfaction for customers,” he says. “It's just a big hole.”

Pat Murray, president of Murray Design LLC, agrees. “Center consoles are not what they need to be,” he says.

Americans now spend an average of two hours and 52 minutes in their cars each weekday and pile up a total of 18.34 hours each week behind the wheel.

Most things end up in a tangle in the center console, with cell phones and music players often lodged in cupholders and purses stashed on the front passenger seat or thrown less conveniently in the back.

“A woman's purse needs to be accessible,” Murray says. “If we don't provide space for it in the console, we are in trouble.”

Panelists say in addition to designing clever center consoles, there may be room that can be freed up on the instrument panel for new features.

Richard Vaughan, design leader for Visteon Corp., says suppliers of car audio equipment should expect declining demand as in-dash head units are replaced by mobile devices that simply connect with the car.