You Are What You Drive? Only in America
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--Dec. 1, 20031, 2003--| Automotive Trends Vary Around the Globe, But Americans Identify the Most With Their Vehicles, According to International Yahoo! Autos Survey |
What your car says about you varies according to where you live. An international survey by Yahoo!(R) Autos (http://autos.yahoo.com), an informative and objective site for people looking to buy, sell or research automobiles, 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.
KEY FINDINGS
You Got Personality
A significant difference between American car-owners and drivers from the other countries polled is that Americans are more inclined to attribute a personality to their vehicles. According to the survey, naming, talking to and attributing a gender to a vehicle are some of the ways Americans humanize their cars.
-- 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).
Flirting Behind the Wheel
After purchasing a vehicle, what type of driving behavior do consumers typically demonstrate in the United States and around the world? For one, 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.
Vehicle Color Choices
One area the countries surveyed can agree on is vehicle color choice. 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 Buying Habits
According to the survey, 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.
Attraction on the Road
While Americans judge a person's level of success and social status based on vehicle choices, are they also more inclined to find someone more attractive based on the car they drive? The answer is yes, while China feels even more strongly about this topic.
-- 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.
Permission to Drive
Do countries around the world trust their significant others to drive their car? Some countries are more trusting than others.
-- Germany have the highest percentage of respondents saying yes (89 percent) while the UK has the lowest percentage (61 percent) of people allowing their significant other to drive their car.
-- Americans demonstrate the second lowest percentage (71 percent) next to the UK when it comes to allowing significant others to drive their cars.
Methodology
The Yahoo! Autos survey was conducted online in seven countries during the month of November. Respondents to the survey included an average total of 1,215 in Europe, 2,610 in the U.S., and 5,400 in China. Please see below for complete survey results.
About Yahoo! Autos
Yahoo! Autos (http://autos.yahoo.com) is an informative and objective automotive site for people looking to buy, sell or research automobiles. Offering a complete set of tools and services for new car shoppers, Yahoo! Autos helps consumers with every step of the car buying process. New car shoppers can read consumer and expert reviews, get car quotes from local dealers, research models and pricing, compare features, and get access to content from Consumer Reports, Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds.com - all in one location. Yahoo! Autos offers used cars buyers over 1 million used car listings with detailed descriptions and multiple photos; and provides a platform for used cars sellers to post listings easily and sell cars quickly - all in a very cost-effective manner.
Yahoo! and the Yahoo! logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc.
All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Yahoo! Autos International Automotive Survey Results
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USA UK FRANCE GERMANY SPAIN CHINA ITALY
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TOP COLOR
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- --------- -------- -------
Black-19% Blue-22% Silver-24% Blue-22% Sil- Informa- Silver
Silver-17% Silver-20% Blue-17% Black-17% ver-22% tion - 26%
Red-16% Red-16% White-13% Red-15% Blue-20% Not Blue
White-15% Black-12% Red-10% Silver-15% White-17% Avail- - 20%
Red-14% able Black
- 11%
White
- 8%
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DO YOU TALK TO YOUR CAR?
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ------- -------
Yes-69% Yes-36% Yes-43% Yes-31% Yes-32% Yes-57% Yes-29
No-31% No-63% No-56% No-68% No-67% No-42% No-70
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DO YOU HAVE A NAME FOR YOUR CAR?
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Yes-52% Yes-24% Yes-22% Yes-19% Yes-28% Yes-37% Yes-21%
No-48% No-75% No-77% No-80% No-71% No-62% No-78%
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WHAT GENDER IS YOUR CAR?
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Male-29% Male-17% Male-7% Male-22% Informa- Male-44% Male-8%
Female-49% Female-20% Female-28% Female-7% tion Female- Female-
Neither- Neither- Neither- Neither- Not 16% 42%
22% 61% 64% 70% Avail- Neither- Neither-
able 39% 48%
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DO YOU LET YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS DRIVE YOUR CAR?
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Yes-71% Yes-61% Yes-76% Yes-89% Yes-77% Yes-82% Yes-78%
No-28% No-38% No-23% No-10% No-22% No-17% No-21%
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DO YOU FIND THE OPPOSITE SEX MORE ATTRACTIVE IF THEY DRIVE A NICE CAR?
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Yes-62% Yes-37% Yes-31% Yes-21% Yes-23% Yes-74% Yes-28%
No-38% No-62% No-68% No-78% No-77% No-25% No-72%
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DO YOU JUDGE SOMEONE'S SUCCESS ON THE CAR THEY DRIVE?
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Yes-48% Yes-39% Yes-23% Yes-15% Yes-22% Yes-46% Yes-12%
No-52% No-60% No-76% No-84% No-77% No-54% No-87%
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DO CELEBRITIES INFLUENCE YOUR CAR PURCHASES?
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11%-yes Yes-3% Yes-5% Yes-2% Yes-3% Yes-3% Yes-2%
89%-No No-96% No-94% No-97% No-96% No-96% No-98%
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ON WHAT THINGS DO YOU BASE A PERSON'S STATUS?
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House-47% House-67% House-60% Boat-32% House- Informa- House-
Car-32% Car-18% Partner- House-27% 66% tion 53%
Partner- Partner-7% 20% Partner- Partner- Not Boat-16%
10% Vaca- Vaca- 12% 15% Avail- Partner-
Boat-4% tions-3% tions-9% Car-9% Vaca- able 14%
Gadgets-3% Gadgets-2% Car-6% Vaca- tions-9% Vaca-
Gadgets- tions-9% Car-7% tions-7%
3% Gadgets- Car-4%
1% Gadgets-
3%
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DO YOU FLIRT WITH OTHER DRIVERS WHILE DRIVING?
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Yes-62% Yes-30% Yes-19% Yes-41% Yes-22% Yes-38% Yes-18%
No-38% No-69% No-81% No-58% No-77% No-61% No-81%
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