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Given the frequency that OEMs are talking about interiors of late, you might think that they just noticed that people actually sit in cars and trucks. Those pronouncements are music to the ears of people like Bill Fluharty. That's because he's vice president of Industrial Design at Johnson Controls, one of the leading interiors and systems suppliers.

Asked for his take on what seems like a belated discovery, particularly late when it comes to U.S.-based OEMs, Fluharty answers by pointing to two aspects of vehicles that are still incredibly important with regard to vehicle development, two aspects that have pretty much eclipsed (until now, perhaps) the vehicle interior:

1. The exterior. Fluharty calls this "the image side of the automobile." He explains, "From a marketing standpoint, it's important to develop an exterior that will draw in the consumer. And when they sit in the vehicle, they like being seen in it because of what it projects about them." So it is a matter of outside appearance being more important.

2. The engine. "During the last three years, American manufacturers have marketed more power, more power, more power. It's a little of the NASCAR sensibility." He adds that when it came to investment during the past decade, the money has been pretty much focused under the hood.

But now the market--as in the people who are going into the showrooms with a different agenda--is changing. There are new expectations, expectations about vehicle interiors.