Wind Noise -Number 1 concern for Consumer
When you are buying a new car, what’s your biggest concern; gas mileage?, price?, power?…..how about the number one consumer concern is…..wind noise. This information was determined by JD Power and Associates during a recent initial quality survey. According to MSNBC.com, aerodynamic design and minimizing wind noise are taking precedance over many other factors including production costs. The bottom line is that when people test drive a car and there is a great deal of wind noise, the customers are not buying these cars.
Ford Motor Co. has an engineer that is called the wind noise engineer. His job is to ensure that the wind noise is very low on their cars. While testing the new Ford Flex for wind noise, Steve Dworack, the wind noise engineer, heard a buzz. It was a small buzz, but a noise nonetheless, and he made sure that it was fixed before the factory started to make these vehicles. It cost Ford $10,000, but well worth the money to keep the consumer happy and willing to purchase this car.
Another factor with wind noise is that the less wind noise the better the gas mileage. Any way that automakers can show that they are more fuel efficient than another car is a benefit. If there is a lot of wind noise that takes energy and energy uses fuel, so the less wind noise the less energy that is being used.
So, the next time you are test driving a car, make sure that you listen for the wind noise, and hope that you do not hear any, and if you do know that there may be another car out there with less wind noise!