Meaningless observations from a long drive

Seen last summer. Part of a trend?

This Presidential campaign has been going on so long, and subjected to so much punditry, analysis, polling and general dissection that it probably should not surprise me that Kelley Blue Book, the outfit that provides price information about used cars, should issue its own slant on matters. In fact, they have.

According to a press release,

...the car brand and segment owned by voters is related to their preference in presidential candidates. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) rates high among domestic and luxury owners. Among the domestic brands, owners of GMC (61 percent), Chevrolet (60 percent), Buick and Dodge (each at 58 percent), as well as Ford (57 percent) vehicles are the highest in favor of McCain. In the luxury vehicle segment, McCain leads among Lexus, BMW, and Lincoln owners at 52 percent each.

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) leads McCain among owners of import vehicles with the highest ratings for MINI (70 percent), Subaru (61 percent), and Saab (59 percent). Fifty percent of Honda owners plan on voting for Obama, ten points higher than McCain. ...

"McCain's appeal among owners of domestics and large trucks/SUVs is right in line with where we see a majority of those vehicles selling - in the traditionally Republican 'red' states," said Rick Wainschel, senior vice president of marketing and analytics for Kelley Blue Book and kbb.com. "With import and hybrid owners typically favoring Obama, this also aligns with strong sales of these types of vehicles in predominately Democratic 'blue' states."

This seemed interesting enough so that while driving from San Francisco to Denver, I took my own survey: which bumperstickers were on which cars? Did my results agree with Kelley Blue Book's?

Mostly I learned is that out on the open road, bumper stickers are pretty rare. This was a bit of a shock. Where I live in San Francisco, it seems like one car in ten sports an Obama sticker (we rarely even think of the other guy.)

But on my 1200 mile drive, seeing hundreds of cars, I saw all of four Presidential bumper stickers. McCain-Palin rated one, on an older Saturn sedan. The three Obama stickers were attached to: a Toyota Highlander, a Honda Element, and a Buick LeSabre. Nothing conclusive in that. I'll have to take Kelley Blue Book on trust.