The Gawk Factor

July 31, 2006 - Story and photos by John LeBlanc

With car of the year, truck of the year, best in initial quality, best in long-term quality, most appealing—and for all I know—top ten cars for cake decorators—seemingly the only missing automotive industry award is an award for the awards. But beyond the modern, exhaustive professional scientific measurement of car buyers’ likes and dislikes, there’s room for one more award: it’s called the Gawk Factor.

What’s the Gawk Factor? For starters, it’s highly unscientific and wildly subjective.

I happen to live in one of those old, working class neighbourhoods where Subarus and Volvos tend to outnumber Lexus and Benzes. For example: a Honda Odyssey is considered aspirational.

When I first started writing about cars for a living, the weekly passing of fresh (and occasionally ostentatious) borrowed metal meant a quick explanation to my neighbours to ensure them that I was neither selling crack cocaine, male enhancement drugs or acting as some kind of front for an international car thief ring.

In fact, the neighbourhood park is at the end of my street, which means the pedestrian traffic of soccer parents and dog walkers is fairly high. By now, most of the car enthusiasts in my neighbourhood know a detour down my street might mean an opportunity to see something new and interesting automotively. This is where the Gawk Factor comes into play.

It’s pretty obvious when the Gawk Factor kicks in. There’s usually an initial peak to see what my current inventory is. After that, its just a matter of measuring the length of the stare by the number of houses past mine, combined with the degree of neck rotation plus the number of times the gawker’s significant other has to complain, “Are you listening, honey?”

A cursory glance means a low Gawk Factor. Ubiquitous cars like the new Chevrolet Impala, or Toyota RAV4 hardly caused passerbys to break step. Been there done that seems to be the opinion.

From the regretful minivan owners in my ‘hood, a bunch of station wagons I recently drove—BMW 530xi Touring, Saab 9-3 Sportcombi Aero, Volkswagen Passat 3.6 4Motion—ranked fairly high on the Gawk Factor.

So what’s caused some of the biggest and longest gawks recently?

No surprise that sports cars rank high. Recent BMW M cars—M Roadster, M6 and M Coupé—Porsches (especially a red Cayman S) caused a good gawk or three. Jaguar’s gorgeous XK might have sent some local lookers to their chiropractor. Surprisingly, Mazda’s new CX-7 cranked some necks as well, so maybe Mazda’s onto something there.

But the most gawked at? I’ll let all you kitchen psychologists chime in on this, but a trio of in-yer-face off-roaders knocked the the Gawk Factor of the scale.

Maybe it’s the urban dweller hearing the call of the wild? I don’t know. But Hummer’s H3, and Nissan’s Xterra had pedestrian’s head’s spinning while in my possession.

But the recent Gawk Factor champion has to be Toyota’s new FJ Cruiser.

Full complete stops, dropped jaws, hands on hips, and “c’mon” spousal nudges—the FJ received all of this attention and more.

From my mailman whose nose print is still visible on the FJ’s passenger window, to a woman who actually rang my doorbell to tell me how much she wanted one, if the Gawk Factor is any indication, Toyota might as well cancel any of their advertising on the FJ. Just leave one parked in my laneway.