Only Real Drivers Eat Tofu…
by: Sahail Ashraf
Posted on: Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 11:09 pm by: Sahail Ashraf
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In the news recently there has been a hell of a lot of buzz about celebrities driving hybrid vehicles. We know about Leo and his BMW. But other big names such as Meryl Streep and ageing rocker Sting have been linked to the new technology. Hybrid is fashionable among the stellar set, and will continue to be so. Who knows, maybe there will soon be a movie about hybrid cars. That’s not such a crazy idea actually…
Anyway, all these celebrities are all well and good, but what about the real people out there who buy these machines? Who are they? And do they all look like you? What follows is a very brief round-up of some recent research about hybrid owners…
The Topline Strategy Group did a recent study of hybrid owners and found out that we are a little more comfortable financially than those who don’t drive hybrid machines. The average salary, in fact, for a hybrid owner, is close to $100,000.
Good news, then. But the less encouraging news is age-related. Hybrid owners are generally older than conventional car owners. This is a little scary, or not, depending on how you look at it. Now, this doesn’t mean that hybrids are going to come complete with wheelchairs and zimmer frames any time soon, the age difference is minimal. The average age of a conventional car owner is around 40. The average age of a hybrid buyer is around 50. There, did it. If you’re fifty years old and you drive a Prius, you are distinctly average.
What about where we live? Well, drum roll please. No surprises that we don’t all live in Michigan. The most number of registrations for new hybrid cars is found in California. Yeah, no surprises, at all.
What is really interesting is the idea that hybrid owners are more intelligent. Wait, sorry, I’ll backtrack there. Hybrid owners, apparently, have more education than conventional car owners. More of us have been to college and gotten degrees. The University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute reports that we are pretty special, with a higher level of education than any other group of drivers (and that’s including the Google car park crowd). The University also found that hybrid owners are naturally more pessimistic about fuel prices. Naturally.
A 2007 study, by Scarborough Research, found out some fascinating nuggets of information about our lifestyles, too. And the bottom line is that we are pretty much the living-on-the-edge types, who like to wrestle crocodiles and play Russian Roulette. Well, almost. We are twice as likely, according to the study, to practice Yoga, to go skiing or trekking, and generally are more open-minded and outdoorsy than the conventional bunch. This is great news, of course, because it just makes us look good.
Organic food, yogurt, and good old decaffeinated coffee are more likely to be consumed by hybrid drivers than conventional drivers. This is all very new age, and reading this information, I began to feel like what used to be called a hippy. And then I got to the next part, which made me fell all superior again.
Apparently, we are a lot more tech savvy. We surf, use email, and generally rule the world of technology. We use information websites, and we play video games.
All good news, really. But the Scarborough study brought out one final piece of information that really can’t fail to leave you with a nice warm feeling inside. When it comes to customer satisfaction, we rock. In fact, the percentage of hybrid owners who expressed themselves as being very happy with their vehicle purchase was pretty much bang on 100%.
So there we have it. That’s us. A tech savvy, middle-aged, very happy bunch of people who eat good food and know how to have fun. But you knew this already.
See you on the slopes, and don’t forget the Tofu…
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