Rank It Up-Driver's Seat

It used to be that you could go to SEMA and just enjoy the show; catch up on the automotive aftermarket; and find out about products outside of the audio industry that would complement the overall setup of your car. So much for kicking back... With the product reveals that took place in Vegas this past November, it's clear that SEMA has become an important show for electronics makers, and not just the 1,001 automotive aftermarket companies. Recently SEMA published the results of a youth survey ("2004 SEMA Youth Study Report)" that show how important audio is to the car enthusiasts in this demographic (16-30). As you might expect, a big majority of the young men asked responded that the primary purpose of buying a car is to modify or personalize it, something the people at Scion know well enough.

Female car owners are less likely to cite personalization as their main reason for buying a car, but the percentage of them that answer yes is more than 50%. More interesting than the motivation behind a car purchase is what owners want to upgrade first on their rides. The "priority" list starts with exhausts (for both males and females), which may be a surprise to all those wheel companies out there. But more surprising (although, not to us here at CA&E) is that audio upgrades rank a solo second among males and ties for second among females. See the full chart below

For the full report go online to www.sema.org/research.

We've done our own internal surveys-but it's nice to see a third-party get the same results. Go to any car show and it's the same. A car enthusiast has a ton of performance parts on his vehicle, but always enough time and disposable income to add an A/V system. People who don't know any manufacturer names in the industry still have audio gear, because they don't think a car is done until the audio system's been modified. SEMA's survey respondents need to check out this issue of Car Audio. Getting new gear is great, but you need to think first of how you want to integrate it in your car, or how it will be presented or accented... You may want to use a product in a new way, as you can see in the Scosche demo vehicles. Or you may want to pick up some install ideas and techniques from our all-star contributors: Chris Yato shows us how to create practically any kind of sub enclosure you can imagine using molds; Dave "Fishman" Rivera provides a how-to of working with liquid acrylic; and of course, Steve Brown gives us another excellent how-to in his "Tricks of the Trade;" and more. There's a lot to check out in this issue, including the latest products presented at SEMA. Think of it as the appetizer to the main course, when we get back from CES and provide you all the best products for 2006. Enjoy.

In the CD changer: Here's to Life, I Remember Miles, Shirley Horn, RIP.