Looking for Mr. GoodCar.(Column)

Byline: Dutch Mandel

Automotive marketers are missing something. Yes, they aim to target certain audience demographics-age or ethnicity, social status or lifestyle. With the empty nesters, college commuters and young executives, they even focus on buyers' "life stages.''

With this kind of nano-slicing of consumers' buying habits, the next step to creating cars that customers want must be to target specific moments.

What do I mean? What car would you choose to drive when your firstborn child is due? Our son was scheduled for an end-of-January birth-it was racing's off-season, after all. I wanted something with good-sized door openings (not that you were big, hon. Honest) that could negotiate Midwestern snowstorms if need be, and that had heated seats to soothe her aching back. The perfect answer was an all-wheel-drive Audi wagon: great seat height, a go-anywhere-anytime propulsion system, and supportive, heated leather buckets. Who knew it would be the warmest January on record?

Here are some other auto-correct choices: Your high school reunion (Porsche 911 for the first 20 years, after that a Mercedes CLS 55 AMG); going to the urologist for a vasectomy (anything with air-cushion seats); heading to divorce court for the property settlement (a rusted-out Yugo).

Isn't this fun? Don't you just begin to ...