There's an old saying about being able to tell alot about a person by the car he or she drives.
But can you know anything about a state based on the cars found there.
NHPR Correspondent Chris Jensen took a look at what we drive here in the Granite State and files this report.
What would we see if all the vehicles in New Hampshire were gathered in one spot?
That’s something commuters in the southern part of the state figure they experience every weekday.
But Experian Automotive really has pulled the information together.
The Illinois data-gathering company has analyzed the cars and trucks registered in this state, giving us a fender-to-fender profile
Experian Automotive really has pulled the state’s 1.2 million vehicles together - at least on paper.
That profile shows our priorities, our wild side, the decline of the domestic auto industry and a couple of surprising, new trends involving hybrids and used cars.
Brian Parent with Experian says his company pays states to give them vehicle-registration information and then analyzes it.
10:240 - “We collect the VIN of the vehicle which tells us various different components about the vehicle, what type of vehicle it is, some of the different features and attributes.”
Experian then sells that information to automakers and dealers who are looking for trends and anything to give them an edge over their competitors.
Statewide about 51 percent of our vehicles are cars, as opposed to trucks.
.
That is almost identical to the nationwide breakdown.
And, which of those vehicles is the most popular?
08:463 - “I can tell you in the North Country it is full-size domestic pickups.”
That’s Fred Storella.
He’s been repairing transmissions for 30 years at White Mountain Transmission, on Main Street in Bethlehem.
And his guess is really Pretty good.
Specifically the answer is the Ford F-150 pickup.
There are about thirty-three thousand of them.
And the F-150 is also the most popular vehicle nationwide, but here’s is the fine print.
Experian looks at all the vehicles registered.
So, the longer a model name has been around the better its chance of winning the popularity contest.
The F-150 name was first introduced in 1975.
The second and third most popular vehicles in the state are the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord.
Both are built in the US but the ranking still shows the decline of the traditional, domestic auto industry.
As the Camry and Accord show, we clearly like sensible vehicles.
But New Hampshire’s motor pool has its exotic, wild side.
There are 91 Ferraris, 19 Aston-Martins, 10 Lamborghinis and 33 Rolls-Royces.
Some of us can go very, very fast thanks to vehicles with more than 500 horsepower.
There are 106 Dodge Vipers and 14 Ford GTs.
But are these the folks guaranteed to be speeders?
Not really, says Eric Lougee (Lou-jee) , Bethlehem’s police chief.
1.567 - “We don’t happen to see that correlation.”
Speeders, he says, are not necessarily driven by what’s under the hood but by their inner emotional horsepower and the need to get someplace quickly.
07:497 - “If they are going fast it is because the people driving the car are in a hurry whether it is a $50,000 car or a $3,000 car.”
But all that horsepower does not mean we don’t have our caring, environmental side.
Experions’s Brian Parent says that from January 2005 to August 2007 hybrid sales in New Hampshire increased 50 percent.
New Hampshire has 3,912 hybrid cars and 1,094 hybrid trucks.
As a percentage of vehicles registered that’s a little better than Maine and a lot better than the national average, but not quite as good as Vermont.
In New Hampshire almost half of the hybrid cars wear the Toyota Prius badge.
Her blue 2007 Prius parked outside her office in Littleton, Maria Doyle says she bought her hybrid because she liked the idea of high mileage and low emissions.
05:198 - “It is great. I really love it. I’ve owned two of them. This is my second one. And I have no complaints”
Finally, our automotive profile has its mysterious, perhaps tragic side.
There are three vehicles officially listed as “Fiat. Partially built from factory.”
For NHPR News this is Chris Jensen
