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Designs Ease the Ravages of Age

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

The baby boom generation may worship youth, but the group is graying rapidly and beginning to feel the ravages of age. By 2005, about 66 million Americans--21% of the population--will be more than 55 years old.

So the auto industry is turning its attention increasingly to designing vehicles that will be easier on those with less flexibility, stiff backs, deteriorating eyesight and other physical limitations.

One example of this new area of research was displayed earlier this month when auto supplier Lear Corp. showed its Transgeneration interior concept vehicle at an automotive engineering conference in Detroit.

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The TransG vehicle, a modified Dodge Caravan minivan, is loaded with features aimed at appealing to aging boomers--swivel seats, movable instrument panels, flexible storage compartments--while not turning off younger buyers.

“The goal here is to produce a car that has the benefits for the aging driver that no one would notice if we didn’t tell you,” said Jim Masters, president of Lear’s global technology division.

The TransG offers front seats that swivel outward at a 45-degree angle to make entering and exiting the vehicle easier. The seats have leather trim, creating less friction so the occupant can slip in and out effortlessly. Egress and ingress are further facilitated by a lowered step-in height.

Unlike the way it is with current vehicles, the seat does not move forward for adjustment with the steering wheel. Rather, the instrument pod moves fore and aft to fit the comfort range of the driver. The accelerator and brake pedals are also movable and adjustable.

On the safety side, the concept vehicle is equipped with advanced seat belts and five air-bag systems. The front seats are equipped with four-point seat belts, which are easier to slip into than traditional three-point ones. The belts, similar to those used by pilots and race car drivers, are attached to both sides of the seat and buckle in the middle, eliminating the need to twist the body to find, extend and lock the belt into place.

The steering wheel is U-shaped, with the upper portion cut away for improved visibility for shorter drivers.

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For ease in loading and unloading the rear compartment, the TransG has a built-in loading floor that pulls out. It also has a built-in Lazy Susan for storage and a removable utility cart.

On the vehicle’s outside, Lear has included two small storage areas on the side panels just in front of the rear lights. The user can open the compartments--seen as ideal for storing flashlights, ice scrapers and the like--without stooping.

Masters expects that many of these features will find their way into new vehicles in the next three to five years.

Lear, the nation’s leading maker of auto interiors, developed the ideas in a three-year consumer research project. The company worked with a consumer panel whose members were on average 65 years old and included 82-year-old Lloyd Way, father of Lear Chairman Ken Way.

The company took some inspiration from Oxo International, the company that created the fat-handled Good Grips kitchen utensils. The Oxo tools were originally designed for people with arthritic hands, but other consumers have found them easier to use too.

Lear said the key to future design success is to appeal to aging baby boomers while not turning off younger buyers who might shun what they view as an old fogies’ car.

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“We have to have accommodations that are transparent,” said Marilyn Vala, manager of product analysis for Lear. “Anything that looks like an old people’s car is not going to sell.”

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One-Upmanship: While DaimlerChrysler rushes to bring a fuel-cell-powered Mercedes-Benz to mass production by 2004, German rival BMW has largely pooh-poohed the fuel-cell hoopla.

“We are not optimistic about fuel cells,” Christopher Huss, BMW’s director of environmental research, told reporters in Detroit in September. He cited challenges involving cost, emissions and manufacturing.

So observers were rather surprised when BMW recently announced that it will soon bring a fuel-cell vehicle to market, beating DaimlerChrysler and others by several years.

But there’s a catch. BMW’s vehicle will only use the fuel cell--which uses hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity--to run the vehicle’s electrical accessories, much as a battery on a conventional car does.

BMW will put the small fuel cell in a 7-Series sedan that uses a traditional internal-combustion engine fueled by liquid hydrogen. BMW has been researching hydrogen-powered vehicles for 20 years.

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DaimlerChrysler sees BMW’s move as grandstanding and a desperate effort to grab some “green” attention: Klaus-Dieter Voerhinger, a member of DaimlerChrysler’s board of management, offered this dig: “They kept away from this technology for a long, long time. I guess their opinion is changing.”

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Into the Sunset? Detroit insiders are buzzing that the days may be numbered for two hallowed American car brands: DaimlerChrysler’s Plymouth and Ford Motor Co.’s Mercury.

Their demise has been speculated about for years, as each has struggled to find a niche in today’s crowded marketplace. The latest rumors were sparked by decisions to cut back sales in Canada.

DaimlerChrysler says the marketplace will determine Plymouth’s future. But analysts say the recent decision to give the entry-level 2001 PT Cruiser to Chrysler is a major blow to Plymouth.

Ford, meanwhile, is separating Mercury from Lincoln. Although company officials say they want to make Mercury a spirited, youthful alternative to the Ford marque, its future seems questionable, as few new products are in the pipeline.

Others offer up a point of caution, however. The death of General Motors Corp.’s Oldsmobile was predicted many times in the early ‘90s. But Olds is still around and making a respectable comeback today.

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Motor City reports news and trends from the industry. Donald W. Nauss, The Times’ Detroit bureau chief, can be reached via e-mail at don.nauss@latimes.com.

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