passionate about cars

wannabe · Post by **wannabe** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 5:46 pm

"Is it the car companies' fault that people are not passionate about cars anymore, or is it the people's fault that car companies don't build many cars to be passionate about anymore?" discuss.

Found this on facebook, thought it might be good to discuss here...

Rope-Pusher · Post by **Rope-Pusher** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 6:43 pm

^ THIS!

FDSpirit · Post by **FDSpirit** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 6:58 pm

Car companies have to appeal to their bean counters. So they make whatever yields them the best profit. Most people really don't care as long as it provides its basic function with little to no problem on a daily basis.

Rope-Pusher · Post by **Rope-Pusher** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 7:20 pm

^ THIS!

Cars are just an appliance to most people. Shoppers have much better opportunities to compare prices and purchase what's the least expensive. This puts pressure on automakers to make their offerings less expensive and, after all the low-hanging fruit has been picked, they start rationalizing away the very features that made drivers passionate about their cars, like the Honda Civic's double-wishbone front suspension.

Dealerships used to paper-over their showroom windows and hide their new models inside until introduction day, when folks would flock to them to see what was new. Kinda like camping outside the store so to be the first one among your peers to own the new video game or the latest electronic device, or see the latest Hairless Potter movie.

I-Pads and cell phones and other electronic devices have filled the void that passion for cars used to fill.

theholycow · Post by **theholycow** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 7:30 pm

Are people not passionate about cars? I'm not sure I agree with that premise.

Auto racing is more popular and more mainstream than ever. Fast & Furious (and other such movies) are wildly popular. There is a larger variety of cars than ever before. Aftermarket is bigger than ever. There is more tuning going on in suburban driveways than ever, although it's done differently than it used to be. Then there's ricers; I may not like what they're doing, but they certainly are passionate about their cars.

There's no shortage of models to get passionate about although one successful appliance-car company abandoned excitement-specific models some years ago (yet entered a popular racing series).

If passion is lower at all, I believe the cause is a general cultural shift. There's more other things to be interested in. Roads are more congested than ever, enforcement is stricter than ever, and costs are higher than ever.

The car companies are doing pretty much the same thing they've always done - trying to sell what the people want to pay for. If there is less passion, the actions of the car companies are the effect of that loss, not the cause.

Shadow · Post by **Shadow** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 8:22 pm

Plenty of people are still passionate about cars. Those people are called enthusiasts. I'm one of them.

Others see cars as appliances. You know, something to get them front Point A to Point B.

Want to see people who are still passionate about cars? Just go to a car show. Or a car meet held every week at the local burger joint. Or the self-serve car wash....you know, the ones with a bunch of bays and a high-pressure wand to spray down the car. You'll usually find plenty of people there who are passionate about their cars.

FDSpirit · Post by **FDSpirit** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 9:17 pm

Very good points. I guess my view is a little bit different. But yeah, I try to go to car shows and other automotive events around here just to get the joy of seeing cars. The local auto-x events are always fun to watch.

AHTOXA · Post by **AHTOXA** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 9:20 pm

Perhaps it's more of a question of car enthusiasts vs non-enthusiats and what's the proportional relationship. Perhaps in the past, going back 50 years or even less, ratio of car enthusiasts to car owners was higher, meaning that more owners were also car enthusiasts. This could be due to the fact that going back 50 years or so required you to more intimate with the car and have more technical knowledge about it when owning a vehicle. Repairs were more frequent, maintenance was more frequent and cars may have been less-reliable overall. Perhaps that criteria naturally developed more enthusiasts.

Squint · Post by **Squint** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:20 am

I would say that cars are less important to younger people than they used to be. Not in a sense of "I need a car to get to _____" but in the sense of "I'm able to drive now and take care of a car!" I was on Edmunds.com forums a while back and was reading a discussion people older than myself were having about how younger people (my generation) don't hold cars in the same light as they used to when they were younger.

It is very possible that electronics and other things are replacing cars as a point of fascination. I also feel that people do not care as much about what they drive, as long as it works and gets them from point A to point B. Obviously, there are exceptions (I think that anyone who has registered here counts...) and some of us still really appreciate cars and the crazy engineering associated with getting a ton or two or more to move at high speeds.

watkins · Post by **watkins** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:01 pm

A lot of the younger generation isnt even bothering to learn to drive, or at least not right away. I can understand this in a city situation, since cars are pretty annoying. Being stuck out in the suburbs on the other hand would suck, but some kids are still too stupid to bother. My sister, for example, only learned to drive because my parents told her that the day she was eligable to get her license they would no longer drive her around.

Squint · Post by **Squint** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:06 pm

Who wouldn't want to learn how to drive? I can understand not wanting to drive for various reasons (finding parking in cities, fuel costs, etc...) but just knowing how to drive? That just doesn't make sense to me... I haven't been out of high school for THAT many years and it was still a huge thing for someone to get their driver's license. Maybe it was just all the people I knew though...

theholycow · Post by **theholycow** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:15 pm

watkins wrote:My sister, for example, only learned to drive because my parents told her that the day she was eligable to get her license they would no longer drive her around.

She's smarter than I was. My parents didn't let me get mine ASAP because of my grades (I kinda had this thing about not doing my homework). If only I had pretended I didn't want it and made them drive me places...

watkins · Post by **watkins** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:24 pm

How is she smarter? My parents pretty much said "F*ck you. Get a damn license" becaus of how much time they spent lugging her pre-driving ass around.

theholycow · Post by **theholycow** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:34 pm

Let's compare...

15 years and however many months old cow: I want to take drivers ed and get my permit!
Cow's parents: NO PERMIT FOR YOU!
Cow:

15 years and however many months old watkins' sister (post pics, BTW, if she's old enough now): Keep driving me around!
watkins parents: No way girlie, you're getting your license the day you turn 16!
watkins' sister:

Tups · Post by **Tups** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:38 pm

Of course it would be nice to be enthusiastic and passionate about cars, but when you know that you're never going to own a car you'll enjoy...

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