you know i really wonder about this, because when you talk to the average vehicle owner they really dont think like this. For the most part, people on this site are enthuseists (sp) period. We love our trucks and we love cars, all cars. So we pay attention to these things alot: how much hp does it have, what about torque, body wieght, vehicle dynamics. But i think that most people don't see things this way. I remember some commericial for bmw where they said that some woman was shown a x5 and chose the lexus suv over it because her liked the cupholders better. Asthetics i think play a major role in many peoples choices (element sales accounted by the fact that people are retards and they dont know whats ugly and whats not) along with ride quality and many other things. I'm sure if you ask most people they dont know if their car has 100 hp or 800 hp.
By the way i live in los angeles, so that might be a big difference, we're asshats over here i think.
JMO.