General Motors is getting ready -- delicately but decidedly-- to deal with the changing physical abilities of the huge Baby Boomer market as it moves into middle age and beyond.
The Detroit-based company is giving increased support to the work and findings of its Paragon Assessment Team, which was originally set up to address the needs of the "major disability groups" but is also now doing things that will help aging Boomers with their future cars and trucks and minivans.
The connection is simple, since people's physical abilities tend to decrease at about the age the first wave of Boomers are now at -- 50 or so. "By the year 2000 there will be 68 million people 50 years of age or older in the U.S.," say Paul Ulrich, manager of the Paragon team. "The oldest baby boomer is 52 and the youngest is 38. They are a cause of a major shift in the 50-plus market."
In Canadian terms, that volume of 50somethings and beyond would be about 7 million by the start of the new Millenium, and in the next 10 to 20 years, then, those millions of consumers will start to need different things in their cars.
GM goes to considerable lengths to be polite about what's happening to Boomers as they age, but essentially their eyesight is failing, they're less agile, they're more prone to disabling conditions, and they'll grow increasingly more fragile, which has consequences in crashes.