At Week’s End: Give your car a hug, a smile

The “imagineers” of Herbie the Love Bug were really on to something.

The Disney creation — that perky, personable and persistent character embodied in a Volkswagen “Bug” — is based on an engineering reality.

The Beetle, or Bug, has a front that actually looks like a smiling child or woman, according to research at Austria’s Vienna University.

So no wonder you have a tendency to smile when you see a Bug puttering around town.

And no wonder the Disney people had such success taking that one step further and creating a lovable character that was a Beetle with personality plus.
Now a new generation of designers is employing similar strategies. They are creating happy cars.

“It’s smiling at you and you smile back.”

That’s Peter Arnell, talking to the Associated Press about his design for the electric Peapod.

“ ‘Charm’ — I thought this was very important,” he adds. “ ‘Happiness’ — this was part of the conversation too. I wanted to convey that the car was happy to be a car, to say transportation can be happy.”

Other designers use similar thinking. They want their autos to look happy. Or engaging. Or full of personality.

The personality of the car should appeal to the personality of the sought-after customer. And designers know that most women, as well as younger buyers in Gen X and Gen Y, respond well when a car has a “positive” appearance. Perky. Bright. Happy.

By the way, happiness isn’t the only thing that sells. Menace can be marketable, too.

We hear that Ford redesigned the grill of the Mustang to lower its “eyebrows” and darken its grill to make it appear more aggressive.