drive

Top automotive trends of 2015: personal service as standard

January 05, 2015

The Ford S Max Vignale is as much about personal service as style and luxury. – AFP/Relaxnews pic, January 5, 2015.The only element of buying and owning a car that's still stuck firmly in the past is finally about to get a 21st century overhaul – and Ford and Citroen will be driving the change.

2015 is going to be a huge year for Ford in Europe. Most car companies, even ones with as big a mass-market appeal as the Blue Oval, traditionally launch fewer than three new models in a calendar year, but Ford will be launching six new cars over the course of the next 12 months.

However, as ambitious as that is, the most significant launch coming from the company is a new dealership and sales concept – the Vignale brand.

When Ford first announced its intentions at the Frankfurt motor show in September 2013, Stephen Odell, Ford president of Europe, Middle East and Africa, described Vignale as: "The highest expression of the Ford brand in Europe from both a product and from an ownership experience perspective."

Cars carrying the Vignale badge – initially refined versions of the 2015 Mondeo and S Max – won't simply be crammed with creature comforts and high-quality leather and wood interiors. The experience of buying one will be akin to visiting a tailor for a new suit.

In other words, a truly personal touch. "Ford Vignale premium services will meet the needs of the customer for whom time is the ultimate luxury – and they would be made to feel special from the moment they walk in the door," said Gaetano Thorel, European Marketing vice-president.

Customers will get their own personal relationship manager who will take care of every aspect, from choosing specifications to the trials and tribulations of ownership. For example, when it's time for a service, the car will be collected from the owner's home and replaced with a courtesy car. As part of servicing, all minor dents and scratches will be attended to and when returned, the car will have been valeted inside and out as part of the service.

Over the past 25 years, every aspect of motoring, from reliability and safety, to performance and efficiency has changed almost beyond recognition. Every aspect, that is except one – the process of buying a car which, save for the odd interactive website is almost identical to how it was 100 years ago. And Ford is not alone in finally trying to revolutionise it.

"Services need to reflect that the needs of someone living in the centre of Paris or London who only uses a car at weekends are very different from those of the driver living in a rural area," explains Philippe Claverol, the director of brand strategy and experience for DS, Citroen's luxury sub brand.

"Services will have to become more personal and we're about to see more companies changing the way they interact with customers."

Since June, DS has been a brand in its own right and like Ford's Vignale is focused on offering customers a higher level of personalisation in terms of services as well as vehicle specifications. And like Ford, DS plans to build a network of special dealerships that reflect the brand's elegance and luxury.

As well as showrooms designed like art studios, the New Year could also bring with it the first chain of salesperson-free car showrooms. Hyundai is currently testing a new store concept in the UK where touch screens stand in for forecourt experts and where the few members of staff that are on hand come from retail rather than from a motoring background. The idea is to put the customer at the forefront of the sales process.

According to Claverol, initiatives like this are the first steps towards a bigger trend that will eventually lead to customers being involved in the development process: "I think that co-designing is going to become an increasing trend... And probably what we will see in the future is more and more companies interacting with customer to involve them in the process of creating products, offers and services. This will also be a way of going even further than personalization, it will make them part of the future of the company."

It might sound far-fetched, but this is already Ferrari's approach to car design through its XX Driver Development Programme. Specially selected Ferrari owners get the chance to own a fire-breathing track-focused version of a road car and race it against other owners with Ferrari's own mechanics in the pits and taking care of maintenance. The data collected from the cars and the feedback from the owners is used to develop the next generation of road cars and to get owners more involved with the brand.

The latest XX model, the LaFerrari-based FXX K, was unveiled on December 2 and all 39 examples of the €2.2 million (RM9.27 million) hyper track car are already accounted for.

And just like technological advances or new engine features, things that are only found on the world's most exotic cars today will have trickled down to the average new mass-market car within 10 years – that's how everything from air bags, rear seatbelts, power steering, traction control and ABS brakes became standard features on all new cars. – AFP/Relaxnews, January 5, 2015.