Forbes figures out what your car says about you
If you drive a Cadillac Escalade, Forbes' Dan Lienert has your number. Lienert says you are an unapologetic risk taker who makes about $175k a year and like to entertain. On the other hand, if you prefer to drive a Lexus LS, you are intelligent, polite, well-traveled and family oriented.
The story covers eight other high-end luxury and sports cars, so all you Yugo drivers (like to hang on to possessions for purely sentimental reasons, might also own a Fuego, prefer champale to champagne and probably make much less than $160,000 a year) can rest easy knowing Forbes doesn't yet know your marketing profile.
All these generalizations are based on brand-sponsored market research and quotes from automaker representatives, so the validity of the broad suppositions they make are less than scientific. And please keep in mind we're just the messenger.
[Source: Forbes.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ellerton 6:52PM (2/12/2007)
I found the assessment of Corvette drivers to be somewhat humorous, considering the majority of those cars are sold with automatic transmissions.
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epp_b 7:01PM (2/12/2007)
Funny, the first thing I thought of after seeing that Cadillac is "pimp".
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RiceDreams 8:28PM (2/12/2007)
Hmmm in my city the Escalade is being driven by more people that do not even report income.
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rwdmtparkingonly 6:30PM (2/12/2007)
I'll leave the 'slade jokes for someone else, but one of the interesting things this article mentions is that Accord owners like to vacuum their garages.
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rwdmtparkingonly 6:30PM (2/12/2007)
I'll leave the 'slade jokes for someone else, but one of the interesting things this article mentions is that Accord owners like to vacuum their garages.
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naggs 6:32PM (2/12/2007)
thank god we have Forbes to tell us what our cars mean to us. seriously, if you need to read an article in forbes to find a car that fits your image then your trying way to hard to have an image
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Michael Karesh 6:43PM (2/12/2007)
Done well, this could be interesting. But relying on the manufacturers to provide the images--not a reliable source.
Journalists are told over and over that various vehicles are for "people with active lifestyles."
In response, a recent entry to my blog suggested that lazy people are out of luck: no one creates a car for them.
http://www.truedelta.com/blog/?p=28
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RevRick 7:27PM (2/12/2007)
3. thank god we have Forbes to tell us what our cars mean to us. seriously, if you need to read an article in forbes to find a car that fits your image then your trying way to hard to have an image
Posted at 6:32PM on Feb 12th 2007 by naggs
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By golly I believe you have hit the proverbial nail on the head.........Suppose Forbes had some page space to fill?
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paul34 7:05PM (2/12/2007)
funny, most people I see who own an Escalade are barely able to keep the gas tank half full, and love to show off the "bling."
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Accordsforall 7:13PM (2/12/2007)
Hmmm
I see all kinds of "types" on the road.
The Slade are for the types who truly dont know that they just paid 25g more for a Tahoe!
Not to mention.. the Vette owners are just like the LS owners. Being they are both with white hair, and both moving very slowly and in the wrong lane
Accord owners.. well... I admit Im a clean person. Car is immaculate, even tho my last one passed away at 400k. And in the end wasnt as clean as Id like.
As for as the Ferrari owners.. they got the dough.. they gonna need it for the regular service and oil change at a coupla g's.
The RR and Bentley Type.. could definately be the same type as in the 'Slade: In ya face and obnixious. And without any sense.. or concept to what they are driving.
I do wish they would do a better review on car owners besides "Accord drivers vacuum their garages".
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E46 M3 Owner 7:50PM (2/12/2007)
Fun article. I imagine the average earnings are pretty close if these companies are relying on finance numbers where they know the purchasers' income level. I think it's funny they left the Corvette owners' earnings out. I'm guessing $90-100k per year on that one and an average age of 65 :)
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vulnerable plaque 7:37PM (2/12/2007)
Looking over the slide show, this smacks of advertising-driven "journalism." In other words, an informercial. I know very few Escalade drivers who make $175K. I know many who are actually quite middle-class, but like to show off. This "analysis" is garbage and lessens my opinion of Forbes.
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Roni Biasa 10:25PM (2/12/2007)
#8 you are so pathetic, no one will hear your own oppinion, you can just dream with your own fantasy.
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david 7:48PM (2/12/2007)
accordsforthescrapyard, seems funny how your accord gains about 15K every other week when you brag about it.
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Rob 8:09PM (2/12/2007)
I think they forgot abou the part of escalde owners never using turn signals, tailgating, hogging the passing lane even when they're not passing, and generally just being huge dueschebags. I hope they all tip over and die.
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david 8:41PM (2/12/2007)
no.8 wants a review of an accord owner. let's see.
every room in his house is painted white, still has black and white tv, goes to the movies with his wife (dutch) and gets popcorn but adds no butter, has horned rim glasses and a pocket protector, not allowed to talk unless given permission by his wife, goes to the bar with the guys but conviently has to go to the bathroom when it's his turn to buy, spends all of his tv time watching the home shopping network, when his kids are bad he gives them time out (when i was a kid it was called knocked unconcious), a night on the town is an all night shopping trip to wal-mart, the most thrilling thing he ever did in his life was ride the teacups at disney, and lies about how many miles on his accord.
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Lithous 9:39PM (2/12/2007)
"and lies about how many miles on his accord."
david, you appear to be correct about accordsforall...
Shows he has two Accords, one with 230K and one with 100K (supposedly):
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/01/14/detroit-auto-show-a-conversation-with-jill-lajdziak/#c3137774
And if you think maybe the one with (supposedly) 230K maybe was a while ago, then this verifies more recent miles (though he could have put on 170K in 4 months - yeah right):
http://podcasts.autoblog.com/2006/11/07/take-our-sebrings-please-1-000-for-your-sedan/3#c2602819
You gotta love google site searches, much easier to find things on autoblog than with an autoblog search.
So, between his two Accords he still doesn't have the claimed 400K miles. But hey, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai owners were taught to lie, I mean exaggerate, about such things just like their favorite companies did about horsepower ratings.
Nader and LiesAboutCars would be all over GM and Ford for such exaggerations of horsepower which were bad enough for those companies to have to pay customers back. But this is America and the easiest way to look cool and/or make money in the car industry is to make the American car companies look bad and the foreign car companies look good.
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Howard Kerr 10:25PM (2/12/2007)
In my experience, many (most?) Escalade drivers are not owners but lease their SUVs...how else do you explain all those newish Escalades in middle class drieways?
Further, an Escalade driver is a risk taker? Maybe at work, but as far as vehicle ownership is concerned, a REAL risk taker would buy a Range Rover (due to it's near legendary reliability).
Finally, like everyone else, if you are getting advice on what vehicle to own/drive from Forbes...save your money and buy a Toyota since you obviously don't care about cars.
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Roni Biasa 10:37PM (2/12/2007)
Forbes seems a lil bit negative
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Grafpaper 10:39PM (2/12/2007)
I hate the escalade as much as the next guy... that being said
#17, whats wrong with leasing?
also #17, what says risk taker more than a british car? the range rover is still one hell of a vehicle though.
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