For better or for worse, I am part of generation Y.
You know, the generation that apparently puts avocado sandwiches and flat whites ahead of car ownership and saving for a mortgage. But in all seriousness, for a generation seen as anti-automobile, plenty of us love writing about cars.
A large proportion of the Haymarket Automotive team – including more than half of the Autocar news desk – is made up of writers that are under 30 years of age.
Which puts us in a unique position. When we’re not in the office assessing cars (that in reality, we can’t afford to buy), we’re on launches listening to PRs telling us how they’ve finally solved the puzzle that’s been bewildering every automaker from Munich to Martorell - namely, how to sell cars to millennials like us.
Every manufacturer at one time or another thinks they have it cracked. Toyota tried it in America with Scion, offering buyers’ unique body styles and bold colours at a low price point. In the end, it turned out that these easily modifiable econoboxes were more popular with retirees than young buyers. And the same cycle seems to be taking place in Europe. In its marketing materials, Citroën genuinely uses the words ‘fresh’ and ‘stance’ to describe its new C3 Aircross. Now, I’m not entirely sure when ‘fresh’ was last present in most people’s lexicons, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in this decade.
And yet manufacturers keep at it with their focus group based advertising and then scratch their heads when each new model fails to land. Oh, and for a bit of perspective here, on almost every launch Seat's PR team can’t wait to wax lyrical about how the company has the youngest buyers in Europe and one of the highest conquest rates. Want to hazard a guess at the median age? Mid-twenties, early thirties? Ok, low forties? Nope, forty-two! Forty-two years of age. In the Victorian era you’d have been considered a living miracle.
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New cars and hipsters are not words I'd put together. Ever.
Hipsters on the whole seem to prefer two wheels. You're more likely to see a hipster riding a Fixed-gear bicycle or a Penny Farthing than driving about town in a new Fiat 500 or Mini Cooper. The Honda Urban EV Concept is way too mainstream for a hipster. They'd see through the 'Urban' tag straight away, it's far too contrived to be cool. In my experience, the hipster car of choice is usually something by VW, from the late 80s, rusting, and with slammed suspension and polished wheels costing 5 times the purchase price of the car.
The only new cars i can
The only new cars i can recall selling well to younger people were the Corsa and the Citroen Saxo. Both were cheap to buy, came with important things like free insurance. They would then replace the lights, add a big stereo, and maybe some tacky bits of plastic to the bodywork, and of course the wheels couldnt be too big. But what they did was create something of their own.
I think they still do it to a lesser extent, but not with new cars anymore. Perhaps its the lack of free insurance, or maybe they just dont have the money any more. I am sure however that if the Honda EV sells it will be to grey haired Honda buyers, because what it wont be is cheap.
What they will actually buy