Democrats Don't Buy "Made In America" Cars
Mixed Results from Political Survey of Buyers
CNW Marketing Research, Inc., a West Coast firm headed by old Detroit hand Art Spinella, has published a curious report on the political leanings of new car buyers. Basically, the overall results from some 150,000 respondents over a year's time are hardly surprising:
-The split between Republicans and Democrats is virtually the same as the popular vote outcome of the November 2004 presidential election, 29.7 percent vs. 28.7 percent.
-Generally, Republicans favor domestic brands and Democrats like the imports but this reflects the Red Republican (center and south) geographical division versus the West Coast and New England Blue Democratic states, and the fact imports have always been more popular on the coasts.
-The research firm reports the proportion of car buyers classifying themselves "independent" has nearly doubled since first asked in the late 1980s, from about 22 percent up to nearly 42 percent.
Oddly, among the handful of buyers of high-priced super-luxury model Rolls, Bentley, Maybach, and Maserati, the split between GOP and Dems is about even but few among these few call themselves independent. On the other hand, it is hard to figure why Scion, aimed at the youngest generation buyers, attracts the highest proportion of self-proclaimed independents, 66 percent.
Among volume cars, the one having the largest proportion of Republican buyers is Lincoln (39.3 percent), closely followed by Buick (39.0 percent), Mercury (38.4 percent), Cadillac (37.7 percent), and Chrysler (36.8 percent). More Democrats (42.1 percent) favor Subaru than any other make, followed by VW (39.5 percent), Honda (37.3 percent) and, surprise, Buick (36.9 percent).
Least popular among Republicans are Suzuki, Scion, Saturn, Kia, and Hyundai, probably reflecting youth and entry-level economics. Least favored by Dems are Mercury, Dodge, and, ahem, HUMMER.
Without knowing how the relevant questions were posed and the response rate to the political-leaning question, it's hard to know what to make of all this. But we thought TCC readers would like to gnaw on these results. And please don't blame us for any resulting altercations. -Mike Davis
Hattip: The Car Connection