Starting next year, the average age of Ford Motor Company's domestic vehicles is to be reduced by 35 percent. This would bring the average age of Ford vehicles in line with the industry leaders.

The company is going to update its vehicles with major face-lifts, technical improvements and other changes in three-year cycles. "One way to differentiate yourself and bring people into the showroom is with great design," Kuzak explained. " You don't design for the masses; each vehicle has a target audience."

The lab reduces the need to build physical prototypes and trims thousands of dollars and several months from the product development process. The VRC is outfitted with a computer, discreet cameras and a "driver's seat." Three walls and the ceiling are covered by rear projection screens that display computer-aided design (CAD) drawings of vehicle interiors and exteriors at actual scale.

During a design evaluation, a program engineer sits in a car seat on a low platform and wears 3-D glasses to view a highly detailed CAD illustration. Tiny balls attached to the frame of the glasses communicate the tester's head orientation to cameras around the room, which translates the tester's movements to the computer running the CAD program and adjusts the image to the tester's orientation.

For example, the tester can look over his own shoulder to evaluate the rear view and judge whether the headrest obscures the view or if the package tray under the rear window is too high. The same conclusion can be drawn from sitting in a physical prototype, but a VRC test can be done within a few days of completing the CAD drawings, while building a prototype can take up to 12 weeks.

"We're moving faster and getting the right product out the first time," said Kevin Shores, Ford Core Vehicle Architecture static test engineer.