Car Trends – The Meek Are Winning

Posted on Friday, January 29, 2010 by Post Scripts

by Jack Lee

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A new Jaguar like this XK8 shown above will set you back about a $100 grand. Not a lot of them puttin around our little town of Chico.

It looks like America’s love affair with the automobile is over and I’m taking into account the current recession which has everyone tightening their belts. U.S. auto sales have dropped from 17 million a year to 10 million and this is due more to a cultural shift than a bad economy, although I’m sure the economy played a part. And another indication of this cultural change is that teenagers are in no rush to have a drivers license anymore, in fact only 1 in 3 by age 16 has a license.

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One of the reasons is the cost of ownership coupled to the complexity of today’s cars. You have to have a PHD in mechanic engineering to repair todays computer controlled car. And this means you just don’t park under a shade tree and beef up your car like kids once did back in the 1950’s. The old days of custom 57 Chevy’s and 32 duece hot rods are all but gone. Car collectors and people over 50 are about the only folks who can relate to the era of cruisin to rock n roll music, drive-ins, drag races and those ground pounding zero to OMG muscle cars! The rest of society tends to see cars as pretty much just a utility item, something to get you from point A to point B protected by air bags, seat belts and crush panels.

Motor Trends Car of the Year is neither rakish, fast or powerful, its the modest mid-sized Ford Fusion and before that it was the thrifty Toyota Prius, both hybrids, half electric, half gas, getting up to 60 mpg city and 40 mpg highway. These cars are top sellers too, but oddly enough just a few decades ago teens wouldn’t be caught dead driving one, but now they’re preferred for their functionality and economy.

To drive a hybrid today is almost like a status symbol. It’s a statement of how much more you care about the environment than the guy down the block who still drives a 4X4 that has never been off road since it was new…speaking of 4X’s, the SUV’s were a former status symbol, but they have really fallen from grace and so has their price! It’s totally uncool to drive a gas guzzler like a Caddy Escalade or worse, a Hummer! You might just as well go out to dinner wearing mink as to pick the kids up from school in a chromed up Escalade. (Dude, get a clue, those big, gaudy, SUV’s are sooooo yesterday!) Well, at least the really old hot rods from the 50’s, and 60’s still command an admiring glance once in awhile, whereas a fat, chromey SUV that can haul ten kids, but usually only carries one or two will just get you sneers.

I think this trend has a lot to do with today’s tough SMOG requirements. It makes it all but impossible to boost horsepower without running headlong into a bureaucratic snag of smog regulations and rules. And if you should fail that bi-annual smog, well, you aren’t going to be driving your personalized car anywhere except to a mechanic for a refit.

My grandson was given a Timmon’s custom Jaguar with low miles, a blue printed Corvette engine and matching Vette transmission. It has fuel injection, headers, lots of chrome, custom paint, custom wheels, a real fancy leather interior with a genuine hand laid burl wood dash. This car has everything and yet he would gladly trade it off for his Mom’s 2001 Honda Civic, because he’s just not into the car scene, he wants 35 mpg.

Shown at left is the demur Toyota Prius.1798-2008_toyota_prius.jpg

The good part of this story is teens are less likely to be killed or injured in a car wreck. The longer they wait to get their license the better their survival odds are! Perhaps yours too!

Families now are far more likely to have just one or two vehicle and they don’t drive nearly as much as they once did….accidents should be coming down, but I think cell phones might keep them up there for awhile longer. So, it looks like you can kiss off the days of Vettes and Jags…the meek are inheriting the world…enter the little tooter cars, like this Prius….bzzzzzz, putt, putt putt…macho it ain’t, but it sure gets good gas mileage.

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