Graph of the Week: Which collectible car would win the 2016 election?
The US presidential election will finally conclude on November 8, and certainly more hours of coverage and words of opinion have been devoted to the candidates and the campaign than any before. But what if classic cars were the candidates and all votes were write-ins? Can you guess the winner?
To answer this question, we took the “red state”/“blue state” results from the 2012 presidential race, conducted a quick survey within those states that counted a classic vehicle registration as a vote, and tallied the results. No matter which party a state preferred, all voted for the first-generation Ford Mustang.
Runners up differ between parties with red states favoring Chevrolet C10 pickups and Democrats opting for 1970s Corvettes, while second generation Pontiac Firebirds manage to cross the aisle, hitting third place on both tickets.
Corvettes and Chevelles from the 1960s have broad appeal, but lean slightly to the left; Chevy Novas are just right of center. Dems are more likely to be internationalists, with the Jaguar Mark X sneaking into the top 20, although everyone likes the Volkswagen Beetle. A 1970s Impala or Caprice will draw a bigger crowd in a red state, while the opposite is true for a 1970s Cadillac DeVille.
There is a lot of common ground, though. Of the top 20 most popular cars for both red and blue states, 18 are identical. When it comes to cars at least, it turns out we are indeed more alike than different.
