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April 02, 2005
Right-hand drive?
This is important. The sort of car you drive, according to the New York Times, could be seen as a reflection of your politics.
Researchers say most Porsche drivers are Republicans, as are buyers of American cars - except, for some reason, those who buy Pontiacs, who tend to be Democrats. And Volvos may not actually represent quite what you think. Volvos in the past were the most "Democratic" cars, by 44 to 32 percent, followed by Subarus and Hyundais. But as Volvo's advertising has increasingly stressed performance, in addition to safety, they're being increasingly purchased by Republicans.
Volvos have become more plush and bourgeois, which is a Republican thing to be," said Mickey Kaus, a dual expert in politics and cars as the author of the Kausfiles and Gearbox columns for Slate. "Subaru is the new Volvo - that is, it is what Volvos used to be: trusty, rugged, inexpensive, unpretentious, performs well, maybe a bit ugly. You don't buy it because you want to show you have money; you buy it because you have college-professor values.
In our admittedly brief reading of this, we think we can say that conservative voters probably tend to speed, and possibly engage in attention-seeking behaviour that almost certainly impairs their driving performance. They are therefore probably best treated with extreme caution.
In the interests of reducing the national road toll, we have to try to translate this to the Australian market. For instance, who do you think would buy this?
Posted by cw at April 2, 2005 12:27 PM
Comments
The American survey "reveals" Right wingers as individualistic (not for them green low petrol consumption cars), ostentatious (compensating for?), patriotic, attracted to the low level masculine, and pretty much creatures of habit rather than complexity. Sounds about right. Just dumb and self-centered would be the usual shorthand.
In Aust terms, leaving out the really expensive makes where the affordability factor makes class a skewing toward the right, I would guess (and its pretty wild):
Most large four wheel drives (though women apparently love them because they feel "safe" in them. Since they are being self-centred for their "family" this makes driving an advanced machine for killing other people and the planet ok)
Holden Commodores (much more grunt then Fords)
Perhaps Mazda 6s and 9s
Anything large with a removable top! or even smaller with a removable top!!
I think the left is easier to categorise:
anything French (god knows why, Old Renault's and Peugots were incredibly popular with students in the 1980s even as they drove to demos against French nuclear testing on Murora. Perhaps they associated them with the joining of auto workers with the French philosphers in the spirit of 1968?!)
Anything that looks vaguely European, especially French and not English (except type II Jags and Morris's)
Old Commodores (better petrol consumption and basically a German Opel)
4 wheel drives that don't look like them, eg Subaru.
Anything Toyota except a Land Cruiser
Telstars (dunno why but we do)
Vectras (the new Telstar and again an Opel)
People movers of any description, except the death trap Chryslers that have the single back passenger door that opens into the road. (if you have a large family and earn less than $100,000 a year you'd have to be brain dead to vote conservative, family payment bribes notwithstanding)
Second hand Magnas (so Terry Lane is half safe - it's a sort of Solidarity with the auto workers of Adelaide and sort of up yours to the Bruce Rumps of the RSL still going on about the war)
Posted by: tflip at April 2, 2005 06:51 PM