"Four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what the soul is." Voltaire
There was a time when a car that was said to have "soul" may have been considered somehow impractical or possess extravagant features. But in reality, soul is not something that you can see or touch. Just a quick glimpse of a Ferrari fills the mind with romantic images of the rolling Italian countryside, a rundown farmhouse set in a vineyard, and a beautiful woman with a carefree attitude. Meanwhile, seeing a Subaru makes one think of infinite assembly lines and parking lots filled with countless copies of identical cars.
When you hear people comparing automotive brands today this theme seems to come up quite often. Sometimes called heritage, legacy, or tradition, "where" a car came from is often a significant part of its identity and is surely something to be exploited by the manufacturer's marketing department. Many consumers even begin their search for a new car based on this very premise.
The performance gap was once large enough to distinguish models and brands through numbers alone. In today's ultra-competitive environment, however, aftermarket tuning, developments in technology, industry consolidation, and continued emphasis on horsepower have basically leveled the field. To be sure, most cars offered today far exceed any needed performance on North American roads, so all the figures are really just for bragging rights anyway.
To generalize for just a moment, the collective marketing of the automotive industry has perpetuated the stereotype that reliability comes from Japan, engineering from Germany, safety from Sweden, and muscle from the U.S. While there is certainly a degree of truth to these ideas, in actuality there is very little separating a $400,000 supercar from your basic $15,000 compact -- at least in function.
So, if our decisions aren't solely based on function, the other half of the equation is form.
Where a car comes from has evolved more into a question of the manufacturer's reputation and history in the industry rather than an actual description of where the car was produced. Many German companies for example have outsourced the actual assembly of their vehicles to countries like Finland, Hungary, Mexico, and even China. By the same token exchange rates have necessitated a natural hedge, and many manufacturers produce right here in the United States, including the Japanese.
Therefore, it's really no wonder that identity has come into play the way it has. Let's consider for a moment two companies that have traditionally been at opposing ends of the spectrum in the category of the "soul." Porsche cars ooze everything speed, racing, tradition, and Germany. In fact, the character of these cars has been so closely linked with the company's history in racing that they have been able to leverage this ideal (in the interest of growth) into one of the greatest marketing coups in recent memory through the introduction of the enigmatic Cayenne sports utility vehicle.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have Toyota whose automobiles are repeatedly described as devoid of personality. To be fair, the Japanese produce cars that are every bit as competent in performance as their European counterparts. Since 1999 Toyota sales have been up 39 percent and their profits were up an astounding 141 percent to reach $11 billion dollars last year. But through this perceived lack of soul, their sports cars simply don't have that "it" factor many seek. Toyota's last Supra effort was awesome on paper -- as was the NSX from Acura -- but the company couldn't give the cars away.
But if the Japanese ever do figure out how to capture soul, it could be curtains for the rest of the industry.
As a matter of fact, these two companies seem to be traveling in different directions where branding is concerned. In an interesting twist of irony, Toyota is actively involved in several forms of motor sports with factory-sponsored teams, including the pinnacle of racing: Formula 1. Porsche on the other hand has ceased its factory-backed efforts and is now concentrating on leveraging its seemingly unshakeable status as a producer of sports cars.
Cars in general don't have the same soul they used to, but marketing teams are still able to leverage their reputations from days past. A recent Mercedes-Benz ad claims that the company doesn't start with a clay model, but rather "with a soul." So the next time you step outside your house to go to the corner store and see your own car sitting in the driveway, consider what romantic images come to mind and ask yourself whether your car has "it" too.
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