Quote:
Originally Posted by Sulu
I would say that North Americans are not demanding enough, not conservative. North Americans may be conservative in politics, but not when it comes to cars. A conservative taste in cars would be a true appreciation of the Volkswagen Rabbit, Jetta and Passat; or the previous generation Mercedes-Benz C-Class and S-Class. (And, of course the Corolla and Camry.) These are cars with not much show, but plenty else to make them good cars, nonetheless.
How else do you explain the over-dressed rental car specials that GM has produced over the years? Those were cars with a lot to show (even if I really did not like that kind of show), but not much else to make them attractive as cars. How else do you explain the terrible Cavalier seemingly assembled by 3-year olds? How else do you explain the Grand Am which was made "sporty" by slathering it in rubbery-feeling plastic, both inside and out? Or all the Buicks and Cadillacs covered tastelessly in chrome?
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Yeah, that could be it as well. Not demanding enough. On top of that 90% if not more opt for an auto by default, at least from my observation. Obviously there are enthusiasts out there but not enough to justify the manual in higher end cars. Which is understandable in some respects. Well I guess I meant conservative in choice of cars. Obviously the baby boomers and the generation after that are the biggest market. So generally they are conservative. They want appliances, not all of them but most. A to B cars. Which isn't bad, if that's what you're looking for. As you know, probably Americans more than Canadians we're a image conscious society, which isn't bad to some extent we all have our styles. But anyway I think because of that big demographic it tends to lean to conservative. But over the years I think this market is becoming less conservative. You have Scion, you have the MINI and Smart. Reason I mentioned those is I think 10 years ago or less those would have not sold as well or be well received. Yes gas prices helped but I'm talking more of style and type of cars. Especially the Smart. Yes its a novelty car but the whole mentality of bigger is better is starting to be chipped away at. See what I mean?? Sort of? Not really? Neither do I
Also we're very price conscience. We obviously equate size with price. But not only is that our mentality but also that's the way it was set up here in the U.S. as far as product offerings. So if that's all we see naturally we get that mind set. Cause most companies have lower end cars (Small) and upper end cars (big). Which makes sense to some extent. Not everyone can afford a 20-30k car, or a brand new car. So where I'm going with this is premium compact cars. MINI has shattered that mentality you have to have bare bones no frills in a small car. With sports cars everyone wants cheap but they want 400 plus out of the box. exaggeration but you get the point. So obviously on the sports car front its a tight rope of thin profit margin and creating a car to appeal to people that will sell. I know Toyota has the resources and is capable of creating a "cheap" sports car but I think they lost the whole niche' thing. I know they are a mainstream company but the fact that they focused on that more than niche' they probably don't have what it takes to make a niche' car to last long. Yes I understand market changes but if you look in the past very few of Toyota's sports cars lasted. The Celica and the Supra. MR2, but its come and gone. And now they're gone. And now Scion is dangerously leaning towards mainstream as far as products and pricing and what not.
