No More Ponies: Why Aren't The American Youth As Into Muscle Cars As They Were In The Past? #blogpost

I recently asked the Everyday Driver podcast a question on their Facebook page. The question was, “Why do you think that millennials aren’t as interested in American cars as their parents and grandparents were back when they were young?” They did answer my question on their most recent podcast, but not the way I wanted them to. I wanted them to talk about why they thought that American cars specifically aren’t as popular with today’s youth in the USA compared to 40 years ago. Instead, they just talked about why today’s youth aren’t interested in cars in general.

So, I thought I would answer the question I asked them myself.

For decades, if you were a young teen in search of a fun and cheap car in the United States, chances are you would end up with an automobile made in America. Kids would drive old Fords and Plymouths out on Main Street to burger joints with their friends. Teenagers spent hours in garages souping up Mustangs and Camaros… but it didn’t last. The combined efforts of the newly created Environmental Protection Agency and the oil crisis of the early 70’s nearly killed the muscle car altogether. Also during that time, European and Japanese cars started to flood America in the form of Volkswagen Rabbits and Toyota pickup trucks. The late 80’s and 90’s saw the emergence of cars like the AE86, Toyota Supra, Mitsubishi Evo and 3000GT and Subaru WRX. Nowadays, you don’t have to buy an American sports car if you want cheap fun, Europe and Japan have plenty of other options. In some ways, European and Japanese cars are better than their American counterparts. Even though muscle car culture is making a resurgence, JDM and European car culture is here to stay in America. That’s evident by the amount of high schoolers driving around in Miatas and Golf GTI’s.

One young person thinks “It’s because (of) insurance. You could subtly tube and customize a civic and your insurance prices won’t go as high as getting an already performance built car like a muscle car.”