A driver’s side view of L.A.’s cultural trends

Last month, I watched three cars wheel around a chic bayside restaurant in Santa Monica, vying for first position at the valet station. The cars, all mink-black, with four rings on their grilles, screeched to a three-way standoff in the middle of the street.

And that’s how I discovered that Audi is the hottest car in Los Angeles.

Now I can almost hear legions of car lovers howling in protest, but look: Your Aston Martins, your Bentleys and your Bugattis are swankier, and custom Camaros are edgy and underground. But those exotic machines are for a select few.

For everyday snob appeal, the Audi has overtaken those Mercedeses and BMWs that seemed to be the biggest of deals just last year.

Or was it the year before? I admit I make it to the Westside, where luxury cars are practically required at the border, only three or four times a year

And I am so not a car person. My 10-year-old Toyota jalopy has a crumpled hood beaten back into shape by my kindly mechanic, sort of, and lacks hubcaps. A remnant of blue twine that I used to tie down my Christmas tree sails behind the side mirror — jauntily, I like to think.

A colleague says I look like one of those suburban moms who drive around looking for crack cocaine. He’s surprised I don’t get pulled over more often.

But that’s precisely why I’m a good judge of automotive cachet. A vehicle has to really bust out to draw my attention, or arouse my envy. And I envy Audi owners. Those faux Olympic rings. The curving lines. The colors. That orange Audi station wagon I came on suddenly, rounding a bend.

Do people really pick cars based on the finish colors? Yes we do.

But don’t believe me. For a reliable gauge of auto hotness, I went to the experts: L.A.’s valet parkers.

These are the guys and gals who, on a daily basis, see and drive, however briefly, Maseratis, Aston Martins and Lambos. (That’s valet-speak for Lamborghinis). They are not easily impressed.

And they agree the Audi is at the acme of hotness.

“They’re not as stagnant as Mercedes,” said Ryan Downer, standing outside the Chateau Marmont.

Downer, a coordinator for Ready to Roll limousines, was working a cable television premiere party inside the fabled hilltop Hollywood hotel.

“They’re youth and money,” he said. “Jaguars are all for old people now.”

Down the street at the Bar Marmont, bartender Lauren Kincheloe was having a cigarette with the valet parkers.

“My girlfriend who has a rich fiance, he bought her an Audi,” she said. “And she’s pretty hip.”

Why Audis? And why now?

They have a retro feel, they’re pretty without being insipid, and they’re good looking inside and out, with a dashboard screen control for entertainment devices (radio, CD changer, iPod, TV tuner).

“It’s interiors that sell,” said Jessica Caldwell, senior analyst at the Santa Monica automotive information company Edmunds.com. The car has a big proportion of the 25- to-34 market that fills the clubs, bars and restaurants, she said.

But who can ever really say why something becomes hot? A pin-striped litigator at a recent chi-chi downtown civic event said he got his inky Audi, well, because he just liked it.

“But if it will help your story, two other people in my office also got one last year,” he offered as he walked away.

“It’s just sexy,” Kincheloe said.

With L.A.’s fickleness, the Audi probably won’t stay on top too long. Several other cars are coming up, valets said: the Hyundai Genesis. The Mustang.

Toyota’s hybrid Prius remains status-symboly, with ever-popular eco-cred. One valet recalled parking 13 Priuses in a row during a posh event in West Hollywood.

Next in line on the status scale could be the $100,000-plus Fisker Karma, a plug-in hybrid luxury car with the body of a panther and a grille that looks like a mustache.

Described by Wired magazine as “curvy as a chanteuse and as bright-eyed as a Hollywood musical,” the Karma, with its made-for-L.A. Buddhist name, was reportedly snapped up by Leonardo Di Caprio and former Vice President Al Gore, despite an embarrassing engine shutdown during a key test run.

I dropped by the Fisker showroom on Auto Row in Santa Monica to try to confirm the celebrity ownership, and to find out how fast the car is moving. But the employees said they didn’t have time to talk.

“It’s a really stressful time,” one said. “I’m delivering Justin Bieber’s car today.”

gale.holland@latimes.com