Fads Affect The Car Industry Too
By definition fads and trends appear and disappear, and seem to affect all avenues of life, including the automobile industry. If you study car culture since the start of the new millenium, you will find a number of interesting changes have taken place. The Nissan Altima, a very simple car if ever, may possibly have surprised you back in 2002 with its speediness if you test-drove one.
It sported a 240 horsepower engine, which caused it to be capable of doing speeds way faster than what we knew in the nineties. It wouldn’t end there either, since today the Volkswagen Passat, a family car, comes with 280 horsepower under the bonnet. For $30,000 you can get yourself a little Mitsubishi which can embarass a Camaro with its performance. Just who would have thought that an ordinary car today could be something so powerfully engined as the 500 horsepower Dodge Viper. You’ll be hard-pressed nowadays to find a car that was under-powered. Automobiles are continuing to become bigger, as each redesign seems to be bigger than the one before. The amount of data and information regarding Audi wheel can be a bit intimidating if you have not read so much about it, yet. By all means, do not stop with what you are learning here today; that would be a shame.
Of course you are here because you have a need to know more, and of course you need some additional support in the way of leveraging the work of others. Knowledge really does empower people, when they use it, and yes we know that may sound a little cliche. We all want to have as much control as possible, even though we know we cannot control everything, but still – knowledge lets you be in a position to respond better to events. When the new Toyota Rav4 was released, it had grown by 14 inches, and if you look at Hondas, the current Civics are larger than the older model Accords.
An automobile that is the same or less than before is not really acceptable, it seems, if you have to pay more for it. When they are going to have to pay for it, they want their automobiles bigger and better. Bigger, sad to say, comes packaged with heavier, nevertheless the car makers are not going to stop because of that, as long as consumers keep buying. The American community want to spend less money on the cost of gas, but it seems they won’t tolerate going slower in the process. Having to pay more to secure the privilege of speed is preferable, which is why there is such a long line of people waiting for their hybrid, the Toyota Prius. And Corollas, offered off the exact same dealer’s showroom floor, remain unsold. Interest in hybrids is so great that all auto manufacturers are rushing to follow suit, even to the extent that Nissan will use the system developed by their competitor, Toyota, to bring out their Altima hybrid.
Customers these days want style and flair, and eliminated is the plain styling so common in the 90s. There’s hardly a car these days that doesn’t come pre-loaded with power steering, power windows and locks, an impressive-sounding stereo and 6 airbags. That’s most likely the reason behind the typical price of $28,000 for that new car you want. We seem to be moving back to the day when a motor vehicle will be a car, as the SUV is going the way of the foolish. Perhaps it was a trend that had its day, given that the worst-hit in terms of sales are the bigger SUVs. Buyers seem to have shifted to smaller cars, with the Ford Explorer and Expedition out in the cold while the little cars are receiving more and more of the action, even the Neon and Sentra.
Cars really don’t need to be as fast as they are, or so big, so the car companies should acknowledge this and change accordingly. Hybrids might possibly be the new thing, and it’s likely to be interesting to follow them over the longer term. In ten years it will be fun to look back and find out what happened with all of the automotive craziness.
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