Ask Dr. Helen: Are Hybrid Owners All That?
My PJM column is up:
Does your car reflect your personality? Do you drive a hybrid and have a mindset like this?
You can read the column and respond there or here.
Do our choices in cars really reflect our true personality traits? That’s what they say, but Dr. Helen Smith isn’t sure.
Does your car reflect your personality? Do you drive a hybrid and have a mindset like this?
You can read the column and respond there or here.
Labels: PJM column
posted by Helen at 9:10 AM
38 Comments:
Today's hybrid owners are like yesterday's hippies: seeking to look cool and superior by backing a cause and possessing an expensive item to prove it. I remember being in college in the 60s, looking at the ads for sandals/clothing in the leftoid rags, and realizing the whole hippie thing was a uppper-income movement.
I was proven correct when in the 70s the former hippies' parents cleaned them up, gave them keys to new volvos, and sent them into the executive suites of America's corporations. It was the poor suckers of the working class who were left holding the used litter bags.
I challenge any Prius owner to pack three kids, dog and all the camping gear for a week's trip to the Boundary Waters into their car.
I also have a question: what happens to the battery in your car once it dies or becomes defective?
Forgive me for the self-link, but you've helpfully left me the perfect excuse to post a pic I took the other day.
:o)
It would be interesting to compare hybrid buyers with the purchasers of other cars in the same price range--without doing this, it's impossible to tell how much of the claimed set of traits is a function of hybrids vs a function of income/wealth or of propensity to engage in conspicuous consumption.
Regarding the latter point, the geothermal heating/cooling industry has encountered some difficulty in selling its energy-saving products precisely because they are not readily visible and hence don't make a good status symbol. See A Marketing Challenge.
Hey Joan D'Aargh,
I get a good laugh when I see a Jaguar (the car) parked in a short dirt driveway with no garage and a small beach yard (southern Jersey). And I can look out my window and see a shrouded Jaguar in he driveway of a small house rented by a under-employed siding contractor.
Well, Steve McQueen once famously said, "You are what you drive."
I suspect most people think like that, seeing their cars as extensions of their personalities and/or status, in a sort of the clothes make the man kind of way.
Personally, I now drive a 1993 Ford Ranger pickup, but it's a little unique. I ordered it directly from the factory and had it built to my specifications, because I wanted the off-road package and the extended bed, but not the extended cab. I also wanted the bucket seats. It's the only new vehicle I've ever bought, and I figured if I was going to spend the money, I'd get exactly what I wanted.
It's been a good truck, functional and affordable, but it is getting up there in years and miles. I should get a new car, but I don't want the payments right now.
If I were to buy a new car though, I'd probably get a Mazda RX8. I like the way it looks, and my father owned an RX7 back in the day. It was one of the best cars he ever had.
I don't really care for many of the new models out there today. They just don't appeal to me. But my mother recently bought a new Malibu, and she loves it, mainly because it has satellite radio and she gets to drive around and listen to the 40s channel. Which ought to tell you something about her personality.
There are several good cars out there, but I look upon people who buy particular cars, like hybrids or hummers, to make some kind of statement, like I'm cool or I'm tough, as not unlike the kids I remember from high school who bought pet rocks just to be part of the in-crowd.
Back then I caught a lot of grief for not having a pet rock, so I went out into a field and caught a wild one. It wasn't pretty and polished like a pet rock, kind of rough and scraggly really, and it certainly didn't come with a birth certificate, but I tamed it and it was mine. I made a little leather leash for it, because I was afraid that my wild rock would attack some kid's pet rock, which did indeed happen on more than one occasion.
The point is this. The man makes the clothes, not the other way around. Men who know money buy clothes for their functionality, not to make a fashion statement. I mean, yeah, Hugo Boss and Armani make great suits, but at $5000 a pop you could buy five perfectly good tailored suits at Dillard's for the price of one Armani. As long as a suit fits and looks good, the name on the label is irrelevant. The economics of the purchase, that is all.
It's the same with cars. People who buy expensive cars, and expensive suits and expensive houses and expensive coffee, do so because they're concerned with the appearance of wealth. Most of them don't have any money. What they have is debt for the sake of popularity.
Frankly, I'd rather have the money, several nice but relatively inexpensive suits, a small but comfortable house, and a reliable vehicle. That's not much, I know, but it is economical.
It's also what allows me to splurge on fine steaks and good food, go to Dallas Cowboys football games, and generally enjoy the better things in life. Oh, and I drink Gevalia coffee, imported from Sweden, ground fresh every morning. It's so much better than Starbucks.
I would have gone a bit deeper in this study. It seems that the way you buy the car and how quickly you get it paid off would have been other underlying factors of car personality. That would have given a larger view of the true personality is which they are in search of.
It's funny to are writing about this. I was thinking about this yesterday as I was driving past a woman smoking in her "smart car."
It was incredibly funny to me. Because she has care for the environment but none for herself while puffing away on a cigg?
(I can say this having smoked for 17 years) HA! Literally was laughing at this one.
We have a few cars. An older SUV, that we bought for $3000 a few years back. This car we use to take the kids on road trips and if we need to haul something.
I drive ten year old E320 Mercedes bought used. The kids fit in it well, and when they are at their mom's, it just me and the hubby driving it around.
And a couple others only driven on special occasions.
We are laid back people. We watch CNN, and recycle like mad. We pay cash for our cars because we saved our money. We do not have a car payment. And we try to do the right things.
Believe it or not everyone else feels that they too are doing right.
Thanks for the topic.
Cake said...
I challenge any Prius owner to pack three kids, dog and all the camping gear for a week's trip to the Boundary Waters into their car.
Don't worry about it, Cake--you won't be allowed to leave your designated bioregion without permission from your enlightened betters anyway. "Why in Gaia's name would you want to use something other than your own wonderful Municipal Recreational Facility, anyway?"
I offer the opinion at the "Stuff White People Like" http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/02/07/60-toyota-prius/
Let's think about this for a moment. Does a poorer shopper care about what their products say about them? I would argue that they are mostly concerned with price and quality. As one's economic situation improves, you can choose to purchase goods using the previous metric, or you can start using things that might be filed under "self-actualization".
Companies know this and they use advertising to send a message about their product. Everyone might be affect by fashion, a product with high brand awareness. But vegetables? Computers?
The progressive creative types who decry advertising and corporate branding are in fact the largest consumers of advertising.
Somebody had to buy the first telephone, the first computer, the first mp3 player. At the time I am sure there was a group of people who sneered at the choices of these consumer pioneers. Then those products became mainstream and the sneering stopped.
Somebody has to be the first to try the hybrid car. Before you turn your nose up at these first-time hybrid buyers you might consider being thankful that someone is sticking their neck out to help work out the bugs and create enough demand to potentially make these cars cost-effective for the rest of us. Unless, of course, you don't mind paying $4/gallon for your fossil fuel powered car.
The people who used the first telephone, computer and mp3 player were nerds. Nobody spent millions of dollars trying to make nerds feel cool to get them to buy their products either, because they were good products in and of themselves.
These people aren't buying the products because they're good and want to be the "first". They're buying them to feel good about themselves.
Unless, of course, you don't mind paying $4/gallon for your fossil fuel powered car.
Could you tell me the total cost of teh energy units -- gas and electric -- of the hybrid vs the cost per energy unit of a fossil fuel powered car? And FTIW toss in the overall cost comparison for producing the car to begin with.
Could you tell me the total cost of teh energy units -- gas and electric -- of the hybrid vs the cost per energy unit of a fossil fuel powered car? And FTIW toss in the overall cost comparison for producing the car to begin with.
12:02 PM, March 17, 2008
I suspect Cham doesn't know when she posted her snark.
njartist --
Don't forget the cost of replacing those batteries every five years or so.
When a hybrid wins at Daytona - then I'll think about buying one.
It's fair to say that all your purchases are indicative in one way or another of your personality, but what part? And can you generalize any of this?
I own two Hondas because after owning several piles of junk, I decided that stress reduction in the form of reliability was the most important factor in my decision.
I'll have to see if it's online, but a recent edition of Forbes had one man's suggestion that electric cars could be a source of energy recycling back to the grid during off days and in the evening when power demands are lower.
With the right kind of efficient fuel cells, he feels that every electric car in a garage can be viewed as a power cell in the grid. Now that's some creative thinking!
The only hybrid owners (husband/wife) I know traded in a gas guzzling SUV for it. Nearly all their previous cars were gas guzzling V-8s, performance cars, etc. Did their personality change all the sudden?
I drive a 1998 Camry with 244,000 miles on it. In some ways it reflects my personality, frugal and reliable.
As for the Mindset Media psychographics, its probably more baloney than reality. The marketing research company I work for is recognized as one of the best in the world. Every MR company measures attitudes, interests, education level, income level, etc. putting a fancy name to it doesn't make it any better. Mindset is using it to drum up business more than anything.
I don't pay much stock to cars saying anything about a person.
I need to buy some hard drives. What do my hard drives say about me? Will I come across as ostentatious if I spring for a 1 TB model? Or does buying big hard drives make me look like some kind of porn surfing, music stealing slacker? And what about my old, busted hard drives -- should I tell people I recycle them or admit that they end up in a landfill with all the diapers and stuff?
These are really difficult decisions. Maybe I should keep my hard-drive purchases to myself.
cham...I think you're right that the people who buy the initial hybrids, for whatever reason, help bring the cost down...eventually to the point at which these cars will make economic sense even to those who *don't* care about the status aspects. The "learning curve" of production costs is common to manufactured products.
matthew...actually, a lot of the early business application of computers was probably driven by corporate status factors.
joan...the idea is that plug-in hybrids would have significant battery capacity, so they could return power to the grid at peak times--say, 4:00PM on a hot day--when the power stations are flat out. This idea only works if constant charge/discharge cycles don't wear the (expensive) batteries out.
big question is do you own it or not? if you look as if you bought the car when in fact you either leased it or make payments on it, then there is a statement being made.
if you look at the actual *car* involved...is the whimsical, creative hybrid really that much more forward thinking than the 25 year old Mercedes-Benz that is still running well with nearly a half million miles on it, is still getting 30mpg, and can run on relatively simple "home brew" fuels?
Then again, the idea that your car (alone, not the context in which it exists in your life) makes such a grand statement is a wonderful way to drive home a good marketing campaign, isn't it?
I'm on my second Subaru. An unreliable car drives me crazy. That's why I drive Subarus. They don't (or rarely) break down. Which says what about me? Not a big chance taker. Can't stand uncertainty. Which is true. So in my case the car does correspond to one aspect of my personality. On the other hand, I'm no liberal. So it doesn't say everything about me.
Geez lou-freakin-eze! What a bizarre pile of generalizations we have going on here! Seems that a car invokes more knowledge about the observer than the driver, no?
My car reflects my budget, not my personality. I have never owned a car that remotely demonstrated anything about me beyond that. When I do own a car that is 100% of my own preference, it will not have a damn thing to do with social statements, desire to be on the cutting edge, or "look how much I spent!" nonsense... though surely some will project that right into it.
I know this is off topic, but it cracked me up.
Every day at work, I get a word and its definition from "Wordsmith" in my e-mail.
As of late, it appears definitions are turning into opinions. I looked at this one this morning:
Speciesism (SPEE -shee-ziz-uhm)
The assumption of superiority of humans over other animals, especially to justify their exploitation.
If think the fact that cows have never figured out a way to avoid being turned into steaks pretty much demonstrates their inferiority. When they start going on hunger strikes - then it will be reasonable to talk about speciesism.
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What kind of a statement does a 2006 Lincoln Town Car make ???
Did you buy it new, or used?
Clunfler: "is the whimsical, creative hybrid really that much more forward thinking than the 25 year old Mercedes-Benz that is still running well with nearly a half million miles on it, is still getting 30mpg, and can run on relatively simple "home brew" fuels?"
No, it's not forward thinking at all. Back in the 70s I worked as a mechanic with a guy that specialized in Mercedes Diesels, we re-built engines with anywhere from 200k to 700k all the time and off they went for another couple hundred thousand miles or more.
For me, I'm not smart enough to buy one of those, I've always been an American V-8 in the front with rear wheel drive kinda guy, always will be. If they all stop making them, I'll restore something.
I drive a 2001 Ford Focus, because my sister couldn't afford it and I bought it from her. I wish it got better gas mileage, on my last tank it was just under 24 mpg for city driving. I would consider a hybrid just for the better gas mileage. Although I wonder if they are harder to repair and service. I imagine a significant portion of hybrid owners are relatively wealthy. The rich are often the trend setters. I'm sure the JD Power study wasn't meant to prove any kind of bias, but aren't their main products power tools? I think if you are driving the ideal car then it probably does reflect your personality.
You are what you drive? That's a pretty intimidating thought. I bought a used (80,000 plus mile) 2001 Lexus ES300, which is a Toyota Camry in drag (all Camry running gear), but because of the snob appeal of Lexus owners they depreciate faster than Camrys, so they're a better deal used. I figured I could get a bottom-of-the-line Lexus for less than the Camry, I'd be looking more affluent than I am, but for less money! (So if I am what I drive, this makes me a con artist, I'm ashamed to admit.)
In my defense, I really like the car. Very comfortable, completely reliable, nothing ever goes wrong.
OTOH, I have a 1964 Ford Ranchero that's an old hot rod project car. If the old muscle cars, denote macho male chauvinist types, I guess I'm ruining the stereotype.
I like Priuses, but I can't afford one, and I'd be afraid people might think I was saving the environment!
NJartist: Could you tell me the total cost of teh energy units -- gas and electric -- of the hybrid vs the cost per energy unit of a fossil fuel powered car? And FTIW toss in the overall cost comparison for producing the car to begin with.
I think it would be interesting to find out, but are you certain that hybrids aren't more efficient and cleaner than a typical gas fueled vehicle?
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