Taking the wheel of a new Mercedes-Benz or BMW might be love at first touch, but the pleasure won’t last long enough to make you happy.
A new study of motorists in the US says the instant buzz of driving an $80,000 luxury car is too fleeting to lift a person out of the daily ruts of life, and may not be worth the big showroom price.
“A luxury car is indeed more fun than an economy car. But most of the time, the driver’s mind is preoccupied with the mundane issues of daily life and the car makes little difference,” said Norbert Schwarz, a marketing professor at the University of Michigan. “Hedonic experiences are fleeting.”
The study, which appears in the current issue of Journal of Consumer Psychology, delves into the driving psychology of a diverse group of motorists, ranging from students to well-heeled adults. They owned or drove cars ranging from economy models to luxury cars.
Schwarz and his co-author, Jing Xu, of Peking University, asked motorists to recall their most recent commute to work or the last time they enjoyed a drive of 20 minutes or longer. Many drew a blank, even those with cars costing $100,000 or higher.
“In short, the car made a difference when respondents focused on the car, but not otherwise,” said Schwarz.
“During the test drive of a new car, our attention is focused on the car, and the more luxurious it is the better we feel while driving it,” he said.
“Once we have owned the car for a few weeks, it no longer captures all of our attention, and other things will be on our minds while driving. As soon as that happens, we would feel just as well driving a cheaper alternative.”
Consumers might just have an inside track on this kind of thinking, as the market share of luxury cars has been shrinking for two straight years.
In the first half of 2010, 11.5 percent of the 5.6 million autos sold were luxury cars, according to MotorIntelligence.com, while during the same period this year 10.8 percent of 6.3 million vehicles sold were regal roadsters. tharp@nypost.com