Car Culture...

[WILMASBOYL78]

Karen sent me this article from the WP...
Not sure who they are talking about when they say &quot;folks with grey hair who older then their cars&quot; <<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/hmmm.gif

I guess they mean Tibor and Cumby <<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rweb/biz/a...?tid=kindle-app (http://www.washingtonpost.com/rweb/biz/americas-fading-car-culture/2015/09/04/834ab7b6b2f99fc195c2c9416f2ccdc4_story.html?tid=ki ndle-app)

[70 copo]

Interesting... 25 years ago I took notice of a progressive middle school text book which placed the ownership of an automobile as &quot;early automobile&quot;, &quot;automobile&quot; and &quot;late automobile&quot;.

The context of the period then was &quot;late Automobile&quot; (1990) and the book predicted a social mores shift away from the automobile that would parallel &quot;peak oil&quot;.

After reading this recent tripe from the WP I am left to conclude that the entire story would not have run at all except that it was a slow news weekend.

The economy picks up again and the car culture will follow as it has in the past.

[cook_dw]

I am not sure how I feel about the whole deal with the younger generation and cars.. I know all the younger people that I know or talk to do not have an interest in cars (muscle car or newer pony cars).. Obviously time will tell but I dont see their being a revolution of youth that gets into the car craze as it has been from the 50's- early part of the 90's.. Honestly, Im not sure if most of the people my age would buy a car for recreation if they had the money.. I hope I am wrong.

[William]

There have been several related articles on this very topic over the past few years.

&quot;No Hobby for Young Men&quot; Hagertys Winter 2010 P. 44. Some interesting stats [5 years old now]
average age of hobbyist: 44
75% of hobbyists are 46 or older
number of 16 year olds that don't drive: 69%

They also listed threats to the hobby:
disappearing infrastructure - parts and shops
environmental regs
alternative fuels-gas as we know it may cease to exist after 2020 regs kick in.

&quot;American Beauties&quot; AARP Magazine April/May 2012 P46. The index lead for the story states &quot;Still fantasizing about that Camaro you craved back in '68?

&quot;For Sale by Boomer&quot; Car and Driver March 2014 P. 67 link:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/bab...rash-it-feature (http://www.caranddriver.com/features/baby-boomers-created-the-classic-car-marketand-could-crash-it-feature)

Sit in the ring at any big auction and watch the crowd-probably 75% old guys.

My guess: The &quot;Car Culture&quot; has always been generational and will continue to be. Already happening around here. Cruise Nites are about 1/3 late model Mustangs, Challengers, Camaros, Corvettes. Very few restored '60s Muscle Cars. Some of the bigger collectors have already bailed: Robson, Dwiggins, Pratte.

Nothing lasts forever.

[70 copo]

Nothing lasts forever... I agree to an extent. I started attending auctions in 1996. In 1997 B-J for instance was all about the Brass cars and the high end exotics. 4 years later B-J was over run with 60s muscle. The imports are next, but ask any kid driving a Honda if he would rather have an American muscle car and they will tell you right away Sure!.... &quot;But I cannot afford one&quot;.

I see these kids all the time since one of my drivers is an import tuner. It is all brute economics with the kids and they build fast cars for next to nothing.

[markinnaples]

IMHO, everything is cyclical and thusly everything comes and goes in popularity.

It seems to me that the younger kids are still into the foreign cars with small engines with turbos and the like. I'm on a few FB pages with the younger enthusiasts and they are vehement about ______ (insert Honda/Nissan/Lexus/BMW, etc.) and want to meet up and race every night of the week. It might be less pervasive in our culture in general than it was years ago, but they still love their cars and love speed. There are a few Mustang and Camaro kids out there, but the foreign lines still seem more popular.

[William]

Around here the factions don't mix. Lowriders have their own shows as does the Tuner crowd.

A few weeks ago at cruise nite a bud had his '57 parked next to one of the first Charger Hellcats. The Charger got a heck of a lot of attention. IMHO that's where the hobby is headed.

[earntaz]

Yep -- price of oil is hitting rock bottom and soon the cost of rice is going to skyrocket ... TAZ