In a 1996 study, Patrick S. McCarthy31 estimated automobile demand based
on data from the J.D. Power and Associates 1989 New Car Buyer Competitive
Dynamics Survey of 33,284 households. This survey contained information on the
vehicle purchased, household socioeconomic and demographic characteristics,
and various activities associated with purchasing the vehicle. McCarthy’s sample
of 1,564 households, which was approximately 5 percent of the usable survey
records, was randomly drawn from the larger survey to enable generalizations
to be made to the larger population. The author supplemented the data from the
J.D. Power survey with data on price, warranty, exterior and interior size, fuel
economy, reliability, and safety from the 1989 Automotive News Market Data
Book, Consumer Reports, and the 1989 Car Book. He obtained gasoline prices
from the Oil and Gas Journal and population estimates from the U.S. Bureau of
the Census.