What Your Car Trunk Says About You

Styring seizes on the leash that Dow has wrapped around the passenger seat to use as a seat belt restraint for her Australian cattle dog, Angel.

"I'm desperately in love with the dog harness. It's a whole product line waiting to be developed," Styring says.

Another opportunity for a smart automaker: Dow loves to clip coupons but has no good place in the truck for them, so they are stuck on the console with a clothespin. Dow apparently also believes in redundancy. The cup holder yields three spools of dental floss. She carries two pairs of sunglasses.

Styring started the car survey in Portland, Ore., not far from the farm she owns with her husband, then came here to Los Angeles. She also has hit Dallas, Atlanta and Freehold, N.J., and has stops scheduled for Detroit and Chicago. The trip is chronicled at www.inyourcarroadtrip.com.

And yes, after a speech to a marketing group later this year to reveal her key findings, she may write another book, this time about the little treasures that every car seems to carry.

Because, as any marketer will tell you, you are what you drive, and the stuff you take with you on the journey can reveal even more.