Quality of door sounds of passenger cars

It is reported that the sound of a car door closing is one of the main factors to determine the overall impression of the car. Much effort has been made to improve the quality of this sound. In this study, sounds of the closing of the doors of various passenger cars were recorded and presented via headphones in a sound-proof room. Based on these sounds, German and Japanese groups of participants formed mental images of the cars involved. They were also asked to evaluate the quality of the sounds. Generally speaking, though there were some differences, similar results were obtained with both groups of participants. It was found that the impressions of the sound quality varied considerably and that there was a correlation between the impression of the sound and the mental image of the car. It was suggested that the image of a car is related to the sound of the car.