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Drive home happy
Weighing style and sense in the quest for the perfect car

by jenna elliott

After scribbling the last needed signature, Harvey Briggs anxiously waited to put the keys in the ignition. Walking to his new car, a feeling of success washed over him. A click of the key snapping into place and the gentle buzz of the engine turning over teased his lead-heavy feet. “[I wanted] to get out and put the car through its paces,” Briggs says.

In 1985, at 25 years old, the newly married advertising executive bought his first BMW, a gray, 1982 320i two-door sedan. Never mind its used three-year-old lifespan. To Briggs it felt indulgent, sporty and powerful, yet the feelings of guilt would not subside. “I was probably stretching beyond my means to have this,” he says. 

Buying a new car is a major investment. When life begins and bills start to materialize out of nowhere, it might be more practical to get a sensible car rather than an indulgent one. Sometimes, though, getting what you want is getting what you need, and at that point, practicality and luxury go hand-in-hand. A car isn’t always just a mode of transportation - it often defines peoples’ standing in the social food chain. But for young professionals balancing their lives, the scale of auto buying can often tip toward status over affordability.

Briggs knows status. As the executive vice president and director of innovation at Lindsay, Stone & Briggs, a Madison advertising agency, he lives for generating a world where the consumer’s needs and wants remain top priority. According to www.lsb.com, a brand gets its power by creating meaning in peoples’ lives. Car manufacturers like BMW thrive off the brands they establish and aim to reach loyal and prospective consumers through emotional marketing.

“The main thing, I think, is advertising is about creating desire,” Briggs says. That desire compels car drivers into believing they are what they drive. It’s an unsaid American ideal. America is a competitive society. Emphasis is placed on who has what, the label sewn into the business suit, and a car’s hood ornament.

Michelle Nelson, an assistant professor who studies consumer behaviors in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW-Madison, refers to this as an idea of the “extended self.” “The idea is that certain possessions become your identity,” she says. “So I think for a lot of people in American society, what you drive is who you are - either who you are now or who you want to be.” 

Briggs knows this ideal all too well.

“Status isn’t always just about spending more and well; it’s about reaching a certain ideal,” he says. This ideal drove him to purchase a BMW rather than a Ford Tempo for his soon-to-be extended family. As a self-proclaimed car guy, a vanilla sedan was against his self-concept. He admitted that buying a BMW was not a rational decision but justified his purchase because he simply wanted it. “What really drove me was the idea that I needed to be in a car, just for my own perspective, that didn’t conflict with who I thought I was,” he says, adding that being seen behind the wheel of an appliance car like a Ford rather than a BMW 'Ultimate Driving Machine', compromised his principles.

BMW allows its drivers to reach a pre-conceived ideal similar to Briggs’. It isn’t just a brand anymore, it’s a lifestyle.  Browse www.bmwusa.com and see how BMW has turned a mode of transportation into a world-known anthem.  Visit a local BMW dealership and get lost in the state-of-the-art showroom.  Briggs says BMW’s brand has flourished in creating desire to trade up.  It taps into peoples’ desires to show they are successful and smart by educating its drivers on handling and engineering specifications. 

Andy LaBerge, sales manager at Zimbrick European, a BMW dealership in Madison, acknowledges BMW’s marketing strategy. “Performance is certainly important to a lot of their advertising,” he says. But, “they are kind of switching from strictly performance to the value and safety of the product,” he adds.

While the idea of value and safety play an influential role in BMW’s young professional demographic, status remains the most persuasive selling tactic. “There are a lot of people who kind of aspire to getting a BMW,” LaBerge says, adding that’s their perceived notion they’ve achieved success.

LaBerge says it’s not just status that’s important as much as the type of status or image it portrays to an onlooker. “If you pulled up in a [BMW] 3 Series or you pull up in a Sunfire, I mean, people are going to make that quick judgment of what that person’s about,” LaBerge says.

For a young professional in today’s world, it’s no longer about stereo systems that can beat and boom louder than 10 decibels. Flashy rims and chrome accessories define the driver who puts gaudy above sleek. Luxury cars are the epitome of the professional world, not the “tricked-out rides” that appear on MTV. A lavish BMW speaks for the younger driver, a driver that makes up roughly 41 percent of BMW’s 3 Series buying demographic.

For a young professional, a new car can be a lifestyle change. Money may be no object when it comes to buying a new car because it pays to drive around appearing socially acceptable. But money cannot regenerate itself, and sooner or later it could run out, leaving buyers with a car payment extended well past their budgets. It definitely pays to be smart about purchasing or leasing a new car.

Young professionals can now purchase certified pre-owned vehicles, a new trend among cost-conscious buyers. LaBerge says this is the consumer’s affordable way of stepping into the BMW brand. Buyers aren’t necessarily spending the dollars needed for a brand new BMW that has the advanced Bluetooth wireless technology, but they are investing in a brand that backs its name significantly.

“Any used car in Wisconsin has a Wisconsin’s Buyer’s Guide inspection that is pretty thorough,” LaBerge says. “But a certified warranty is like two times that, measuring the brake pads for how thick they are, the tire tread depth. The car’s reconditioned to as close to new as possible.” Once BMW gets a product to those standards, BMW adds another two years and 50,000 miles to the original warranty. 

“A lot of the time [BMW] will offer special financing or leasing on pre-owned vehicles to make it more affordable,” he says. The certified used car remains under warranty for a longer period of time, making it a safer investment.

Car manufacturers have become consumer savvy, so much, in fact, that they know average buyers will change their self-perceived ideal down the line. According to Nelson, that’s why leasing options are so attractive to consumers. “You don’t have to make the heavy down payment. You can simply lease this cute, little fun car now and then two to three years down the road, should you find yourself in a different life stage, you don’t have the commitment of an automobile that no longer says ‘me,'" she says.

LaBerge says leasing is an important part of a manufacturer’s volume, adding that it’s a competitive market. “A lot of [young buyers] lease because that’s the way they can afford the vehicle,” he says.

The Association of Consumer Vehicle Lessors offers a comprehensive website at www.acvl.com that provides consumers with a general understanding of vehicle leasing. Specifically, they designed a 10-question quiz that can guide potential buyers who are deciding which will best fit their budget: buying or leasing.

A car is just a car. But in today’s world, a car is a statement. “Some people buy by just the looks,” LaBerge says, “Some people buy by just the reputation. Some people don’t care about the looks or the reputation, but they love the way the car drives.” 

©curb magazine - winter 2005
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