pointy Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 http://autos.yahoo.com/news/trouble-for-detroit--gen-y%E2%80%99s-favorite-cars-are-foreign.html after reading the comments; price seems to be the common denominator. It is good to see, though, the Focus on the list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker16 Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 don't worry it only counted the 2009 and 2010 models, the fiesta and new focus should do alot to help ford in the Gen Y market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BORG Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 (edited) Ford is in the best position right now with the Fiesta, Focus, and next Escape; the other Detroit car-makers definitely don't understand the youth market as well as Ford. But gen Y is also strongly drawn to Europe where VW reins supreme in the 'legitimacy' quotient. VW has allot of potential to grow market-share thanks to Gen Y. Edited July 10, 2011 by BORG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edstock Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 don't worry it only counted the 2009 and 2010 models, the fiesta and new focus should do alot to help ford in the Gen Y market. Market share doesn't happen overnight. Next year, the ST versions should raise awareness in the Y's. C-Max, B-Max and the consumer TransitConnect are further efforts along this path. It took decades for Detroit to screw up, and changing mainstream perception takes time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BORG Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 (edited) Market share doesn't happen overnight. Next year, the ST versions should raise awareness in the Y's. C-Max, B-Max and the consumer TransitConnect are further efforts along this path. It took decades for Detroit to screw up, and changing mainstream perception takes time. Gen Y is pretty unforgiving and brand conscious, it's not enough to have a token hot car, the brand must embody their values. Fortunately, Ford seems to understand this and has made every car a tech power-house. I think Ford has also fixed its design problem on the cheaper cars with Fiesta and Focus geared nicely at a trendier market, the new Escape should also qualify. I think the fact that Ford has gained a reputation as being more global/worldly than any other Detroit maker will also help its credentials with Gen Y. Edited July 10, 2011 by BORG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettech Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Gen Y is pretty unforgiving and brand conscious, it's not enough to have a token hot car, the brand must embody their values. Fortunately, Ford seems to understand this and has made every car a tech power-house. I think Ford has also fixed its design problem on the cheaper cars with Fiesta and Focus geared nicely at a trendier market, the new Escape should also qualify. I think the fact that Ford has gained a reputation as being more global/worldly than any other Detroit maker will also help its credentials with Gen Y. The last three cars that where purchased by our young troops 2011 MY: 2 Jetta, 1 Camaro All female. None of them looked at any other cars before the purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Not long ago, the thought of Ford selling a B car was met with skepticism....... but here we are... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twmalonehunter Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 They ought to be called the "Fast and Furious" generation, that has as much to do with their preferences as anything. Foreign cars are cool, domestics not so much. Also depends where you live, there's not a friend of my son's who doesn't drool over my truck, or my buddy's new Camaro. Several of them drive older Mustangs and they could care less about imports for the most part. But I'm in Western PA in a pretty rural area where trucks and domestic cars are the norm. The Focus ST will go a long way in giving Ford and the Focus street cred with younger kids. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomServo92 Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 My daughter just turned 18 so that puts her into the "Millennials" group. I know that most of her friends drool over the Camaro or Mustang. She is very happy with her Fusion and she had a chance to drive a Camry for comparison and her impression was that "it was nice but boring". There is some hope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackHorse Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Gen Y'rs don't buy new cars. They stay home and play X-Box and goof around on Facebook and if they have to go somewhere they buy some beatup 8 year old Honda. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSFan00 Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 More reason for Ford to look at importing more in the future under it's own nameplate. There is no negative stigma among the (future) buying public to a company that pulls a "Boeing" and moves away from the damaging union legacy manufacturing base (which has bankrupted Ford's other competitors). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvrsvt Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Gen Y'rs don't buy new cars. They stay home and play X-Box and goof around on Facebook and if they have to go somewhere they buy some beatup 8 year old Honda. More accurally they can't afford to buy cars...besides 55+ people they have the highest unemployment rates going...my one friend who is 25 drives a beat up VW Jetta and would like to get a new Ford...if he could afford a car note More reason for Ford to look at importing more in the future under it's own nameplate. There is no negative stigma among the (future) buying public to a company that pulls a "Boeing" and moves away from the damaging union legacy manufacturing base (which has bankrupted Ford's other competitors). WTF are you talking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PREMiERdrum Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Gen Y'rs don't buy new cars. They stay home and play X-Box and goof around on Facebook and if they have to go somewhere they buy some beatup 8 year old Honda. Some of us are married (8 years), have children (1, 16 mos), work professionally, and have bought new cars (4 new, 3 used since marriage). And that's at 26 years old. :shades: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Millertime Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 http://autos.yahoo.com/news/trouble-for-detroit--gen-y%E2%80%99s-favorite-cars-are-foreign.html after reading the comments; price seems to be the common denominator. It is good to see, though, the Focus on the list. I barely miss being considered a Gen Yer as someone who is turning 30 this year. I lean Ford because of my dad's current job but at my current job I also get discounts with about 9 other car manufacturers so just about everybody is in play for me. Price is a huge factor for me. I consider buying a new car to be a losing proposition so when I drop 30kish on my next car I am going to absolutely make sure that it is the car for me. In the end I hope its a Ford but if there is a competitors car that I feel is better I will buy that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettech Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 USA Today "...Meanwhile, among East Coast cities, just 32% in New York choose Detroit brands, with similar minorities in Boston (33%), Philadelphia (38%) and Miami (35%).It's even worse for U.S.-based automakers on the West Coast. Their brands capture just 27% of buyers in Los Angeles -- where Asian brands get 39% of sales, and Europeans score 34%. San Diego and San Francisco are at 27% for domestics..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BORG Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 (edited) USA Today "...Meanwhile, among East Coast cities, just 32% in New York choose Detroit brands, with similar minorities in Boston (33%), Philadelphia (38%) and Miami (35%).It's even worse for U.S.-based automakers on the West Coast. Their brands capture just 27% of buyers in Los Angeles -- where Asian brands get 39% of sales, and Europeans score 34%. San Diego and San Francisco are at 27% for domestics..." Generally, the more prosperous, educated, or professional a community is, the more likely they are to prefer import...which is another symbol of the culture to which Gen Y aspires. So in many ways, owning that Subaru, VW, or Toyota is a symobl that you've made it in life and broken away from your parents. Conversely, the young and underfunded tend to seek out and buy cheap and ancient Hondas and Toyotas which way outlive their Detroit counterparts. Then tend to be the only used cheap cars that have any credibility. Edited July 11, 2011 by BORG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANTAUS Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Ive always been happy with my Fords, and my family has been mostly ford, although my mother has owned MBenz and BMW, (and has not learned her lesson) but other than her we all have been a Ford guy. I always go against the grain so just knowing "everyone' is being foreign, is enough for me not to. And I have many friends who fit certain stereotypes about the car they drive...so when I hear the "Oh I got a Honda Civic" its like (rolling eyes), "of course you did...oh how original" only because its expected from some of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLPRacing Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 USA Today "...Meanwhile, among East Coast cities, just 32% in New York choose Detroit brands, with similar minorities in Boston (33%), Philadelphia (38%) and Miami (35%).It's even worse for U.S.-based automakers on the West Coast. Their brands capture just 27% of buyers in Los Angeles -- where Asian brands get 39% of sales, and Europeans score 34%. San Diego and San Francisco are at 27% for domestics..." I think that goes for any urban area. When I was in Minnesota last month, we went into an older Saint Paul neighborhood to eat at The Nook (great burgers BTW) and I saw more Subaru Outback wagons than I've ever seen in one place, and if it wasn't an Outback, it was a Honda or Toyota. But once you got out of the denser areas, all you saw were pickups, SUV's and surprisingly lots of minivans. My point is, the denser the area is, the more "foreign" it seems to be (even here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8-X Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Gen Y, I say are young impressionable kids that know no better, at least based on the vehicles available today. They are strapped for cash, grew up watching, like a prior poster mentioned, The Fast & the Furious, and are swayed by their "click". Detroit is just now really taking the compact/sub-compact market seriously. So this generation has grown accustomed to Honda's, Toyota's, etc., being price friendly and "cool", since that is what they were raised seeing on TV and all they can afford. When you look at Detroit and see vehicles that generation grew up with (Neon, Cavalier, Focus, etc), you can see why they are swayed the way they are. And of course, parents (upbringing) and market play a huge factor as well. Many parents of that generation migrated to imports from domestic vehicles, and I'm sure they swayed their children away from certain brands. Also, depending on where you live, the vehicle they purchase can be dictated by climate and terrain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmm55 Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I think that goes for any urban area. When I was in Minnesota last month, we went into an older Saint Paul neighborhood to eat at The Nook (great burgers BTW) and I saw more Subaru Outback wagons than I've ever seen in one place, and if it wasn't an Outback, it was a Honda or Toyota. But once you got out of the denser areas, all you saw were pickups, SUV's and surprisingly lots of minivans. My point is, the denser the area is, the more "foreign" it seems to be (even here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area). I'm from Minnesota. I remember when an Import was rare, around 1975, there was the occasional SAAB or Volvo.....and very few Toyotas or Datsuns. In the last decade they seem to have embraced Japanese cars.......even some in my family ;-( Part of it is (as I mentioned in the SF posts about no American dealerships within their city limits).......the more congested the smaller the cars become. I don't think it's so much a stigma against American cars, as it's the allure of an Import. Even a Scion I guess! LOL. But what volume is there in Scion? They sell less units than Lincoln does at less profit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmm55 Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 the young and underfunded tend to seek out and buy cheap and ancient Hondas and Toyotas which way outlive their Detroit counterparts. Then tend to be the only used cheap cars that have any credibility. Really? Go to craigslist and see the mileage of old Escorts, Rangers, CVs and Town Cars! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanh Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 (edited) Ford is in the best position right now with the Fiesta, Focus, and next Escape; the other Detroit car-makers definitely don't understand the youth market as well as Ford. But gen Y is also strongly drawn to Europe where VW reins supreme in the 'legitimacy' quotient. VW has allot of potential to grow market-share thanks to Gen Y. so Gen Y = VW?....does that mean Gen Y is predominantly female? or GEN Y Males arr henpecked?.... Edited July 11, 2011 by Deanh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmm55 Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 so Gen Y = VW?....does that mean Gen Y is predominantly female? or GEN Y Males arr henpecked?.... It means they will have a lot of oil leaks, electrical problems.....and still be smug about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanh Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 It means they will have a lot of oil leaks, electrical problems.....and still be smug about it. because the Bank of Daddy is always there to save the day.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Gilmore Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 It's like politics. When they are young and don't know better, the are Liberals. When they get a little older, and a lot smarter, they become Conservatives. Same with cars. Young and dumb - imports. It never made sense that kids thought sticking a huge wing on their mom's 4 Civic was cool. But I agree that Ford is doing a better job at least being in the fight. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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