- BMW 850i
- Porsche 944 S2
- Alfa Romeo 164 S
- DeLorean DMC-12 (I was only partially kidding)

If you extrapolate my choices to the larger youth population, every teenager wants a foreign car that is ludicrously impractical, costly to insure, has difficult to find, expensive parts, and is not as fast as it looks.

I ended up eventually with a Saab 9000 Aero, which only meets one of the above criteria.

- “Sure ! We’ll even through in a Blapunkt !”

I’ll buy THAT for a dollar!

Anyway, for this 22 year old CS major the list is as follows:

1) Practical
2) Fuel Mileage
3) Handling

I ended up with a 2 door Astra XR.

Now, if I could have found a Lotus Super 7….

When I turned 18 in 1993, I bought an ‘85 Celica GTS.

When I turned 21 in 1996, I bought an ‘88 944 turbo. The turbo was a weekend/sunday car and I drove a beat up ‘92 Civic to work.

Safety was never a concern (still isn’t as far as I go, but is for my family car).

Gas mileage was never a concern.

Cost of ownership was and still is a huge concern.

Most of the younger guys I know are about bang for the buck. That is why they all drive WRXs and Lancer EVOs. You can get a TON of performance for the price of a new Accord. Its hard to ignore. But then again, most of the younger guys I know are all gearheads.

They want to socialize and connect first and foremost. Above all. Socialize. Connect. Everything else is subservient. Because a car can’t help them do that as well as a smartphone or The Cloud, cars aren’t as important as they were to the teen/college kid. It’s much sexier to have a huge network, full life, and crammed social calendar. If the car helps, great, if not — why bother?

In 2000, the college car was essential, because it took you to the connection spots. Today, the connection spots are online. A car today is a hassle: it’s dirty, expensive, and a chore to keep shiny.

Cars will not be as cool as in 1960, 1980 or even 2000 until they serve the flow of the connected Gen X-er. A host of features are needed: onboard WiFi, Bluetooth, HDD and full media library integration, realtime traffic… Distractions? More like necessities!

The woman in the article had it right. Why would you need performance when you can’t use it? Load up on the luxury, reliability and broadband, and the teens will follow. The definition of “performance” is changing.

Can they afford it? That a whole ‘nother question.

But they WANT sex and speed.

1. Price
2. Reliability
3. Fuel Economy (not because of the environment, but because gas is a variable operating cost I’d like to insulate myself from)
4. Safety
5. Comfort/Quietness at speed
6. Style

HP and 0-60 doesn’t even make the list when I’m seriously considering new cars. I expect to have a Prius, Insight or Ford Fusion Hybrid (if they have any available) in my garage in the next few years.

This is a valid point. Both net income and actual spending power for Gen X and Y is between 12 to 35% lower than Boomers had at the same age. I don’t think Boomers realize exactly how easy they had it in terms of easy, meaningful employment. That makes it a lot harder to make discretionary purchases, and drives enthusiasts to cheaper realms.

Of course, if you try to tell a Boomer this, they’ll call you a slacker.

Because I love to ski and the Fit just isn’t going to get to the mountain when there’s 2 ft of fresh pow pow. And when there’s 2 feet of freshies I’m going to get to the mountain come hell or high water.

But yeah, if it wasn’t for that I would have gotten the Fit. I test drove one and liked it, and it gets way better mileage than the subby, but my passion for skiing won out over pure practicality.

It’s the same reason she doesn’t have to worry about safety. Virtually every new car sports a gazillion air bags, so buyers can take it for granted.

That’s it exactly. A Camry Hybrid is faster than almost any street vehicle sold in 1970 or earlier. A Prius is faster than 80% of vehicles sold during that time. Every new vehicle is safer than a Volvo of that period. So it’s down to green cred and looks (although every new vehicle, including, say, the Hummer H2, is also greener than any vehicle sold then as well).

Chevy Cobalt (female)
Mazda 3 (female)
Jeep Wrangler (male)
Nissan Maxima (male)
BMW 330i (male)
VW GTI (male)

All are happy with their purchases. Everyone else I know drives 5-10 year old cars.

I’d like to add three must-haves
- hatch (sedans are useless and make their drivers 10+ years older instantly)
- manual gearbox (ditto)
- iPod jack and decent stereo (I sometinmes spend whole days in the car, so I like to bring podcasts, music, audiobooks…)

Oh yeah, those are definite must-haves. I’ll likely never own another sedan after having my GTI. I also fear that the MT is going the way of the dodo. That criteria alone removes many cars from my possible choice. The ipod jack is a definite must! Luckily, that is now a common feature.

It is a shame we only get a 1-series coupe here. I love the 5 door hatch 1 series in Europe, especially with the assortment of available petrol and diesel engines.

500 to 700 horse R34 GT-Rs followed closely by 400 to 600 horse R32 GT-Rs followed closely by 480 to 620 horse R33 GT-Rs.

Maybe 400hp blown NSXs also….or an R35 GT-R with a first gear made of adamantium.

I really like GT-Rs.

The young men come in two catagories; Traditional gear heads and what my generation called Young Republicans (though their political beliefs somewhat differ).

The young American men tend to like the Scions, Hyundi, and WRX at the top of the range, etc. The Europeans think along the lines of Renault Clio Clubs, Opal Corse, and Peugeot 206…with the EVO/WRX at the top of the line. They still dream of owning a Skyline GT. They want a cheap care they can “Tune”. They are not even looking for a used Porsche that the could get for half the cost and double the performance.

The Young Republicans are the wannabe Family Guys. The car gets them and their family (even if they don’t have one) from point A to point B. Again, they buy entry level cars but they tend to run in the small sedan range such as the Kia Spectra.

The young American women are who surprise me. They seem to think size matters and want style to go with it. Big SUV’s with big wheels. Maximum comfort. BMW’s and Lexi. The European ladies are quite different. They want small, inexpensive, and stylish. The VW Polo Cross comes to mind. You also see a lot of Clio, Corse, 206, Citroen C2, and Smart.

Just my observation.

28 year old process engineer here, pretty much the same criteria – ended up in a black 118d with orange seats and love it.

I’d like to add three must-haves
- hatch (sedans are useless and make their drivers 10+ years older instantly)
- manual gearbox (ditto)
- iPod jack and decent stereo (I sometinmes spend whole days in the car, so I like to bring podcasts, music, audiobooks…)

My necessary criteria were:

* Looks / Does It Piss Somebody Off (for the xB, these two categories are conveniently combined)
* Drive it Till The Wheels Fall Off
* Stupidly Practical (good milage, cargo space, sufficient passenger space for hauling around carloads of drunken, giggling young ladies)

Doesn’t look like there’s much agreement in the Gen Y crowd!

Main points seem to be that when we get cars – we need them to be ready and there for using.

Price
Practicability
Handling seem to encompass it.

There’s an Acura CSX a few Civics, an Echo or two, the odd Mazda 3, and one used BMW 3 series… and more Toyota Matrixes than all the previous models combined.

The Matrix is compact, fairly easy on the gas, has lots of space, and is built on Corolla mechanicals – and everyone’s got a relative or friend with an older generation Camry or Corolla puttering along after lots of km’s and abuse so…

No one with a coupe, or truck, and no one with a sports car. (Vancouver university students and grads. *shrug*)

Cars owned since college graduation:
Nissan Sentra Spec-V
Subaru WRX
Nissan 350Z

We’re not all hippies dammit. I’ve been tempted to get a very fuel efficient car for my daily commute but only for the gas savings. I don’t care even slightly what my car’s carbon footprint is.

It’s the economy stupid. I think the green movement is the media confusing (on purpose or because it’s stupid) the economic drive for fuel efficiency with a moral drive for fuel efficiency. I think most people honestly don’t give two shits about the environment unless it has an effect on their pocket books (I’m not excluding myself from ‘most people’).

Personally, I’ve always liked affordable sports cars. As my income has grown my idea of what is affordable has grown as well. If my wife and I hadn’t just bought a house I would be ok with adding a $30K car note to our budget. With that said, I would be hard pressed to make that kind of commitment when there are so many great used sports cars on the market.

-Fun to drive

-Does it piss somebody off

Green cred… could care less. Save the environment means a lot less when you are trying to save a civilization

I’m sure there is historical sociological stuff with the increasing commonality of cars, and there is big green cred backlash to sportiness these days. But more than anything, I would add to that statement that as a 28 year old, I grew up in a police state. Cops and speed traps everywhere. Horrendously expensive taxes…err tickets. I have a enough electronics, paranoid awareness, and rebellious spirit to keep on performance driving and aspire to sports cars, but most kids from my generation simply gave up a long time ago, got in line, bought a honda, and started mooing.