I happened to stumble across this ...

What type of vehicle do people drive? The role of attitude and lifestyle in influencing vehicle type choice

The rank cars by type (e.g., small, compact, mid-sized, large, luxary, sports, SUVs, mini-vans/vans, and pickups). The paper is pretty technical discussing Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) on the statistics. Get by that and there is interest data.

Do you fit the profile of a "small" car owner?

"Small car drivers tend to have stronger pro-environmental ... and pro-high density [housing] attitudes, and a weaker travel freedom (representing the ability to “go anywhere I want to”) attitude. They tend to be loners ... , and not workaholics ... or status seekers... Additionally, small car drivers tend to perceive themselves as traveling less for short-distance trips in a personal vehicle than others do, and are less likely to enjoy personal vehicle travel. In terms of demographic characteristics, the small car driver group has higher than average proportions of North San Francisco residents, females, people age 40 or younger, and people with 4-year college degrees. It also has higher proportions in clerical or professional jobs, and lower incomes. In particular, small car drivers are overrepresented in single-vehicle and single-adult households."

So what you think? In general ... not anyone individual but general statistics of all 150K or so MINI owners in the US, is this representative?

 

OK, but what about this?

"Sports Car. Sports car drivers are more likely to be adventure seekers (who are
“adventurous”, “risk-taking”, and “variety-seeking”), and less likely to be calm (“patient”
and less “aggressive”). They are more likely than average to have 4-year college degrees or
lower incomes. Additionally, sports car drivers are overrepresented in two-worker or
younger-adult households."

And the paper doesn't even attempt to categorize go-kart drivers!

 

I don't think you can apply these generalities to MINI owners. Many small car owners are small car owners because they are gnerally cheaper to buy and own. Therefore, a larger percentage of lower income and no-fun travellers will own them. They also tend to get higher gas mileage and therefore would attract the pro-envirnmental driver. BUT MINI is made for fun, for driving, for testing its limits. As to loners, I don't know of any other car that has so many socials, etc. Sure, the MINI gets good gas mileage, but it ain't cheap and isn't made for the "just get me between point A and point B" driver.

 

...

 

Man, I don't think those profiles fit my family very well... We're definitely pro-environment but would hate living in "high density" housing and like our travel freedom.



'02 MINI - ok for environment, good mileage but needs premium gas. fun to drive.
'00 Insight - great for environment, great for pocketbook, surprisingly fun to drive.
'70 Europa - (aka Exxon Valdez ) leaks are not confined to just oil. Coolant, transmission fluid, fuel, and brake fluid are all game (along with some Lucas smoke ). a blast to drive
not pictured - '06 Prius. good for environment, cheap to maintain (it is a Toyota). not fun to drive at all.

 

Well let’s see, use to run an outdoor adventure travel company, currently travel over 200k miles per year and own a single family dwelling. I can not stand condo/town homes and would love to move back to Wyoming; yep, with the exception of being in the coveted Male 18-54 group, looks I fit the demo precisely.

 

No sorry, this issue has been discussed many times and a MINI is a hot hatch ... small car. Sports cars are usually characterize as two seat cars, used to be a roadster. Yes some ppl think Mustangs or whatever are sports car:impatient ... lets not go there ... MINI is a small car.

pro-environment. Lots of MINI owners have expressed their hatred for SUVs and gas guzzlers. Sound like pro-environmental to me.

Actually, I think it might be fairly close. Seems like a lot of owners, its their only car. Singles or single adults, not workaholics, not status seekers ...

The only thing I find exception to ... in general, is the under 40 thing. MINIs seem to go across all age groups!

 

I live in a single-adult HH & I have a 4 year college degree. Other than that nothing in that paragraph comes close to me

 

As LynnEl said above, MINIs are unique vehicles, not your typical small car nor your typical sports car.

MINI owners, therefore, don't fit into those neatly packaged profiles some geek in a cubicle developed based on who-knows-what (opinion or stats...doesn't really matter).

Me... I'm a 40-something, professional male with a 4-year college degree and a 6-digit income who lives in the suburbs with my fiance, one son, and 2 ferrets in a 2800 sf single family home. I like football, baby back ribs, and Merlot. Do I fit the profile ? :impatient

 

Did anybody really read that study?

 

I always knew you were a whiner

 

I'm sorry but the Mini does not fit the "small car" category. While it does have some traits of the typical "small car" and does attract some people for those reasons, it is unique. How many "small cars" have a large following of people who modify their cars? How many have events like AMVIV or MOTD? How many have their own movie like "the Italian Job"? How many have their own roller coaster like Kings Dominion? The Mini is the only car that crosses demographic lines and is owned by all kinds of people. It is not limited by categories or class distinctions.

 

I *HAVE* to get some of those cool emoticons so I can make faces back at you !! .... Just doesn't cut it.

 

Awww quit your wining <hehe>

 

I dunno, now do you like Pina Colodas, long walks on the beach, watching sunsets?

No wait, thats the classified ads

 

I read a bit of it. If you've never had a class in ANOVA, its going to be a bit boring

I don't buy that at all. Again, your talking about a small group of the much larger owner population. With 160K plus MINIs in the US, only a small fraction do what your talking about.

If you just even look at the active posters on NAM, I doubt there are more than 500 people. That is a far cry from 150,000

Your looking through the eyes of an "enthusiast". Step back and view the entire forest. I see Many Many Minis, not graphics, no mods, no nothing. MINI is no more special than any other car when looking at the entire population. If you want to look at enthusiasts forums, almost every car has one.

 

This is how my wife sees Mini, just another vehicle on the road. But we're both over 40, 2 kids, dog, travel way more than we should, very active socially, have a title to my name but on the whole, I would agree that's probably a Mini driver in general.

On this site, I think we're the exceptions not the norm.

Interesting Sports cars are listed as two seaters, does this mean a Smart Vehicle will be listed as one?

 

I agree the MINI age demographics dont fit. One of the first MCS we ever saw was an elderly couple

Buy yes, the demographic of the active posters here do not represent the masses of owners

 

Hmm, I have an advanced degree and live in a rabbit hutch.Must be a good candidate for a prius. What's up Doc?

 

i like charburgers and cheeze fries.

 

No Pina Coladas or Corollas for you

 

Are you sure you own a Mini? Maybe you missed the 60s Mini craze and didn't notice that the new Mini has grabbed much of that cache. I drive down the street and teenage girls scream out at my Mini. I ask my teenage niece what kind of car she wants and she says a Mini. Women go out for drives with me and tell me how they have been craving a Mini. A friend flew to Las Vegas so she could drive my Mini on the Strip during AMVIV. All kinds of people stop and ask me about my Mini. That doesn't happen with other small cars. Do you think that people pay 10K more than some other small car because the Mini is "no more special?" The San Francisco Mini dealer put on a charity run and got about 100 cars to pay $50 to go along and none of them were modified and all kinds of people showed up. No other car has that kind of cross cultural following. The Mini is even featured in burger ads of all things, and the Italian Job and the Kings Dominion are mass market, not just for Mini enthusiast. Oh and please don't presume to know how I am looking at things.

 

I think you missed what I was trying to say ...

If you look at all 160K cars in the US, I would bet no more than a small fraction of those ppl, maybe 10% even know a MINI forum exists and ACTIVELY participate. The other 90%, its just another small car.

Common 80/20 rule or 90/10 rule.

I drive down the street and teenage girls scream out at my Mini. I ask my teenage niece what kind of car she wants and she says a Mini. Women go out for drives with me and tell me how they have been craving a Mini.

Now maybe the is a regional thing, and I know in some areas of the country MINIs are farely rare, but not in the DC area. I see many every day ... just plain cars. DCMM has one of the largest clubs in the US (pretty sure) but I doubt its 300 members is more than a mere small fraction of the population.

No sorry, I've never seen teenage girls screaming at the car but thats OK. Every salesman, delivery man or whatever always made a comment about the car in the driveway. Then again, it was pretty visible with non-OEM graphics.

I'm not trying to presume your view, but in general, many people do have blinders on ... their passion doesn't let them see beyond to the non-enthusiasts.

Regardless, I do not believe the study is off-base except for the age demographics as clearly the car appeals to all ages

 

I agree that the Mini does not fit into the generalized idea of the small car and thus assumptions about the owners are not really going to be accurate. The term "small car" implies economy car, something that by nature is purchased because it is thrifty and compact - the intent of the owner is implied in each title of the classification. However the hypothesis does not account for the variance in how each model is perceived by an individual or what the buyer's motivation may be and how they overlap, i.e. I've bought BMWs not as a luxury cars (actually in spite of the perceived status) or based on size, but due to the sporty way they drove, thus my profile fit that of a sports car buyer vs any other category it might have fallen into even though they would not all have fit into the definition of sports car. With the Mini practicality, size, avail options, and fun to drive were all important to me - I did not have a "small car" buyer's mentality as they draw it out to be. Some might buy either a sports car, luxury car, or status SUV for the same reasons - which category are they defined by?

Since the way the cars are classified seems doomed to be inaccurate and not reflect varying perspectives/motivations I'd say there is no way to truly pigeonhole all the buyers merely based on those shaky suppositions.

 

I dont think these are pigeonholes but the author of the paper did survey ... this is actual emperical data on how the owners perceived themselves. Now whether or not MINI owners were survey, we dont know because he doesn't say.