Driven by demand

DETROIT -- The challenge for Kevin and Ellen Whalen of Hingham was one faced by many families today.

With three kids, ages 15, 13, and 9, they needed a versatile family vehicle to haul friends, pets, and sporting gear. Their choice: a minivan, a hulking SUV, a pickup truck?

No, a luxury car. A Mercedes-Benz, in fact. Not exactly the family car you might think of for taking trash to the dump.

Yet American drivers, even as they make political and environmental choices in what they drive, are increasingly looking for function and utility. What was once expected from minivans, and later SUVs, is now demanded from trucks and even sedans. And drivers want all their vehicles to be functional, particularly in seating options.

In addition, buyers want luxury, often looking for "a personal jet, all the amenities" said Marek Reichman, director of interior strategy, product, and design at Ford Motor Co. "The amount of time we spend in our cars has gone up substantially and the sedan wasn't meeting the needs of the family." And, in many cases, neither were two-row SUVs, minivans with fixed seats, or pickup trucks with minimal second row seating.

Besides critical seating choices, drivers also want convenience and comfort. That means multiple cupholders, DVD screens for watching movies, overhead and center console bins, multiple plugs for auxiliary power, and even refrigerated glove compartments to keep drinks cool.

The Whalens chose their Mercedes, the 2002 E-Class wagon with all-wheel-drive that seats seven including the driver, so they could have a car that provides elegance, safety, and a roomy ride.

"If we go out, and even one of our kids has a friend along, we need seating for six," said Kevin Whalen, a 46-year-old money manager. "And my wife finds herself bombing around town all the time carpooling."

The 2004 version of Whalen's Mercedes-Benz has not only third and second rows of seats that fold flat, but also a flat-folding front passenger seat so the driver can haul items such as two-by-fours or a surf board. Mercedes-Benz is also near production of a vehicle it calls a Vision Grand Sports Tourer that, with all seats up and all DVD players descending, evokes the luxurious Learjet. Hide all that away, however, and it's a more utilitarian delivery van. And other manufacturers are driving down the same road.

BMW is considering adding a third row of seats to its X5 SUV and has even danced with the notion of a minvan. Chrysler's new Town & Country minivan will feature fold-flat seats in what the company acknowledges is a bid to win back minivan sales. And two of the hottest selling cars in the past two years have been the Honda Element -- a box on wheels that features flat floors, seats that can be removed, folded away, or flopped down into beds for sleeping -- and the Volvo XC90 SUV which, besides anti-rollover technology, features a center row of seats, split 40-20-40, in which the center section slides forward to hold a child close to parents.

This is happening because for vehicle makers it is axiomatic in today's world of SUVs and even station wagons that, if they do not offer a third row of seating at least as an option, they are missing buyers. Further, particularly with minivans, if they do not offer second and third rows that "disappear" into the floor or configure to offer more cargo space, they lose again.

Besides the need for extra seating, driven in part by the fact that small children can no longer sit in the front seats because of the danger posed by airbags, the demand for creature and cargo capability is driven by lifestyle. Thus, it is not just imaginative seating that buyers are seeking in their quest for utility and luxury on wheels.

DVD players, sometimes in multiple rows, descend from ceilings. Rails run along roofs or floors, letting storage boxes slide from front to rear. In sedans, rear seatbacks fold flat, opening cargo space to the trunk. So-called "through boxes" behind center armrests in rear seats, and often opening into long bags, allow for carrying skis. And in pickup trucks, "midgates" open the bed to the rear passenger compartment where, seats folded away, more hauling space is achieved.

And seats themselves have become far more high-tech and varied in their utility. They now are constructed to protect drivers in rear-end crashes. They house side impact airbags, contain sensors that detect the distance of the occupant from frontal airbags or the weight of occupants to calibrate airbag deployment. They are powered, heated and cooled, and feature lumbar and lateral support, and, in some cases, even massage controls.

The demand for adaptability "all started with the minivan," said David Kingston, executive director of business development for seating at Johnson Controls Inc., a Michigan-based developer of auto interiors. "SUVs followed very quickly."

And then pickup trucks -- whose buyers began to demand full rear seats that could fold away for more cargo area and full-size rear doors so families could pile in and out. And now station wagons and so-called "crossover" vehicles, the latest wave in family transportation, are offering DNA culled from minivans, SUVs, and station wagons.

The crossovers are becoming popular because people began to reject the minivan as uncool and the SUV as politically incorrect or, as in the case of Kevin Whalen, impractical.

"It's like owning a convertible couch all year long and putting up with the discomfort just for the two or three nights you have overnight guests," Whalen said of the SUV, whose offroad capabilities are seldom used and whose bulk is more threatening than useful. Yet comfort, configurability, and utility have spread through many manufacturers' automotive offerings.

"Versatility is a key," said Kevin Hunter, vice president of Calty Design Research, a California arm of Toyota. "The more you can do with transfer, adaptability, the greater the value."

Keith Wandell, of Johnson Controls, at the North American International Auto Show last month said the company's new fold-flat seats could "dramatically increase second- and third-row cargo space in sport utility vehicles, crossover vehicles, minivans, and pickup trucks."

He could have included luxury station wagons, such as the Mercedes-Benz driven by the Whalens of Hingham.

Royal Ford can be reached at ford@globe.com.