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As a middle of the road millenial I only learned to drive recently and drive only as much as I absolutely have to. I don’t find it enjoyable unless there’s prac
by cosmic_cheese 2y ago
As a middle of the road millenial I only learned to drive recently and drive only as much as I absolutely have to. I don’t find it enjoyable unless there’s practically no traffic on my route, which is often not the case.
My preferred type of car is a small, efficient, highly practical hatch like the Honda Fit but those largely aren’t sold in the US anymore.
- dotancohen 2y agoThen you're clearly not the Mustang demographic.
- cosmic_cheese 2y agoNo doubt, but it helps drive home OP’s point about the Mustang demographic being small and continuing to shrink.
- wakawaka28 2y agoI don't think the demographic for sports cars is shrinking. Mustangs have always filling a small niche, a subset of the sports car market. The statement in the title may be true but it is meaningless in terms of trends, especially as manufacturers are forced to produce and sell cars that are objectively worse for most people.
- nytesky 2y agoI’m a GenX and just about every high school student at least admired a Mustang, especially the 1st generation version and the retro inspired 4th gen in the mid 90s. Nowadays I am pretty sure my kids have hardly ever seen a coupe let alone a sports car like that.
- wakawaka28 2y agoI think we are about the same age, and it was the kind of car that you'd get if you wanted to be recognized as you drove around. I only saw one regularly within several miles of my house and I knew who owned it. Kids now might feel like they can't afford these cars, and that prices are out of control (they are). But a base model Mustang brand new is only about $32k and you can find them used. Meanwhile a base model Honda Civic is $25k (not the lowest economy model from Honda but close). So people in the market for a new car could probably afford a Mustang, and might choose to not buy them because of build quality or thinking it's too flashy.
- wakawaka28 2y agoHow have you been living without a car? Do you live in a huge city or something?
- cosmic_cheese 2y agoTo make it short, as a teenager my family was too poor to have a second vehicle for me to learn in without risking losing transportation, then I went to university in a city with a very good public transportation, and then entered the workforce right around the heyday of cheap VC-funded ridesharing which was wildly cheaper to make use of than owning/leasing a car was. Even for a while after ridesharing got expensive it still made more financial sense to use over car payment plus parking, insurance, tickets, gas, etc. What finally pushed me over the edge was moving to a suburb during the pandemic to cut down on housing costs. It’s possible to get along without a car since my area is broken up by shopping centers (it’s not a house desert), but still clearly designed to be driven around with few sidewalks. There’s bike lanes which is nice, but a lot of them run right alongside 45mph+ traffic including big trucks which is not so nice.
- qingcharles 2y agoI went two years without a car. Even in small European cities you can usually walk everywhere you need, or there is sufficient public transport once you get used to it, and as long as you are OK hanging out with the unwashed masses. I just did a year in Chicago without a car and rental electric bikes are an absolute godsend when the weather isn't shit. I can get across the city way faster than any car.