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Re: Muscle Car Sales Boom Against All Odds
Maybe some guy working in the basement of one of the domestic auto companies will churn out some massive spread sheet that comes to the stunning conclusion that people don't really want to buy bland junk.
I could only wish someone could figure this out......
When you build cars that aren't just transportation, people buy them. -
Re: Muscle Car Sales Boom Against All Odds
Musclecar sales are up 68% this Oct. as compared to Oct. last year...let's see, would that be the Oct. '08 when the handful of Challengers available were only yours at between list and $10,000 over, and you couldn't find a Camaro? Remarkable point the writer makes there. Then he couldn't finish the piece without making a jab at the Mustang and championing his probable favorite car, the BMW...which the article is not about.
"Typically, I would not consider a Mustang," Mr. Maroun says. "When I told my friends they said, 'Oh my God?why would you do that?' " Though he misses the smoothness and sophistication of his old BMW, he says the Mustang has a wonderful sound and he enjoys its raw, "somewhat brutish" power.
"It is a good car," he says, "until the economy gets better."
He should be working for Csaba Csere somewhere. Anyhow, if the WSJ can't get it right at something you know about, don't figure they do much better at things you don't.
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Re: Muscle Car Sales Boom Against All Odds
The WSJ article is not a bad piece of journalism. The reporter merely quoted the Pony Car buyers he interviewed.
Of course the "midsize sporty" sales category is ridiculous -- a a brain-dead snoozefest FWD wimp car like a Toyota Camary Solara is hardly in the same niche as a Shelby GT500 or a Challenger SRT-8 (anywhere other than in the editorial offices of Consumer Reports, and among some bean-counting auto company bureaucrats who need to justify ripping off the motoring public).
Certainly an increase in supply (Challenger, Camaro) has rallied nostalgic brand partisans and increased demand. And the basic premise of the article is correct insofar as there are certainly some faddish customers who would likely be buying something bigger and/or more expensive if the economy and energy markets were better.
But the following factors cannot be discounted:
1. Gasoline: Fuel prices have stabilized in a range which favors the current crop of Pony Cars.
2. Last Call: Dread over future CAFE increases and environmental regulations likely motivates some buyers to go for one last automotive party before the 35 m.p.g. wussmobiles become the order of the day. In many ways we're at about the "1969-1970" phase of the "Second Supercar Era."http://speedzzter.blogspot.com/2007/...a-its-old.html
3. Rebellion: These cars are the essence of socially-acceptible, middle-class, "Red State/Suburban" rebellion against the "system" of government-controlled, sealed-for-your-protection motoring.
4. Macho: The Pony Cars are among the few "masculine" automobiles produced in America (hence the attractiveness to former image-conscious light truck consumers)
5. It's another fad -- with the Pony Cars being about the only new thing appealing to casual automotive enthusiasts (not Bangshifters) that's being produced by the bankrupt Detroit automakers, it's not surprising that these niche vehicles would counter the declines in other sectors. Moreover, both the Challenger and the Camaro are still perceived as new and fresh (a sporty coupe typically has about a 3-4 year lifespan before the style becomes dated among the trend chasers).
6. The visceral appeal: As we know, these cars have an emotional swagger that's missing in inoffensive, Japanese-style transportation appliances. That still resonates in a fairly large sector of the American motoring public.
7. Power-to-Weight: There's a tipping point at ~ 13 pounds per horsepower. At that point, a car accelerates fast enough to make 95% of the public believe it's "hot." Virtually all of the current Pony Cars are now in this range. Combind that with the fact that none of these cars require any special "futzing" or hassles and are reasonably practical as daily drivers. If the price point is low enough and the styling fits the vehicle's persona, then you've probably got a guaranteed winning combination (at least until insurance costs, fuel prices, social pressures or some other external squelches demand).
8. Empty nests: The current generation of Pony Cars are selling predominantly to folks who do not need minivans, SUVs or sedans to ferry around kids. The prices are still too high to appeal to the youth market (insurance price must be factored in here).
Bunkie Knudsen famously said, "you can't sell an old man's car to a young man, but you can sell a young man's car to an old man." In other words, practical, hassle-free high performance combined with attractive style will likely always outperform the "commodity market" for vehicles.
That being said, a 2% share means that 98% of the market needs, wants or is settling for something else (which ought to alarm Bangshifters).Comment
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I wonder what the odds are of the two Muscle Cars I've decided to keep mysteriously taking the same keys? I'm talking ignition & trunk... bizarre...Comment
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