The Politics of Cars

One of the hottest presidential campaigns in recent memory has had a mess of issues up for debate: Health care, housing, gas prices, Iraq.

Forget all that — if the election were decided based on what voters drive, John McCain could start working on his acceptance speech now.

A survey of 82,000 voters, based on political party as well as the type of vehicle they own, found McCain to be the favorite among those who drive luxury cars, full-size SUVs, full-size pickups, minivans and full-size vans.

The exception was hybrids. Barack Obama was the clear leader there, with 37.9% of all Democrats who own hybrids in his corner. Only 13.8% of Republicans who own hybrids favored McCain. Hillary Clinton was the choice among 17.9% of Democrats who own hybrids.

“Drivers of hybrid vehicles favor Obama over Clinton by a two-to-one margin, and either Democrat over McCain by four-to-one,” said Art Spinella, general manager of CNW Marketing Research, which conducted the just-for-fun survey.

Democrats who own premium luxury cars overwhelmingly favored Clinton over Obama (16.9% Clinton to 6.7% Obama), but McCain still beat both with 17% of the Republican premium-luxury-owners vote.

McCain was especially strong among Republican owners of full-size pickups (48.6% of Republicans full-size truck owners were on his side, versus only 6.9% of Democrats for Obama and 6.6% of Democrats for Clinton).

Of course, the results don’t mean anything until a single Democrat is chosen to run against McCain. Obama and Clinton now split the Democratic vote against him.

Of all new-car drivers, 25.9% favor a Democratic candidate, 25.1% a Republican and 49% are still undecided.

In other words, the election is too close to call.

“Closer than the body panel tolerances on a Cadillac,” Spinella said.