By Leftlane Staff
Wednesday, Nov 2nd, 2005 @ 11:41 am

The Truth About Cars says “the more innovative the automobile, the less likely it’ll sell [...] Automobilists don’t want to drive the radical new machine bristling with innovative technology and design. They want the same car as the one they’re driving, only a bit newer. How else could you explain the fact that GM continues to sell cars that are two product cycles behind the competition– to the same people who bought one before?” Columnist Robert Farago bases this assertion on several past examples of high-tech automotive sales blunders. “Even successful carmakers regularly fall prey to feature sleep. When BMW ’s 7-Series introduced its pioneering iDrive [you nuts] mouse controller, the system flummoxed the faithful and alienated aspirants.” Farago says consumers are more concerned with things like dependability. “There are a million consumers who understand that the last thing you want in [an unreliable] 4000lbs piece of metal capable of hurling itself at 80 miles per hour through a world of solid objects.”

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