Chrysler keeps prying eyes away from minivan's swivel seats

Chris Vander Doelen, CanWest News Service; Windsor Star
Published: Friday, January 12, 2007

DETROIT - DaimlerChrysler Inc. believes the swivelling seats in its new minivans give it such a competitive advantage, security guards kept other engineers away from the vehicles in Detroit this week.

The company posted guards on a mock up of the Swivel 'N Go seating system it unveiled during the North American International Auto Show, keeping non-journalists from getting a hands-on look at the key feature of its 2008 minivans.

Production of the new vans starts in Windsor in July, and they are expected to be on sale in showrooms by October.

``We are looking to keep competitors away from the product, from taking measurements and seeing how it's done,'' confirmed Ed Saenz, manager of corporate communications for DaimlerChrysler Canada. ``We could find ourselves with six to nine months extra lead time by not letting competitors have that access,'' Saenz said.

As thousands of journalists and automotive executives milled around Chrysler's two new minivans this week, two security guards checked auto show credentials before allowing journalists to sit in the seats and examine the mechanicals underneath.

Non-journalists were turned away from a mock up of the seat system displayed on a rolling platform brought to the Chrysler display stand.

Erich Merkle, an automotive analyst with forecasters IRN Inc., of Grand Rapids, Mich., agrees Chrysler has a competitive advantage worth protecting for as long as possible.

``I do think the swivel captain's chairs is really a point of meaningful differentiation for the Chrysler minivans and that's why they're being so guarded about them,'' Merkle said Thursday.

Differentiation is a key goal of the hyper-competitive auto manufacturers. There are so many nearly identical products on the market, they tend to meld together in consumers' minds.

Chrysler has not been averse to copying the features of other vans itself. In fact, its executives bragged last month that they have copied every desirable feature found on competitors' vans for inclusion into the RT, or fifth-generation Chrysler van.

Honda has been the minivan innovator it has copied most, first matching its second sliding door, then second-row foldaway seating. It has also copied the ``stadium seating'' Ford offered first on the third-row seats of its Windstar.