Do you have a car?
“Yes, but the engine failed last week. Until I get a new one, my wife is driving me to work in our Jeep.”
What car did you have?
“A red Ford Crown Victoria.”
Why did you choose that car?
“I got it when my father-in-law died.”
What do you use your car for?
“I drive to work, to meetings, to church, to the liquor store, and to Georgia Bulldogs football games.”
How long do you spend in your car each day?
“About 20 minutes, and I don’t drive much on the weekends, unless there is a football game.”
Do you take calls in the car?
“Very rarely – mostly when I’m leaving work on the way to the liquor store, I get calls from home, and sometimes I take work calls when I’m on road trips.”
Do you eat in your car?
“No.”
Have you made any upgrades?
“I added a CD player.”
What kind of car would you like?
“I’d love a Jaguar.”
What was your favorite of all the cars you’ve owned?
“My Ford Thunderbird I owned in the mid-eighties. It just drove well, with a great engine.”
What was your least favorite car?
“My first car, a 1960s Ford Falcon.”
Would you like to own vintage cars?
“I’d like a 1957 Chevy, a 1957 Thunderbird, and a 1965 Mustang.”
What’s the nicest car you’ve ever driven?
“I rented a Cadillac one time, and I loved driving it. It was big, comfortable, plush, and powerful, and I liked how it looked.”
What memories do you have of cars?
“High school – driving with my friend down winding roads in the mountains in a Jeep with no brakes. Driving his grandmother’s 1957 Ford Fairlane at excessive speeds across the golf course in the mountains and terrorizing children. It was immortalized in a book!”
Bad memories?
“My mother got a brand new Ford Fairlane, and the very day she got it I drove it into the mud. My father and a tow truck had to pull it out at eight the next morning. He was not happy.”
Did you drive around town?
“We went to drive-in theaters and drove round and round at burger joints. It was wonderful.”
Do you have any handicaps?
“I’m starting to have some vision problems.”
Do you like being entertained in the car?
“I like music and books on tape, although they can get tedious on long road trips.”
Have you ever driven cross-country?
“Yes.”
How would you like to access music?
“I’d like to have access, while driving, to my entire collection at home. I don’t want to have to organize it every time I go out to the car.”
What about choosing anything you want from a big music database?
“That would be great.”
Would you want to search by song or by artist or by genre?
“Probably by song.”
Would you pay for it?
“If I got to keep the recording of the song.”
Do you want to pay per song, like on iTunes, or pay a monthly fee for unlimited downloads?
“Per song. Or just to have unlimited access to a specific genre. And satellite radio would be good too.”
Do you listen to the radio?
“Yes, music, very rarely news, lots of Braves baseball games.”
What new car might you buy?
“A Ford 500. I think that’s the name.”
For a cross-country trip with your family?
“A Lincoln Navigator.”
A cross-country trip with a friend?
“Cadillac Eldorado convertible.”
Would you like to entertain yourself in the car?
“Yes.”
Your wife?
“No, I prefer to entertain myself.”
Young children?
“I’ll alternate between my music and their storybooks on tape. But I want to control the music.”
Would you prefer to have the children separated in the back seat?
“Separated, each with a DVD player and screen and headphones.”
Would you prefer to use CDs or an iPod?
“Probably an iPod, but I don’t want to do much fiddling.”
Do you listen to CDs?
“At work. And I have a Discman for walks, but I’d rather have an iPod. And I don’t know how to burn CDs. On Friday afternoons I like to play Zachary Richard in my office.”
How loud do you like your music?
“Loud in the house, loud in the car, and it isn’t background music. I want low bass and high treble, very good quality sound.”
Do you like using the phone in the car?
“No, but it’s convenient. I’d rather have an excellent speakerphone for when I’m by myself in the car.”
Would you like a GPS?
“Yes – I want to plug in addresses and search for them. Voice-activated and voice-search would be great.”
Where would you like the GPS monitor?
“Lower right, below the center of the dashboard, below the music controls. A handheld one in sync with the car GPS would be nice for walking around cities. But I like paper maps too. I am very good at reading maps. I study them before I leave. I know my way around cities. But I’m not sure about the GPS. I’m not sure I trust it.”
Do you care about interior design?
“Yes – I loved the digital panel in my Thunderbird, but I think perhaps people read analog faster than they read digital. I find it easier to read a dial watch than a digital watch – it registers faster. But the digital display showed me the remaining gallons of gas, a trip odometer countdown – I loved that.”
What about a digital display with digital dials?
“That would be ideal.”
Do you like fabric or leather interior?
“Leather, even in the summer. And for the dashboard, a burl walnut panel.”
Would you like internet access in the car?
“Yes, but not while driving. You know what I really liked? My mother’s car remembers seat and mirror settings for different drivers. I liked that. I’d want a system to set up my music and my display controls and my seat just the way I like it and remember it, if I were to let someone else drive the car.”
How much does road noise bother you?
“Some, but I wouldn’t spend extra money for low road noise.”
Would you like all these features up front, when you buy the car, or would you like the ability to upgrade and add?
“I want it all up front – I don’t want to fiddle along the way.”
What if a better version of some feature came out soon after you bought the car. Wouldn’t you want to upgrade?
“I’d be peeved, but I’d probably wait until I got my next car, unless it was very cheap and very easy.”
Do you care about impressing people in your car?
“No. I don’t want my law partners to think I have stashes of money. I’d rather they think I’m poor and need more money. But I guess I don’t want to go driving around in a ratty car either.”