Cup holders paved way for interior car design

They showed automakers that people wanted to do more than just drive

up holders have come a long way from when some carmakers considerd them an annoying design afterthought. These days, all new cars have two husky cup holders in the center console and usually a pair in both front doors, and in the back seat and cargo areas. Cup holders led the way for a host of other amenities people now enjoy — and demand.

The cup holder, in its modern automotive incarnation, is about 30 years old. It merits its own Wikipedia entry, which claims it was invented in 1943 by somebody named James Guillow. Well, who knows, really? However, the cup holder as we know it achieved industrial-design celebrity status in the 1980s, and it's been proliferating ever since. Last year, I test-drove a Chrysler Town & Country minivan that had 13 cup holders placed deftly throughout the vehicle. Prior to that, I attended a model debut for the 2009 Subaru Forester in which some of the product development people boasted that they had created a new breed of cup holder specifically designed to accommodate 24-ounce bottles.

Most Americans, regardless of how jaded they are about what cup holders represent (our lifestyle of never-ending, on-the-go consumption, with hundred of sugary, creamy calories never far away, even when driving), have grown to demand them. Moreover, after more than a decade of pushing the envelope with bolder and bolder exterior designs, automakers — prompted by the kind of expectations that cup holders inspired — have taken on the inside of vehicles, with a vengeance.

Despite the seeming simplicity of cup holders, their early deployment was far from ideal. I own two Swedish automobiles that date to the period before cup holder standardization, when European carmakers considered cup holders an annoying afterthought. On the 2000 Volvo, the cup holder is a spidery thing that deploys from the dashboard and blocks the radio and climate controls. It also does a crummy job of holding a cup. On the 1998 Saab, the cup holder is located inside a console between the seats, sort of behind the driver, and doesn't allow a beverage to be easily accessed. I usually revert to the old-school technique of placing my (cold) drink between my legs.