Survey Shows High Percentage of Design Engineers Drive Fords

15 October 2000

Yeah, but what kind of tires do they use? (ed.)

    NEWTON, Mass. - Results in the 21st annual Design News Auto Survey show that about 17 percent of respondents drive a 1999 or 2000 Ford Taurus, Explorer or Ford pick-up truck. The survey, conducted earlier in the year, showed that about 19 percent of survey respondents name Ford the best-engineered U.S. passenger vehicle.

    In the survey's $15,000-24,000 price range, the Honda Accord was named number one, edging the Toyota Camry. In the below-$15,000 price range, the Honda Civic got honors for the best passenger car, followed by the Ford Focus and Saturn.

    In the $25,000 - 44,999 price range, BMW led the way, followed by Mercedes-Benz and the Chevrolet Corvette. Above $45,000, Mercedes-Benz was named number one, with BMW a distant second.

    Volvo topped the safety category, as it has in the past three Design News Auto Surveys. Mercedes-Benz was second, followed by GM, Ford, BMW and Honda.

    Nearly 18 percent of the respondents to the Design News survey said that they expect active suspensions to be commercially available in the next five years, as will drive-by-wire systems, automatic, self-correcting, and power-assisted steering and computer control.

    The engineers surveyed predict that power-train innovations likely in the next few years will include wider use of hybrid compulsion systems, improvements in fuel efficiency, and alternative fuel and engines.

    Since 1980, Design News has asked its design engineer readers -- about 17 percent of whom work in auto-related fields -- to name the cars they'd buy on the basis of quality and good engineering, and to compare how each maker's car stacks up against the competition.

    "Design engineers have strong opinions about autos, and with their technical training, they understand quality design and good engineering when they see it," says Paul Teague, chief editor of Design News.

    Design News is read twice monthly by 335,000 engineers who design products ranging from autos to spacecraft. It is published by Cahners Publishing Co., Newton, Mass., the nation's leading publisher of specialized business magazines. Design News is the winner of five Folio magazine "Editorial Excellence" awards as the top design engineering magazine in the U.S.