It took a bet – and a very big wager – before I took to the wheel again five years ago. I took driving lessons 20 years ago, but never obtained a driver’s license. (I got a marriage license instead).
On the eve of the day my bet was about to expire (that I would learn to drive again after all these years), and fearing that the wager (dinner at the Cowrie Grill for three female colleagues, all excellent drivers), would wipe out my salary, I enrolled in a driving school. Somewhere on the road, as my vehicle was "hanging" and my right foot was furiously keeping up with the clutch-gas tandem, a painful truth hit me: Driving is not like riding a bike – the skill doesn’t come back to you instantly when you’re on the hot seat again after a long absence.
Been driving ever since – driving my husband and all the better drivers on the road crazy (not because I’m reckless, I’m probably too safe!) Parallel parking and crossing the Anda circle rotunda to my office are still two of my life’s biggest hurdles.
My first car was a God-send – an automatic that didn’t leave my car and my nerves in the lurch, ever. When my teen-aged son first got to show off his driving skills to his father, he wasn’t content with the verdict that he was doing okay. "But am I better than Mom?" he insisted.
So when Viking cars (official dealer in the Philippines of all Volvo cars) president lawyer Albert Arcilla invited me to the Asian launch in Kuala Lumpur of the Volvo YCC (Your Concept Car), a car for women built by women, I felt that I was attending a Grand Prix of sorts, and that I was Penelope Pittstop.
Unveiled to Asian media and Malaysian crème de la crème at the KL Hilton was a car that was pure fantasy in looks and yet was as real as the Petronas Towers in features. And I thought Michael Hasselholf’s Knight Rider (this dates me, but what the heck) was just a figment of Hollywood’s imagination.
For one, the YCC takes the nightmare out of my Waterloo – parallel parking.
When you need to park between two other cars, but first want to check if there will be enough space for you to squeeze in, you press the parking assistance button once for the space-check function. If the system says yes, you can then select the Auto-park function by pressing the same button again.
The car helps you with the steering to maneuver you into the parking space –but you control the accelerator, brakes and gearshift.
With this feature, no one ever need to pat the rear of you car again – pak, pak, pak – to guide you into your prized parking space, ever again.
"We want cars to make life easier for their owners, not complicate things for them," says YCC project manager Eva-Lisa Andersson, who flew from Sweden to KL for the YCC Asian launch (The YCC was first launched in Geneva a year ago)
Another popular feature of the YCC – as far as women were concerned – was that it could run on a punctured tire for a couple of kilometers until the driver gets to a gas station. "Women are uncomfortable getting out of their car to change tires!" explains Anna. For safety reasons, and as far as I’m concerned, for porma reasons.
Here’s more: the gull-wing doors open automatically when the owner approaches the car. It’s as if the car can "smell" its owner, who has her vital statistics (height, etc.) inputted into a system that inputs the information into the key. If you have a lot on your hands (as women often have), and hate to fumble for your keys in the pit of your seemingly bottomless bags, here’s a car that will literally open doors for you. You simply activate the Auto Open using the key before you pick up your bags, then, when you stand by the rear tire, the relevant side door will be opened for you. If you go to the back of the car, the tailgate opens instead.
And where to put those bags in your hands?
The back seats were designed like cinema seats. They fold when not in use, so you can lay your shopping bags on a much wider backspace.
The car is also easy to clean – a relief for women who want to keep their manicured nails as shiny as the car’s exterior. The car’s exterior has a coating like a non-stick pan – it repels dirt.
And, to show you that perfection is the sum of perfect details, the Volvo women engineers even designed the headrest of the driver’s seat to "accommodate" a woman’s ponytail! Listening to feedback from women, they learned that women with ponytails have a hard time resting their heads on the headrests of their seat. Ask and you shall receive, ladies!
And for women who want it all, the YCC has a six-speed Powershift gearbox. You can choose either the fully automatic mode when you want to take it easy (like me) or use the controls on the steering column when you want to shift to the conventional mode. It’s all about choices and the right of women to make them!
As Paul Stokes, vice president for Volvo Car Asia, quoting marketing expert Martha Barletta, correctly pointed out: "If you meet the expectations of women, you exceed the expectations of men."
Amen.
And, to show you that perfection is the sum of perfect details, the Volvo women engineers even designed the headrest of the driver’s seat to "accommodate" a woman’s ponytail!