CLEMSON — Move over baby boomers, Generation Y is taking the wheel.

To kick off 2009 in style, the Detroit Auto Show recently unveiled some of the snazziest rides to date.

However, there was a difference this year.

Generation Y, the largest generation since the baby boomers, encompasses 17-28-year-olds. With more than 75 million Americans in the category, the auto industry is making sure to zero in on the vehicle desires of young up and comers.

To better prepare for the innovative automotive cravings of Generation Y, Deloitte, an accounting company that does research for General Motors, Chrysler and Toyota, selected five schools to conduct a survey completed by 1,006 Gen Y consumers.

Clemson was one of those schools.

“Basically, they selected the schools to find out how to sell cars to Gen Y,” said Trevor Turner, a Clemson master of business administration (MBA) student. “We’re the generation that should be buying up the cars, but we’re not.”

Clemson chose a first-year MBA marketing class to conduct the research before preparing a presentation to take to Detroit.

Turner and Adam Stubblefield were selected by their peers to travel to Michigan and showcase the findings.

“We broke down our research in various groups,” Turner said. “By using statistical software, we analyzed segments for cars that highlighted comfort, navigation, environmental friendliness, stereo systems and safety.

“We saw how those findings progressed with age,” he added. “In the beginning, we saw that they wanted all the tunes and technology, then it progressed into comfort and being ‘green,’ and finally, it turned into them wanting a luxury car when their careers started to take off.”

Deloitte’s overall findings marked safety and comfort as the top winners in the minds of Generation Y.

John Mittelstaedt, Turner’s professor, traveled alongside the students to Detroit.

“In all aspects, Adam and Trevor represented the very best standards and ideals of Clemson University,” he said. “Ours were the only first-year MBA students involved, but they stacked up well with the very best of the other schools.”

The other schools involved in the study were Michigan State University, Gonzaga University, Syracuse University and Texas Tech University.

For more information on the survey and Deloitte’s findings, visit http://www.deloitte.com/us/genyconnection.