Prepared for the International Carwash Association (ICA) and the Ketchum ICA Team Prepared by the Ketchum Global Research Network - January 17, 2003

In December of 2002, the Ketchum International Carwash Association account team sought to better understand the status of Americans’ feelings for their automobiles and their tendency to wash them frequently and properly. Additionally, they wished to know whether the population of car owners and lessees could be divided into categories based on their car-related attitudes and behaviors. The team had two hypotheses:

1. In general, Americans’ cars are tightly woven into their owners’ lives and as a result, car owners/lessees have strong emotional attachments to their automobiles. Yet, despite these bonds, car owners/leaser do not clean their cars how they should or as often as they should.
2. There are four to six different kinds of car owners/lessees in the United States which range from a group of "car lovers" who feel strong emotional attachments to their automobiles and exhibit exceptional car care to a group who care very little about their car or its physical appearance.

To determine the accuracy of these hypotheses, the Ketchum Global Research Network conducted an online survey among 1,000 Americans who are either car owners or lessees. The study gauged the group’s attitudes toward their cars and car-related behavior. The results supported both hypotheses. Overall, Americans love their cars, but don’t do as much as they should to care for them. Also, when a K-Means Cluster analysis was conducted on the data, the technique uncovered five distinct groups of car owners ranging from "Car Lovers" to "Car Apathetics."

This report discusses and graphically represents the key findings from the survey’s data set. It is organized into the following sections: