\n<\/p>\n
Nearly 100,000 car<\/span> buyers of 2025 model-year autos were asked what they thought of their gleaming new rides. The results are revealing, to say the least. Want to know who was the worst performer? That ignominy goes to Audi, with an embarrassing 269 problems reported per 100 vehicles.<\/p>\n However, one of the most interesting discoveries of the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (labelled as a \u201ckey finding\u201d, no less) concerned not annoyance with the lack of physical buttons, nor, amazingly, intrusive bongs from speed-warning systems, but a marked increase in \u201ccup-holder frustration\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile it seemed like\u00a0manufacturers had cup holders figured out \u2026 manufacturers are struggling to keep up with being able to accommodate all the different shapes and sizes [of containers] that are increasingly available,\u201d says the report.<\/p>\n So it seems that despite the auto industry\u2019s obsession with software-defined vehicles, many purchasers would forego any number of digital doohickeys, so long as there was enough room in their new cars for multiple Big Gulps. Paying through the nose for a fancy new car stuffed with tech\u2014ADAS, ambient lighting, back-groping seats, dog modes\u2014doesn\u2019t stop auto buyers from complaining about insufficiently expandable beverage bays.<\/p>\n For several years, this long-running annual benchmarking report has advised car brands to pay closer attention to the cup-holder kvetching. The cylindrical voids of space\u2014or, in some cars, flip-out trays, door spaces, fancy holsters, or hinged pockets\u2014are still too small, gripe many of those surveyed. Too small for what, though? Most likely gargantuan Stanley cups, giant Yeti Gallon Ramblers and similar such bladder-busters, the spilt contents of which could drench a desert into bloom.<\/p>\n Even though center console real estate in today\u2019s cars is at a premium\u2014especially now that ever-bigger touchscreens have become seemingly essential in every self-respecting digital cockpit\u2014America\u2019s (and increasingly the Middle East and Australia’s) big-drink culture dictates that automakers not scrimp on cup storage.<\/p>\n Twenty years ago, a PricewaterhouseCoopers report suggested that the number of cup holders in a US vehicle was one of the most critical factors in clinching the purchase decision for potential auto buyers. That it remains just as vital today must rankle with auto software engineers, but it doesn\u2019t surprise Chris Fischer, Nissan\u2019s go-to engineer for cup holders. \u201cThat cup holders work well is important to customer satisfaction,\u201d Fischer tells WIRED. \u201cIt\u2019s a key decider when buying a car.\u201d<\/p>\n Working from Nissan\u2019s North American technical center in Farmington Hills, Michigan, Fischer is the company\u2019s senior manager of vehicle performance development, and, along with a team of \u201ccabin utility\u201d engineers, he has toiled to improve in-car beverage storage since 2015, when poor cup holder performance adversely impacted Nissan\u2019s J.D. Power benchmarking scores.<\/p>\n Cup-holder design matters intensely to many consumers, he says. \u201cIf they\u2019re mad about a touchpoint every day, it\u2019ll sour their desire to want this vehicle again.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTouchpoints are critically important,\u201d agrees Dick Powell, cofounder of London-headquartered design and innovation company Seymourpowell. \u201cGreat design is fundamentally about making things better, and when you go into a car showroom, the touchpoints are the first interactions you have with the car. How does the [door] handle feel? What\u2019s it like opening the door? Where are the cup holders?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nearly 100,000 car buyers of 2025 model-year autos were asked what they thought of their gleaming new rides. The results are revealing, to say the least. Want to know who was the worst performer? That ignominy goes to Audi, with an embarrassing 269 problems reported per 100 vehicles. However, one of the most interesting discoveries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[1495,130,3836,3835,812],"class_list":{"0":"post-10738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-car","9":"tag-cup","10":"tag-holders","11":"tag-lovable","12":"tag-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}It\u2019s the Little Things<\/h2>\n