How Quickly Americans Forget

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joey D
  • 57 comments
  • 2,528 views
buickgnx88
The question is though, how many of those people who are buying the V8 Camaro's are actually using them as daily drivers? If I were to buy a new Camaro, it would be more of a play car while having a cheap DD for otherwise.
Click to expand...

Assuming that my Dad uses his place on the list to get one, he'd be replacing his Avalanche as a daily driver with it. Good news is that the Avalanche was bought on lease, bad news is that I think he may want to get another truck (don't worry, he uses it, A LOT). Most people in Michigan are crazy enough to drive these cars all year, Corvettes especially.

Hell, if I can get the money together, I'd love to get a Camaro LT2 V6 with the RS package...
 
Yup, throw Blizzaks on a Vette and you can drive it in the winter. Although it's funny to watch them in anything more then 2 or 3" of the white stuff. Brad's right though, people will buy the Camaro and drive it all year around, mainly younger people.
 
Joey D
You don't need to be a millionaire to buy a Camaro, I could afford one right now if I so desired and I'm far from a millionaire.
Click to expand...

You're assuming that the buyers won't be able to afford gas.
 
Joey D
Yup, throw Blizzaks on a Vette and you can drive it in the winter. Although it's funny to watch them in anything more then 2 or 3" of the white stuff. Brad's right though, people will buy the Camaro and drive it all year around, mainly younger people.
Click to expand...

Maybe below the bridge they would! :p
 
ROAD_DOGG33J
You're assuming that the buyers won't be able to afford gas.
Click to expand...

There will be people that see fuel now at $2.19 per gallon and think it will stay that way forever. I talk to these people on a regular bases throughout my daily social activities and these are the people who want to buy Camaro's, big SUV's, and trucks. I have one buddy who is in the market for a new car, his job isn't any better then mine although he's putting down very little on brand new Mustang with a V8 in it. I'm curious how he'll afford it but as I've said, not my money.

Millionaires are a very small group of car buyers, especially with Camaro's. I'm not saying there won't be a single millionaire that will buy a Camaro, I'm just say I think you'll find the average buyer to be well average.
 
Danoff ... take a few steps back and a deep breath, then try to read this thread with the eyes of a neutral person that just came here to see what this is about. Then ask yourself why people constantly get into arguments with you. Honestly...
 
The car enthusiast in me would most certainly shoot for the V8 Camaro, gas crisis or not. But car enthusiasts are a smaller bunch. And as somebody said, these sales are probably mostly just people who have been waiting for and anticipating the car, not people who one day randomly decide they need a sports car and go for the cheapest and most economical car out there.

That said, the people buying the Camaro are probably going to be more upper middle class people who don't need practicality and are just looking for a fun car. Those people can generally afford to keep a V8 running through higher gas prices. Buyers aren't going to be using their GM loyalty discount from their 2000 Saturn on a Camaro.
 
That's true enough, I wonder what the long term impact on cars like the Carmao will be though. I mean take sports cars which are in reach of average people and how will people respond with fuel prices at $5+ per gallon? If people complain about $3 per gallon wouldn't it make sense they will complain even more about an increase?
 
Another thing to take into account, is that a few months back dealers were giving up huge $$$ gas cards with the purchase of certain (read that: gas guzzlers) vehicles, or cards that gave you discounts down to a "reasonable" price.

I personally don't want a daily vehicle that can't pull itself 25 (+/-2) miles or more on a gallon of gas.
I was just a kid during the first fuel "crisis" in the 70's but I remember filling up according to the last number on your license plate, and still having lines that were blocks long.

Does that mean I love the Infiniti G35x any less? Not really.

But lets Pro/Con it out:
Mazda6
$18,500 - 30,000 purchase price (new)
170HP 4cyl (272 HP V-6 available)
Front wheel drive
30 MPG Hwy
Requires regular grade fuel
Manual trans only avail in 4 cyl
cloth interior standard

Infiniti G35
$34,000 - 42,000 purchase price (new)
270-330HP V-6
Rear or All Wheel Drive (AWD sedan only)
23-25 MPG HWY (dependant on drivetrain)
Requires premium grade fuel
Manual trans not avail in AWD (and is an extra cost option in RWD models)
Heated Leather interior standard

Those are just the little things.
Point is I could pick up a top of the line V-6 for about the same price as a bottom line G35.

But when you add in the fact that I'll end up buying more gas for the Infiniti, and it'll cost me 25 cents more per gallon. I'll still want the Infiniti.:sly:
But I'm much more likely to bring the Mazda home.
And I'll likely be nearly as happy.

Will most of us take those numbers into account? Hell no!!! We'll buy what we want. We'll figure out "care and feeding" later.:lol:
 
Joey D
The new Camaro has sold 84% of it's 6,000 units so far with V8 engines in them. Yes I understand the Camaro gets OK mileage but in a world when fuel prices could easily jump back to $4.50 -$5.00 a gallon it doesn't make logical sense.
Click to expand...
I don't personally think that that has anything to do with fuel costs being down. The Camaro was going to sell like mad regardless of what gas costs were. It has been hyped and poked and prodded non-stop for a few years now, and it has more free publicity than the GT-R ever had. A better indication would be if Dodge Challenger sales have gone up.

YSSMAN
I think we could make an argument that the "fire sale" policies on them ($6000 cash back on Jeep Commanders here in GR) are playing a large part as well.
Click to expand...
I think in the Commanders case it may exclusively be a gas mileage issue, as Jeep has been doing fire sales on them since they debuted and they still can't get rid of them.
 
Gil
I was just a kid during the first fuel "crisis" in the 70's but I remember filling up according to the last number on your license plate, and still having lines that were blocks long.
Click to expand...
That must have been terrible for those with letters-only on their vanity plates...

I don't think the enthusiast crowd nor someone well-healed enough to afford a $50,000+ car is terribly affected by gas prices, even going back to six months ago when $4.00-4.50/gas was common. If it ever reaches $8-10/gallon in the next 5 years, then perhaps it will become an issue. Fuel economy might be a big priority for small cars, then it becomes less and less of a selling point/deal-breaker as cars get bigger and/or more expensive.

Sports-cars and other powerful machinery suffer in sales because they usually become "outdated" within 2-3 years. The freshest thing thing in the marketplace usually takes away sales. Marketing, advertising, and hype for those kinds of cars disappears after 12 months. Something faster, sleeker-looking, more practical, or even brand-loyalty seems to kick in as a viable alternative way before fuel economy is mentioned. The only way it would play a role in deciding a model's demise is if the competition continuously gets another 10-15 miles per gallon with no other major sacrifices.

So despite automakers touting 20 miles per gallon in their trucks or SUVs (GM, I'm looking at you), it's not a make-or-break proposition for automakers. The quality of the overall product, and ability to keep tongues wagging about the product, and the continued sales of the product are the real reasons a vehicle stays or dies in the marketplace.
 
Last edited:
Toronado
I think in the Commanders case it may exclusively be a gas mileage issue, as Jeep has been doing fire sales on them since they debuted and they still can't get rid of them.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but they're heavily discounting everything across the board here. Between the employee pricing, fire sale policies, closing dealerships, and outright "BUY NOW, I'M CRAZY" salesmen... You can get a great deal on a lot of newer cars and trucks. I'm still reminded of top-line Chrysler Town and Country vans that they were pushing out for what seemed like "at cost," about $14K for a well done model on the north side of town. Granted, the new models were coming in, but those vans should have been retailing for $30K.

Maybe thats just a sign of how terrible things are for Chrysler (lol).
 
Yeah. I don't think anybody would buy a Chrysler period right now unless Chrysler gave them a great reason to.
 
While I know that you have your tongue firmly planted in your cheek...
Pupik
That must have been terrible for those with letters-only on their vanity plates...
Click to expand...
Vanity plates didn't become widely available till mid to late '70's and the actual super long lines and "even and odd" days were in '73-'74.
And gas went up to a "whopping" 60 cents a gallon.:eek:
 
You know it's bad when you can look back on a gas "crisis" like that and say "I wish it was that much right now!" :p
 
YSSMAN
I'm still reminded of top-line Chrysler Town and Country vans that they were pushing out for what seemed like "at cost," about $14K for a well done model on the north side of town. Granted, the new models were coming in, but those vans should have been retailing for $30K.
Click to expand...
2008 Ford Taurus for $12,000!!!
 
Philly
Yeah. I don't think anybody would buy a Chrysler period right now unless Chrysler gave them a great reason to.
Click to expand...

My friends, while I love em dearly, are horribly misguided when it comes to cars. They want Chrysler's like there is no tomorrow because they claim they are the best on the market. I think you will only find this in Michigan though. My mom still probably would buy one as well despite every Chrysler product she's ever owned has failed more times then I can count.

===

What my point was about the price of fuel and automotive buying is not that the people who can afford it will be complaining but rather those who can't afford it will be. You'd be surprised how many high school and college aged people I know that buy new cars without thinking (hey I was one of them too) of things like how fuel prices will affect them in the near future. Sure you can afford a cheap Dodge Ram right now but double the price of fuel and they can no longer afford $100 to fill up every week.
 
Hells yeah.
My last vacation we budgeted for $5 a gallon.
Thank God it was under in the mid $4 range.
50 cents a gallon don't sound like much but at 17 MPG and 1600 miles it was.
Still had to hit the pump cutoff at $75 and start over to finish filling...
and yes, it did suck.
 
Gil
While I know that you have your tongue firmly planted in your cheek...

Vanity plates didn't become widely available till mid to late '70's and the actual super long lines and "even and odd" days were in '73-'74.

And gas went up to a "whopping" 60 cents a gallon.:eek:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info...although I was curious about that; you rarely see old vanity license plates.
 
Pupik
Thanks for the info...although I was curious about that; you rarely see old vanity license plates.
Click to expand...
They were also quite expensive when they first came out.
You never saw personalized plates on "beaters" like you do today.
They were mostly on fancy cars.
 
Gil
Hells yeah.
My last vacation we budgeted for $5 a gallon.
Thank God it was under in the mid $4 range.
50 cents a gallon don't sound like much but at 17 MPG and 1600 miles it was.
Still had to hit the pump cutoff at $75 and start over to finish filling...
and yes, it did suck.
Click to expand...

50c/gallon at 17mpg for 1600miles comes out to like 47 bucks or something like that. That's not really a deal breaker for a vacation. People spend more than that taking their family to the restaurant. And 1600 miles at 17mpg is not that costly. That's like some odd 450 bucks if it was 5 bucks a gallon. One person trip to europe for example back and forth would cost way more than that.
 
buickgnx88
Could you please just drop it danoff, nobody else here cares about the title and this is going to just turn into a big arguement, like many other threads on this site. :lol:
Click to expand...

Actually, I thought danoff made a valid point. It probably doesn't help that Joey uses any excuse possible to dog on Americans.

I can see a lot of "average" people around the world making the same assumptions about gas prices and such. SUV sales are always lower overseas, and tend to be owned by upper class. Upper class = educated = understanding that gas prices will go back up. If the average Joe of Europe bought SUVs like the average Joe is the US does, I imagine the increasing sales trend would also happen there.
 
upper class educated?

Upper class lacking common sense. Isnt it the "upper class" who have got us into this economic mess ;)
 
It's not one particular class nor any other. It's a symptom of a society that thrives on consumption.
 

Latest Posts

Back