A few weeks ago Paulette and I took part in in a "focus group" on behalf of the automobile company that makes and sells the MINI Cooper. The gathering's goal was to provide feedback on how the MINI affiliate in the US is doing and how it could improve. Our experience was rather entertaining, particularly since among the dozen or so participants were archetypal representatives of:

• gearheads — technophiles, grooving on every quantitative statistic from torque to gasoline tank capacity ...
• trawlers — young hotties, seeking a pheromone-enhancing vehicle, a chick magnet, a boy-toy lure ...
• nostalgics — grayhaired natty dressers, living a memory of the classic days of British sports-car motoring ...
• prestige hounds — yuppies, taking advantage of a relatively inexpensive steppingstone on the pathway to acquiring more celebrated hood ornaments ...
• secret racers — one of whom admitted, "I hunt Porsches" ...

Among car aficionados there are apparently many wavelengths to which I'm colorblind. Paulette and I occupy another category; we like the MINI Cooper for its safety, economy, comfort, paradoxically large carrying capacity, and elegant engineering.

Yeah, I can admit it: we also enjoy the fun-to-drive cuteness factor ...

(see also ElegantTechnologies (10 Sep 1999), MoreElegantTechnologies (8 Nov 2003), IpodMiniCooperAccessory (6 Jul 2004), BikerEnvy (21 Sep 2004), ...)

TopicProfiles - TopicSociety - TopicScience - TopicPersonalHistory - 2004-11-24

(correlates: WutheringHeights, Twitter Poetry, FecklessPerson, ...)