In my studies of what I call, “Automotive Emotionalism”, I’ve discovered that there exists a fusion between design and passion and it translates into an unusual bond between car and owner. The automobile is no longer strictly a utilitarian method of transport. Instead, it’s an irrational method for displaying passion, excitement and self-image. The right vehicle can create quite a therapeutic experience no matter who you are, no matter the circumstance and no matter what business you operate. All this leads to one conclusion…
Cars are emotional and psychological experiences
Love for everything about cars begins at an early age. I started the minute I sucked in oxygen. My Dad lived cars. Two weeks before he died we were talking about hot rods and looking over the latest rod magazine. My kids are car crazy too.
As a car-worshipping society, we find ways to buy into that lifestyle. For the automotive company looking to increase business that lifestyle is your road to success.
Car Therapy Starts Early
What Cars Say About You
Cars are telltale signs of human personalities. Making a good impression in a world that judges you by the car you drive is a way to build an image. A certain style of luxury vehicle, for example will deliver you to a different “mental destiny” than a plain Jane compact.
It’s all about the mind, psychology stuff and why we love our cars. People are drawn to cars that are a reflection of who they are. They drive vehicles with individual styling that creates a desirable self-image in the eyes of others. Questioning valid reasons why a person chooses one car over another could reveal more about that person than spending time with a psychoanalyst.
We often diagnose our peers by the type of vehicle they surround themselves with. The automotive industry knows we are obsessed with image. That is precisely why they design and build cars that are supposed to be mirror images of who we might be in terms of our individual state of mind.
Cool Cars – The Ultimate Lifestyle Vehicle
Turn the key and the engine roars to life. Thrust the gear shift into drive and speed away! As you cruise in your tricked out, souped-up, customized cool ride, onlookers stare in admiration and envy. Traffic stopping glances are the result of paramount design, luscious styling proportions and personalized detail combined with well-engineered performance, ingenuity and stand-out from the crowd looks.
Whatever type of vehicle you drive be it a sweet ’32 Ford Coupe, Tail Dragging Custom, Classic Chevy, Bad Boy Street Rod, Big Horsepower Muscle Car, Huge Rimmed SUV, high RPM Import or a super fast and sleek Exotic, you can always expect to receive the same reaction from admirers…
“WOW, Cool Car!”
What’s cooler than driving a car that’s, well, cool! Cars connect with passion and emotion. A car tells people who you are and what you’re about. In the golden age of automobiles, car selection revealed as much about the driver as the clothes they wore and the food they ate. During the 20th century automobiles became a part of our daily lives and an extension of our personal lives. No matter what role we play in life, the car is a part of our identity.
Most of the cars I’ve owned were not for simply getting me around. That was true in my early years when whatever I drove barely made it a few blocks. Still then, it was eye appeal to some degree. I buy with appeal in mind and of course style. I’m stuck on certain colors too. I love black even though it s a pain in the ass to keep clean. I like white for it’s simplicity and hiding crap. I love purple but the market for that color is skinny. Blue ranks up there because it is a color that you like na matter how many people you killed. Silver is safe. I can live with yellow and orange. I hate red and there’s no such thing as “resale” brown. Not much for green although my latest ride is that, but not for long.
The automotive industry spends untold millions on the study of proper color use, its psychological meaning and how it affects people s emotional reaction to a particular vehicle. It really isn’t that hard….white, silver, red, blue, gray, black, tan and polka dots.
As a person who has made a decent living from answering the emotional connection people have with their cars, I’m pretty sure that I could be considered an authority in this arena. I have listened to people talk about their favorite cars, what they have done to their cars, how many times they had sex in them, how their first kid was conceived or born in one and I even had one guy describe how he and some friends robbed a gas station with one.
It is a lifestyle. A life that we must live with even if we hated cars. They are our servants and if we want them to remain in our lives, then we must treat them with love and understanding. Now, I go smoke some tires. -Mikey www.carisms.com
