What will the future car culture be like?

[Philly]

What will today's 18-25 year olds be keeping all shiny in their garages when we grow up? I guess one possibility is the obvious Mustang/Camaro/370Z/Genesis crowd. I think a lot of kids look up to those cars as something awesome that they could one day own.

Or how about the current kings like the Supra, RX-7 and rally twins? Those are among the most substantial of the current import scene, which I'm sure is something like the present-day equivalent of the muscle car crowd.

Perhaps hot-rodded hatchbacks will be what we'll be telling our kids we owned but were stupid and sold. I could see me telling those stories about the GTI. And the Cooper S's and RSXs and SVT Focuses may yield similar stories one day.

What do you guys think? I think we could probably have some pretty decent discussion here about what the car guys of the future will own.

 

[Casio]

hai guyz i just got a used '12 Volt and my freend said he new a guy who overclocked hiz Volt n made it do 0-100 in 1.6secondz. i just wanna know how 2 do ds.

oh and im a drifta

Probably something like that.

 

[homeforsummer]

In the UK, there will be "classic hot hatch" clubs, with members who own the last few remaining completely stock Citroen Saxo VTR/VTS models, Peugeot GTIs, Clio 16vs and Williams models and other similar hatches. 99% of all these models will have either been "modded" beyond recognition by then or wrapped around trees so a good Saxo VTR will be worth a fortune.

BMW owners' forums will be full of members who've picked up V10 M5s for five grand and wondering why the SMG gearbox is missing three gears and running on only 9 cylinders, and E30s will just be a distant memory as the scrappage scheme will have killed off all of them but for those saved by enthusiasts who never take them out.

The Korean car tuning scene will be massive as the number of Korean cars will have risen disproportionately compared to everything else and the second-hand market will have become flooded with Hyundai i10s, i20s and i30s, Kia C'eeds and others, many of which will still be under warranty.

Personally whilst all this has been happening I'll have started a collection of Kei cars and will be laughing at those in big Mercedes and the like as traffic will have become so bad and speed limits so low in the UK that the only fun you can have is at 30mph anyway...

On a slightly more serious note, I think the "big bodykit" style of modifying will have died down a little. Magazines like Max Power, once the home of this sort of tat, are actually mellowing out and featuring stuff that even verges on the tasteful, as track-focused cars become more popular.

Oh, and I was being serious about the cars that I'll be collecting. Of course I'll have proper cars too - a few select Japanese screamers (an FTO GPvR and EK9 Type R, probably) and a couple of classics (70s Alfa GTV and something else) but mainly I'll have a bunch of tiddlers, including a smart Roadster, Daihatsu Copen, Mazda AZ-1 and a Midget If I'm going to be subject to tight cities and twisty roads rather than infinite straights and open sweepers then I may as well choose cars that suit the environment...

 

[///M-Spec]

It's hard to predict the future. But there's a couple of things I'm certain will happen sooner or later.

kWh will be the new bhp

I agree with homeforsummer; New brands from developing countries will take the place of today's cool import brands. In fact, I remember when Hyundai had about the absolute worst reputation possible. You and I probably look at a Chinese or Indian car the same way someone from the Greatest Generation looked at Japanese and Korean cars. One day, that will most likely change. In an effort to differentiate themselves from us, our children and our childrens' children will probably embrace cars wholly different from ours. A Tata just might be a cool ride in 25 years time. Meanwhile, an Audi or Infiniti may have as much cachet as a Buick.


M

 

[Joey D]

I've often wondered this, where will car culture be in 5, 10, 15 years and beyond?

I think in the not so near future you'll see a bigger push towards modified cars that have smaller engines and high fuel economy. Fuel prices are going to eventually climb back up and it's just not going to make sense to have a blown V8 that gets 5mpg on a good day. Plus new emissions laws are probably going to put a cap on thing like that real quick too. So you'll probably see people taking 2.0L and smaller engines and tuning them up to put out a decent amount of horsepower, while still being emissions legal and getting good fuel economy.

Later on down the road once hydrogen powered car or electric cars become more common I think you'll see people starting to modify them to get more power out of them. Better more powerful batteries and various gearing I would wager, tuning an electric car has to be similar to tuning an R/C car...just on a bigger more expensive scale.

I can see our generation, like those who are in their teens and twenties right now owning a petrol car when we are older for recreational use. I can easily see myself having my weekend fun "classic" car being a Miata from the 90's or even a MINI like I drive now. It's weird to think a car I'm driving right now will be a classic in 20-30 years.

 

[niky]

It'll probably be much like today... with the faces changed a little.

You'll have your 50-year old "muscle car" enthusiast with big, powerful old machines sitting in his garage that only comes out for good weather. But instead of Mustangs or Camaros... or, parked beside them, he'll have Nissan GT-Rs, Toyota Supras or V8 BMW M3s.

You'll have the Miata guys. Same as always. Their cars rollcaged, slicked and beat to hell and back. And the track rats with their cheap and cheerful old cars. But they won't be 510s and old EF Civics, anymore. Those cars will be owned by historic nuts who will keep them looking better than they did when new. No, the track rats will be sporting stuff like the current Civics, Yarises, Fits and new Minis. Within ten years, they will have depreciated enough to make this sensible.

Then you'll have the younger generation. Kids just getting into cars. They'll be driving the newest and latest 3-cylinder mild hybrids (I don't ever see full-on hybrids or electrics approaching a price point that will make them attractive to young / poor (same thing, really (triple parentheses!) ) buyers)... or 2-cylinder diesels.

The time when you could just slap a turbo, an air filter or muffler on will be long gone... with dispensation only given to "historical" cars. (Damn those old farts and their Civics! Why do they always get a free pass?!?) They'll have to step up to the next level of modification, then...

Bigger battery packs... or rewiring your hybrid system to make it a speed booster instead of just a low-speed assist. ECU rechipping... by then, hacking the ECU will be easier, thanks to the latest OBD standards and cheaper tuning ports. It's already pretty cheap now... I imagine in ten years the ease and cost will approach that of simple carburetor rejetting.

Then again, maybe government regulations will still allow turbos, as long as they don't interfere with the standard emissions systems. Bolt-on, aftermarket variable-geometry turbos are already available for diesels, I can't wait to see what they have for gasoline cars in the next few years.

They'll still have the option of doing suspension, braking and cosmetic mods. Maybe if plastic panelling comes back into vogue, body-kits will get wilder. It's a cyclic thing... we're moving back down from the excesses of previous years, but eventually, the pendulum will swing back the other way.

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Things look bad for the automotive industry now, but disaster is the mother of invention. I'm looking forward to driving a full-sized, composite-bodied four-door car with a turbocharged 3-cylinder 900cc engine putting out 150 hp, with an additional 50 hp added by electric rear hubs powered by ultracapacitor banks. All stock.

Hopefully manufacturers won't downsize all the way to single cylinder engines... I've already driven one "thumper" car, and that's already one too many...

 

[eiriksmil]

Perhaps hot-rodded hatchbacks will be what we'll be telling our kids we owned but were stupid and sold. I could see me telling those stories about the GTI. And the Cooper S's and RSXs and SVT Focuses may yield similar stories one day.

lol

Who knows, in ten years everybody might be back to bodykits again. The 90s has had a revival now, the early 2000s may in five to ten years, you know.. More crashed drift cars in the next year..

I think throwing wheels and coilovers on cars with OG paints is more and more approved as a style of building. Autos on older cars are on the way in, atleast you can start talking about that you want a twenty year old car (say a Charade just for the hell of it) with an auto, that you want to have it low and not really care about going fast, just cruise. You couldn't say that a couple of years ago, hell, I doubt anyone thought like that.. 2 fast 2 furious anyone?

Cars like this

But as we all know, from soon and for many many years to come, people will mod Daihatsus like crazy. Or not..

 

[homeforsummer]

Autos on older cars are on the way in, atleast you can start talking about that you want a twenty year old car (say a Charade just for the hell of it) with an auto, that you want to have it low and not really care about going fast, just cruise.

It's funny you say that actually as I've been thinking recently, if you're building a show car, maybe something low with fancy paintwork, I'd actually prefer an auto. If the thing is only ever going to be driven slowly and not be taken on the track then I'd rather have auto to just cruise about with as little effort needed as possible. Maybe even as a diesel too so the thing doesn't swallow money beyond the mods themselves.

As little as a year or two ago I really disliked the "Euro look" or even less obviously-styled show cars, but now the idea interests me, partly thanks to great cars like some of the VWs I recently took photos of. I'd never have a show car as an only car of course - as I do like my cars to be utterly useable in different conditions (indeed, that's why you have a Corolla as well as your Charade) - but the idea of having a car as a piece of art that you can craft is really appealing. VWs are definitely the catalyst for this turnaround.

A track car is a different ball game, of course. Manual, petrol, less emphasis on superficial stuff and a useable ride-height.

 

[mustangGT90210]

Great topic 👍 I was just thinking this on my way home.

Anyways, today, the younger kids love the 240s, Civics, old VWs and pretty much any other honda. Along with the other side that digs the 80's-early 90's muscle cars. I think we'll see this replaced in 10 years or so with 350Z's, Civics, S2000s, Accord coupes, mkV VWs and of course the current Mustangs.

 

[Philly]

It's good to hear that I'm running around in a future classic. Or something that high schoolers will be wanting to get their hands on.

Maybe I should pick up a MKV R32 someday. Those are uncommon enough that the current VW guys might be after them when they all grow up.

 

[YSSMAN]

Hell, I still want to buy one...

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Up here in Michigan, I don't see things changing too much. Whatever we'll be driving will most-certainly be American in some way. We won't give up our petrol-powered rides, that's for sure. I think much of what we'll be doing will depend on two things: (1) The emergence of diesel as an option (2) Future electric dominance... We always seem to be able to find a way to cram new technology in our older cars. Its only a matter of time before someone crams Voltec technology in a Gen III Camaro.


As for me, its always going to be about the cheap runabouts. I got word the other day that my friend's dad had an early Scirocco 16V on the lot for $1500. If I wasn't waist-deep in debt, I'd have bought it, and made it my first "collector's car."