The Lure of Foreign Cars : What Drives Trend-Setting Californians to the Imports?
Judith A. McCall, training manager for a Culver City company, broke with a longstanding family tradition in 1984 when she traded her 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass for a Honda Civic. She added insult to injury in September when she traded the Honda Civic for a Honda Accord.
Back in Spencer, N.C., where she grew up, no McCall would be caught dead in a foreign car. “They always believed in Chrysler or Ford products,” McCall said.
You can call Californians adventurous or daring or just plain strange. Whatever they are, most consumers in the state, like McCall, have tastes in cars that are different from those of their brethren back East, according to a compilation of new car registrations by R. L. Polk & Co. of Carson.
Of the 1,147,361 new cars registered in California last year, six of the 10 most popular models were made by foreign manufacturers: Honda Accord, Honda Civic/CRX, Nissan Sentra, Hyundai Excel, Toyota Camry and Toyota Corolla.
However, on the national level, only two import models--the Honda Accord and Honda Civic/CRX--proved popular enough to make the Top 10.
California, which accounts for 10% of all cars sold in the United States, is widely considered a trend setter--in automotive taste, among many other things--thus, its automotive preferences represent more than a topic of cocktail chatter.
“California has been acknowledged as a trend setter in just about everything,” Harold Jackson, a General Motors spokesman said in a telephone interview from Detroit. “We pay close attention to what goes on there.”
All of the major domestic and foreign car manufacturers have set up design studios in California to keep abreast of new automotive styles, and sales success in the state is considered essential to running a profitable car business.
But figuring out what appeals to California consumers is not easy.
While Ford has three models in the state’s Top 10--in part, experts say, because it has emphasized quality and has redesigned its cars to mimic the aerodynamic style of European makes--only one other domestic model, the Cadillac DeVille, made the list in California.
What makes Californians so partial to Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans and Hyundais, while the rest of the country embraces Fords, Chevrolets and other domestics?
Experts cite a host of reasons, including California’s proximity to Japan; the rising gasoline prices that weaned freeway-dependent Californians from big gas guzzlers to fuel-efficient cars, and the quality edge that imports are perceived to have.
But underlying all those factors, experts say, is the fact that many Californians--especially those who have migrated here from other places--are fundamentally different from other U.S. consumers. The newcomers chose to move and put down roots in an unfamiliar place, thus, experts argue, exhibiting a greater willingness to experiment.
“California has a higher percentage of inner-directed people than the rest of the country,” said Stephen Mills, a consultant to a research program at SRI International in Menlo Park, Calif., which categorizes consumer groups on the basis of their needs, attitudes and beliefs. These self-absorbed people, he added, “tend to be more liberal . . . and tend to prefer foreign cars to domestics.”
Yet for all the intellectual explanations, the attraction of imports for some buyers is more visceral.
“Lately, for the last 10 years, there haven’t been any domestic cars that turn me on,” said Dan R. Roush, a district manager for a fraternal organization in North Hollywood and a car collector who bought a new Honda last week. He counts only one domestic car, a 1969 Cadillac Eldorado, among his half-dozen automobiles.
“Detroit should have been paying attention” back in the 1970s, when Californians started switching to imports, Roush said.
McCall said it was disenchantment with her old domestic car--and a tip from her mechanic--that prompted her to buy an import. “My Oldsmobile just about drove me to the poorhouse,” she said. “But my Honda has wonderful durability and excellent handling.”
“The Japanese have picked up a reputation for quality,” explained Harold Kassarjian, editor of the Journal of Consumer Research and a marketing professor at UCLA. “A lot of people have the experience of driving 1,000 miles and going back to the dealer with a whole list of complaints about their domestic car, whereas, when a Toyota or a Honda buyer goes back, it’s only because the manual says it’s time to get an oil change.”
Jackson, the General Motors spokesman, said, “The preference for imported cars” in California “isn’t something we are happy with.” But he added: “We are making tremendous strides in quality and have certainly closed the gap. . . . An example of the faith we have in improved quality is our six-year and 60,000-mile powertrain warranty on all our cars and light trucks--double what we had before.”
Yet if the California success of newer foreign competitors, such as the low-priced Hyundai, is any indication, domestic car makers may have to do even more tinkering with their production and marketing efforts if they are to rise to the state’s Top 10 list.
“Californians as a rule tend to have no brand loyalties,” said Tony Assenza, Los Angeles-based associate editor of Car & Driver.
While “Californians do set the car-buying trends,” Assenza noted, “10 years from now when the rest of the nation catches up with us, we will probably have gone on to somewhere else.”
TOP NEW CAR REGISTRATION IN CALIFFORNIA IN 1986
1. Honda Accord 54,800 2. Honda Civic/CRX 40,848 3. Nissan Sentra 36,325 4. Hyundai Excel 33,773 5. Ford Tempo 26,270 6. Toyota Camry 26,099 7. Toyota Corolla 25,992 8. Ford Taurus 25,732 9. Ford Thunderbird 23,672 10. Cadillac DeVille 22,413
Source: R.L. Polk & Co. NATIONAL NEW CAR REGISTRATIONS
1. Ford Escort 400,695 2. Chevrolet Celebrity 397,297 3. Chevrolet Cavalier 362,780 4. Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera 323,617 5. Honda Accord 303,186 6. Ford Tempo 259,896 7. Ford Taurus 238,610 8. Buick Century 236,946 9. Oldsmobile Delta 88 234,755 10. Honda Civic/CRX 224,677
Source: R.L. Polk & Co.
