Young Chinese Consumers’ Perception of Passenger Car Form in Side View Analyzed with Quantitative and Qualitative Methods

It explores the perception of the triple-compartment passenger car form in side view of young Chinese consumers/users based on their estimate on the similarity of 130 form samples. Nine form categories are classified by cluster analysis and consumers’ perceptual map is plotted by multidimensional scaling, respectively. The gradual form change related to the distribution of form samples in the perceptual map is further analyzed qualitatively. The result shows that young Chinese consumers perceive and judge in their cognitive process the passenger car form in side view and its variation by both overall and local form features. The former are features including the length of vehicle and overall vehicle’s posture, while the latter are ones such as the ratio of the width of front side door to that of rear side door, the inclination of beltline, and the transitional relationship between C-pillar and rear deck.