Make a car as good as it can be from the get go

Karl cracks the code to selling as many cars as possible – give people what they want. Simple really.

It’s a bugbear of mine, but when you watch a news update and at the end they say, “More news in the next update.” In reality, however, it’s the same news in each short bulletin. Each night, after the main news, the same update gets repeated, hour-after-hour.

Updates – do they even know what the word means? Well, if there’s one industry that understands the meaning, it’s the car industry. Just look at the Nissan GT-R, for example. It seems that year-after-year there has been an update and improvements. The latest model is able to get to 100km/h in well under three seconds and looks like a spaceship for the road.

BMW is also a contender for the most updated brand around. It even has a name for the updates – LCI, or Life Cycle Impulse. Other brands do the same, such as Series II or doing a half-year numbering system, such as MY16.5. Often, these updates are welcome. Imagine going to order a new car, only to find out that an update is coming along shortly. If your dealer is a good person, they’ll let you know and you can hold off your purchase for a few months.

But, on reflection, there are some big issues with these updates. The flipside of buying a new car is that as soon as you’ve laid down your hard-earned cash and an update comes along, your resale value goes through the floor. The other problem is the update usually comes with extra goodies which you’ll be missing out on.

Then there’s the problem with spare parts. Invariably an updated car has been enhanced cosmetically, thus the bumpers or even some panels have been changed. Have an accident and instead of having plenty of available parts, these specialised pieces will need to be brought in because no-one has them in stock.

But let’s get to the real issue. Cars are just being rushed out the door at a staggering pace. Oh, sure, the quality is good in most cars, so it’s not an issue with how they’re put together. We’re talking about the creation of these cars. After years of research and development, you’d think that a manufacturer would know enough about its target market to create a machine that didn’t need more equipment to keep people loyal to the brand.

Sure, technology moves at a Mercurial pace, but we know that most people want an autobox, climate control, Bluetooth, sat-nav and cameras in as many places as possible. Beyond that, make heated/cooled seats, and other fripperies an option. Why on earth bring out a series two of the same car with updated looks and a few extra bells and whistles? Oh, that’s right – you’re trying to eke every last drop out of that ageing platform.

Maybe a little more time spent behind the scenes making the car as good as it can be before it gets released may be an idea. Look at Rolls-Royce. Sure, its quality is superlative and it’s expensive, but how many updates did the Phantom get in its nearly 13 year life-span? Just two.

No-one wants a car that’s superseded the moment it drives off the dealer lot. So, let’s hold off on the updates and start making the cars right to begin with. That way we’ll get new models and not incremental changes.

That’s the secret to selling as many cars as possible – give people what they want.