Almost 30% Of Car Shoppers Rate Cup Holders Top Reason To Choose A Car (Not TACH Viewers I Hope)

IRVINE, Calif.--Aug. 26, 2002-- If you have strong feelings about your car's cup holders, you're not alone. In fact, 27% of car shoppers who participated in a recent Autobytel online survey(a) indicated that they would be willing to look for an altogether different make or model of vehicle to find the perfect cup holders. Indeed, the survey confirms the cup holder's ascendance from a novelty accessory to an essential part of the American daily grind, with 70% of respondents indicating that they use their cup holders at least two to four times a week and nearly half (46%) indicating that they use them "pretty much every day."

Seventy percent of survey respondents indicated that their cup holders are either too shallow or too narrow. When asked what they would tell auto manufacturers to improve in terms of cup holder design, respondents most often said "adjustability" (40%), suggesting the creation of "something flexible enough to accommodate the beverage spectrum." This call for more flexibility may reflect the rise of the Big Gulp-sized beverage, but it also reflects the fact that, these days, cup holders really aren't just cup holders: seventy-five percent of those surveyed said that they also used cup holders as makeshift cell-phone holders.

Survey takers who own U.S. vehicle brands were somewhat more satisfied with their cup holders than those who own European or Asian models, with 48% indicating that they are either "extremely satisfied" or "satisfied" with their car's cup holders. (Only 41% of Asian car owners and 20% of European car owners indicated the same.)

As the nation's food giants develop a range of portable "cup holder foods" -- from snack chips to soups -- 67% of survey takers indicated that this dashboard dining trend is either "a very serious concern" or "potentially a concern" with 33% expressing an interest in seeing studies done on the relationship between driving while eating/drinking and accident rates.