What People Actually Want in a Car

How your childhood, geography, and assumptions misinform you

Behind the wheel of my ’08 RAV4, with a yellow e-trike (battery electric tricycle cab) in view and overlooking the Negros island landscape. ©Greg de la Cruz.

If you were desperate to know what people actually want in a car, you could go about it in various ways, such as:

• Do a quick survey on social media; if you are nuts, make a 20-item questionnaire on Microsoft Forms or Monday.com.
• Ask a friend who works for a car manufacturer (NOT in a dealership), preferably one who studies the market.
• Consume content from reputable sites like Edmunds, Consumer Reports, Kelley Blue Book, Car and Driver, etc. But if you want the truth and nothing but the truth, then listen to guys like Doug Demuro and 17-time world wrestling champion, John Cena.

Or you could do all of those things, and still not know what people actually want. What I will instead do here, is rummage through my brain. I am not a car guy and do not represent any car brand. But for two full years, I worked as a Copywriter for online car parts sales — and because of that, I had no choice but delight myself as I dove into Wikipedia articles about obcure car models like the Chrysler TC by Maserati or the Saturn SW1.

Reading and writing about cars was all I ever did for those two years. Can you believe that such a thing could be considered as a day job? Anyhow, I will…