For most people a new car represents a whole new way of life as it displays the outward signs of prosperity and well being of the new owner. It is an amazing ego booster. As you sit in the car and smell the leather and feel the seats hugging your body and you feel the breeze whistling through your hair you feel like a million dollars. You have elevated yourself above your neighbours. This is the way the manufacturers portray the result of buying one of their vehicles. You suddenly become sexy, desirable, a man or woman of substance, and someone who others want to know. A whole range of psychological effects are shot towards the potential buyer to make them want their particular model. Used car buying shouldn’t really be like that. It should be about functionality, safety, economy, practicality and many other logical factors. But selling a car is different because people do buy on their emotions and playing safe and practical just isn’t sexy as far as the manufacturers are concerned. They play on the ecological aspects of their vehicles to make them look good in the eyes of the buying public. This also helps to engender guilt and also to make them look good against their competitors. A car normally represents the second biggest purchase in most peoples’ lives after their home and has an amazing aphrodisiac appeal to the manufacturers marketing people which they quite successfully manage to pass onto the buying public. Maybe buyers should read up more about the vehicles they buy, a sort of parallel to a house survey, to ensure they are not totally ensnared by the marketing genius of the car makers. Having said all that – isn’t it great to drive off into the sunset over a new set of wheels!
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