Driving Pleasure: A Key Concept in Swedish Car Culture

Abstract

For the last decades ‘driving pleasure’ has been one of the most common arguments in Swedish car advertising. Almost every car is marketed as a pleasure to drive. It is also treated as the single most important characteristic of each car in test runs in the motor press. In both these contexts the definition of driving pleasure focuses on engine power, speed and driveability. This contrasts with the definitions of driving pleasure that ordinary car users present in interviews. They focus on situational aspects, such as road quality, weather conditions, aim of the journey, traffic intensity and so on. This article discusses these different definitions of driving pleasure and how they relate to each other.