New rules of cartraction

From the iconic ‘Greased Lightning’ to James Bond’s Aston Martin, Hollywood has often given the impression that the right set of wheels can add just that little bit extra to your attractiveness, but is there any truth in this or is it just an urban legend? The team at carwow set out to find just how much a car can boost your romantic prospects. Strap yourself in singletons, before you buy your next car we’ll take you for a ride through our results.

To find out the answer, carwow set up a social experiment. The team built a simple site consisting of 100+ images similar to those typically found on dating apps, and asked the public to rate the attractiveness of each person out of 10. Incorporated within the 100 shots were 12 images of two volunteers (one male and one female), each stood in front of 6 different cars (2x low-range, 2 x mid-range and 2 x high-end). The site also featured an image of both in a neutral setting with no car in the background, to analyse against as a control group and to garner how the public would rank their physical appearance normally.

Members of the public were invited to visit the site over the period of a single week, but not told why. The results of the scores out of 10 of the planted emerged below demonstrating you can leap up 6 points in attractiveness, simply by picking the right car to pose with.

To accompany the experiment carwow also polled 2000 British driving daters on how they use and perceive cars on dating profiles. The study found that almost one in five dating-savvy Brits are already using photographs standing in front of cars to try to boost their attractiveness. Alongside that, one fifth (20%) admit to having dated someone only because of the car that they drive, while a further one in four is happy to go on record that they believe having a nice car makes you more aesthetically pleasing.

For those who can’t drive and aren’t ready to learn just to up their swipe rate, the reassuring news is that more than half of British drivers (54%) polled said that there was no car that would impact on their levels of attraction towards a potential partner.

If money is no object in your search for love, the Aston Martin Vanquish, Audi R8 Spyder, and the Ford Mustang as these cars were voted the ‘hottest’ car models by the general public.

If these are out of your budget then even the make of car you drive might just have an impact; Audi tops the list of the most attractive, with BMW coming in a close second. Tesla cars were the sixth most attractive, suggesting that Brits could now find being eco-conscious a desirable trait in a partner.

Black, red and blue were the car colours which would make the general public the most likely to ‘swipe right’, whereas yellow, green and grey were rated a turn off.

Vix Leyton, who commissioned the study for carwow, had this to say:

“The results of our initial study seemed to indicate that the majority of Brits credit themselves with more depth than to base their romantic feelings for someone on the car they are driving. The results of the experiment, however, tell a very different story, with the flashier, more expensive cars much more likely to secure a higher swipe rate. With the scores of the control group images closely mirroring the low-range scores of the Nissan Micra and Ford Fiesta, there seems to be little doubt that anyone looking to supercharge their profiles should try to get their hands on the keys to a higher performance car. Good news for singletons, the relatively good value Polo is enough to boost your attractiveness by 2.5 points, and with leasing options available, can be within your reach for a surprisingly reasonable monthly price .”