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Are the car stereotypes true? Do Democrats own small hybrids, and Republicans drive full-size pickups and SUVs?

Being that 2012 is a presidential election year, Strategic Vision collected the political party choice of more than 76,000 new-vehicle buyers who made a purchase during the past two years.

Among the findings about party affiliation, what models Republican or Democrats prefer and more, analysts discovered that of all the purchasers studied, a slight majority of new-vehicle buyers state they are Republican.

The breakdown settled at 37 percent Republican versus 31 percent Democrat among the 76,103 buyers included in the study.

Strategic Vision drilled deeper into its data and found the top five models preferred by Democratic purchasers and Republican buyers. The units by party choice are:

Democrats
1. Honda Civic Hybrid
2. Volvo C30
3. Nissan LEAF
4. Acura TSX Wagon
5. Ford Fiesta Sedan

Republicans
1. Ford Mustang Convertible
2. Audi A8
3. Mercedes-Benz GL
4. Ford Expedition
5. Ford F-150

Furthermore, Strategic Vision revealed the following list highlighting selected popular vehicle segments and which political party has a higher percentage of buyers:

—Small Car: Democrats at 35 percent vs. 26 percent
—Small Multi-Function: Democrats at 42 percent vs. 24 percent
—Medium Car: Democrats and Republicans tied at 34 percent.
—Medium Multi-Function: Democrats at 38 percent vs. 25 percent
—Luxury Car: Republicans at 49 percent vs. 27 percent
—Luxury Multi-Function: Democrats at 37 percent vs. 30 percent
—Convertible Costing $30,000: Republicans at 69 percent vs. 18 percent
—Minivan: Republicans at 40 percent vs. 26 percent
—Small SUV: Democrats at 34 percent vs. 32 percent
—Medium SUV: Republicans at 41 percent vs. 18 percent
—Medium Crossover: Republicans at 38 percent vs. 30 percent
—Large SUV: Republicans at 76 percent vs. 5 percent
—Luxury SUV: Republicans at 53 percent vs. 22 percent
—Standard Pickup: Republicans at 40 percent vs. 24 percent
—Full-Size Pickup: Republicans at 51 percent vs. 24 percent

So how should dealers position marketing efforts with campaign ads and conversation sometimes on the minds of potential buyers?

“Across the board, the greater percentages of multi-function buyers like station wagons and five-door hatch types are those who claim to be Democrats. But this is only one of many fascinating discoveries,” explained Strategic Vision president Alexander Edwards.

“For example, with communication efforts that always play a role in brand management and sales, having additional — and even passionate — avenues for speaking to customers can mean the difference between success and failure,” Edwards continued.

“For example, you wouldn’t just take this data on convertible buyers and only create ‘Republican appealing’ messages, but instead ask yourself about the conquest opportunity with Democratic buyers who don’t gravitate as much to convertibles,” he added. “Our detailed findings will tell you why.” 

But Edwards stressed one point.

“However, you still can’t ignore the obvious. If I were selling a convertible, I’d consider buying some air-time on Fox News,” he recommended.

Strategic Vision also gathered explicit statements on more than 440 attributes with annual sample sizes exceeding 300,000, providing data on everything from ethnicity to which brand of cell phone new-vehicle buyers own, to various psychographics and attitudes and hundreds of new-model related issues, as well as media consumption habits. The firm believes all of this data can be correlated and connected to issues such as political party preference. 

“Understanding where the consumer market stands on politics is just one of the many different topics to focus on when looking into the complexities of the buyer’s decision-making process. When an industry is up against a struggling economy in a competitive market, having that one last ounce of key and leverageable information on what is important to buyers can finalize their decision,” surmised Darrel Edwards, executive chairman and founder of Strategic Vision.

Though focus may often be Democratic or Republican, Strategic Vision mentioned that its study found buyers hailed from other political parties such as Green, Libertarian, Constitution, Tea Party or “Other.”

Analysts pointed out the study had interesting results with these party choices, such as Libertarians being among the youngest (median age 48) and affluent (annual median income $93,000) of new-model buyers.

With the political party choice data point, Strategic Vision emphasized its study allowed examination of important value-centered emotions that define “who we are and what we aspire to become.”

Analysts reported, “Although most people are more alike than they are different and personal values are pretty much universal, there are important differences in the strength or intensity of such personal emotions and the way people express them.

“For example, Republicans were more likely (more than 5 percent) to feel secure and personally safe about who they are as well as feel in control of their Life,” they continued. “Democrats were 4 percent more likely in seeing themselves as smart with 7 percent more having post-graduate degrees.”

Strategic Vision’s vice president Christopher Chaney elaborated about why the firm chose to conduct this study.

“We obviously believed a major election year would make such findings interesting, but the value of this data exists in how it trends with specific brands, models and the multitude of correlation profiles possible,” Chaney insisted.

“We certainly can appreciate the anecdotal discussions that explain why these consumers make the decisions they do, but the actionable steps to create more sales comes from understanding at the brand/model level such things as ‘openness’ and freedom associated with convertibles and those who vote Republican for example,” he went on to say.