People Prefer Angry-Faced Cars

fatalfury writes "Researchers from the University of Vienna asked 20 males and 20 females to rank vehicles based on their appearance. The list of traits included arrogant, afraid, agreeable, disgusted, extroverted, sad, and others. Cars with 'meaner' traits (such as BMW) ranked higher, whereas cars with 'nicer' traits (such as Toyota's Prius) ranked lower. With billions spent on developing new products in the automobile industry, this could spur a trend in meaner-looking cars and perhaps explain why sales of the Prius and other green cars are slow to take off with average consumers."

Comments

That's why I prefer...

[n3tcat]

... pop-up headlights. It looks like my car's asleep, which is fairly representative of what's going on in my driver's seat too...

then this is a mutant

[i_liek_turtles]

Really, this car can't be described with just "angry" or "happy."

Re:then this is a mutant

[oldhack]

Looks perverted to me - two ugly cars humping.

The angriest-looking car in the world...

[Gordonjcp]

... is the Triumph Herald Vitesse.

Re:The angriest-looking car in the world...

[eclectro]

Here's the same car on a better day

Cars are ugly these days, why?

[Batmensch]

To tell you the truth, there's been one car in the last decade that I thought looked interesting (under $50K, anyway), and I bought one, the PT Cruiser. Why can't they make decent looking cars anymore? Design by committee?

Re:Yes you're right

[teh moges]

100% of the people I just asked agreed with you on that.

Re:Yes you're right

[quenda]

In Austria they only prefer BMWs because of the better 'roo-bars.

Have you seen the honking Prius 2.0?

[KlaymenDK]

Old news ... to boost Prius sales, Toyota are giving the 2.0 a face lift. I can't find any good online reference, but spy photos report looks similar to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honking

Re:As a non-driver

[Yvan256]

The car looks angry, therefore the driver must be angry, therefore he must be an asshole.

That's still better than what others think of me.

"The car is yellow, therefore the car is a lemon, therefore the driver had lemon pie for dessert."

Wait, what?

Re:As a non-driver

[digitalsolo]

I once felt the same way that you do... then I purchased a BMW, and it turns out, with it, you do in fact get a deed stating that you own the road.

Now excuse me, I need to go refill my latte.

Re:Fiat Multipla - does not look bad

[Chris Burke]

I prefer cars that look like a college woman.

- curvy exterior
- firm
- no blemishes or rust

You forgot to add
- easy to get in and out of.