quote Originally posted by E.Furgal: MIDDLE aged import tuners or ricers (you pick) will not buy a v8 vette.. bu will buy a turbo 4 mid engine vehicle.. but I'm sure you'll tell me ..welp ,and welp and welp..

Welp....welp....welp welp!

quote Originally posted by hyperv6: You are doing what many people are doing. Price and utility are the two greatest selling factors. This is why the smaller CUV models are selling so well anymore. Cheaper to buy cheaper on gas and you still can haul a 70 inch TV or people. Style and power have moved down the list of wants and needs. While everyone is not ready for a Spark they are generally down sizing from where they were. The truth is most people do not need anything but a Spark to get by. It is the appeal of other things that are needed to draw people in to spend more and that has changed over the years as the market has changed. Right now the CUV is the hit button replacing cars, minivans and larger SUV models. It has become the Swiss Army knife.

You are absolutely right. By the time all us babyboomers are gone the Muscle car as we know it will be dead. GenX barely are interested in cars, and Millennials care almost nothing. The CUV has already overtaken the sedan as the most popular vehicle. Soon every vehicle on the road will be a CUV or a truck or some variation of the two.

And I already admitted that the thrill of a big block V8 is something I don't crave. Barely can work up interest in a small block V8. And when that time comes I would prefer a gently used Corvette with all the engineering work behind it. The charm of the Fiero is that it's a cheap car. If you dump tens of thousands into it trying to make it better you almost always will come up short. I wish I could go back in time and stop myself from doing just that. The gently used Corvette would have been a better choice.

The nice thing about my Spark is that in addition to being cheap and getting 40 mpg, it has a touch screen, steering wheel controls, bluetooth and SiriusXM... along with 10 airbags and best of all a 5 speed manual transmission. That doubles as a theft prevention system. Most car jackers today can't drive a manual transmission. I'm teaching my son who is 18...it's a lost art. His generation, Gen Z or whatever they will be called has even less interest in cars than Millennials.

[This message has been edited by jscott1 (edited 02-06-2017).]

quote Originally posted by jscott1: The nice thing about my Spark is that in addition to being cheap and getting 40 mpg, it has a touch screen, steering wheel controls, bluetooth and SiriusXM... along with 10 airbags and best of all a 5 speed manual transmission. That doubles as a theft prevention system. Most car jackers today can't drive a manual transmission. I'm teaching my son who is 18...it's a lost art. His generation, Gen Z or whatever they will be called has even less interest in cars than Millennials.

Why would generations have any interest in cars when their parents drive a egg on wheels..
REALLY,,, I'm into cars because my dad and family members owned cool cars.. even if my dad's car was a 66 caprice with s 283 powerglide.. it had glasspacks, or the 73 cutlass that was brown but had a 350 olds that sounded awesome.. neither was fast.. or really "hot" looking .. with hub caps.. but.. It was the sound and the week ends working on it...
when has the last time most parents touch their egg on wheels..

quote Originally posted by E.Furgal: Why would generations have any interest in cars when their parents drive a egg on wheels.. REALLY,,, I'm into cars because my dad and family members owned cool cars.. even if my dad's car was a 66 caprice with s 283 powerglide.. it had glasspacks, or the 73 cutlass that was brown but had a 350 olds that sounded awesome.. neither was fast.. or really "hot" looking .. with hub caps.. but.. It was the sound and the week ends working on it... when has the last time most parents touch their egg on wheels..

I agree with your point, but what I'm saying that as parents we have less influence on our children than their peers. My son grew up watching me wrench on my Fieros and watching me mod them and came with me to car shows since the time he was born and today he's more interested in playing xBox with his friends than anything car related.

quote Originally posted by jscott1: You are absolutely right. By the time all us babyboomers are gone the Muscle car as we know it will be dead. GenX barely are interested in cars, and Millennials care almost nothing. The CUV has already overtaken the sedan as the most popular vehicle. Soon every vehicle on the road will be a CUV or a truck or some variation of the two. And I already admitted that the thrill of a big block V8 is something I don't crave. Barely can work up interest in a small block V8. And when that time comes I would prefer a gently used Corvette with all the engineering work behind it. The charm of the Fiero is that it's a cheap car. If you dump tens of thousands into it trying to make it better you almost always will come up short. I wish I could go back in time and stop myself from doing just that. The gently used Corvette would have been a better choice. The nice thing about my Spark is that in addition to being cheap and getting 40 mpg, it has a touch screen, steering wheel controls, bluetooth and SiriusXM... along with 10 airbags and best of all a 5 speed manual transmission. That doubles as a theft prevention system. Most car jackers today can't drive a manual transmission. I'm teaching my son who is 18...it's a lost art. His generation, Gen Z or whatever they will be called has even less interest in cars than Millennials.

It used to be for a couple hundred bucks you could pick up a 350 Chevy and build an engine for less than $1000 that would run like crazy. Today the LS engines are not cheap to buy and or build.

Even the Turbo 4 engines are not cheap or easy to build if you have no clue about them. Small blocks were pretty easy to not make a mistake Turbo engines not as much.

It is no wonder people have lost interest.

I make my living in the performance industry and while much as remained the same much has also changed. We used to only be real race parts but now we still sell them but more about bolt on parts for trucks and SUV's.

Performance cars will be here in the future but they will be more and more limited and more expensive due to the lower numbers. But with that said we have standard Malibu sedans now with nearly 300 HP 4 cylinders.

I have owned them all from Turbo 4 to BBC and power is power makes little difference on what engine you chose. Each has strong points and weak points. My little HHR is as fast as my old SS and faster than my last stock BBC and I get 32 MPG high way.

Just FWD sucks when trying to hook up and get things rolling. I have spun the tires in the HHR rolling over 50 MPH and though I broke something when the traction control light and wastegate popped. Who ever claimed FWD has more traction needs shot as there has never been a bigger lie. They forgot the basic principals of physics. For ever action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In racing we call it weight transfer.

Now with Autonomous cars the next problem for those who love to drive. Many will learn to hate it when they are told when and where they can travel for the good of all. Just watch it will happen. Traffic will be heavy and sricers in large city's will get travel slots like Airplanes.

When ever you give up control you lose some choice and freedom.