An international survey by Yahoo! Autos,
found that Americans are far more likely to judge
someone's success based on the car they drive compared to other countries, and often
base their automotive purchasing decisions accordingly. The survey also found that
Americans identify most with their vehicles and attribute a personality to them more
often than the other countries polled in the survey. The survey polled seven countries
around the globe, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany,
Spain, Italy and China, to better measure consumers' perceptions of automotive buying
and usage in several regions of the world.
Some of the interesting findings:
Americans and the Chinese talk to
their vehicles the most (69 percent and 57 percent respectively). In contrast, Italians
are the least likely to hold a conversation with their cars at 29 percent.
Americans take this a step further, with 52 percent giving their cars names.
Most countries,
however, will attribute a gender to their cars. For example, most American cars (49
percent) are considered female by their owners while in contrast, some German and
Chinese respondents believe their vehicles are male (22 percent male vs. 7 percent female
Germany; 44 percent male vs. 16 percent female China).
Americans (62 percent) love to flirt
with other drivers while they are behind the wheel. Next to Americans, Germans are
most inclined to flirt while driving at 41 percent. Italian respondents are the least
flirtatious behind the wheel at 18 percent.
Silver is the most popular color in three
of the countries and makes it into the top four color choices across all countries
surveyed. Blue was the next most popular color and was the top choice in Germany, while
Americans picked black as their top choice. -- France (24 percent), Spain (22 percent)
and Italy (26 percent) listed silver as the top color option. -- The UK (22 percent) and
Germany (22 percent) picked blue for their first choice. Vehicle Social Status and
The majority (52 percent) of Americans tend to
judge someone's success based on the car they drive. -- Only 12 percent of Italian
respondents and 15 percent of Germans base people's success on vehicle types. -- China
(46 percent) and the UK (39 percent) were closer to American drivers in viewing a car as
a measure of success. Similarly, cars are one of the top items by which Americans base a
person's social status, with almost one third (32 percent) of Americans using cars to
rate a person's status. -- The UK responses (18 percent) came the closest to the American
perception of vehicles as status symbols compared to other regions. -- Only 4 percent of
Italian respondents and 6 percent of French respondents relate status to vehicles.
Out of all the countries surveyed, Chinese respondents
(74 percent) tend to find the opposite sex more attractive if they drive a nice car. --
Americans come to a close second with 62 percent. -- Germany (21 percent) is the least
inclined to base a person's attractiveness on vehicle choice.
