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PTCCmike
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Posted: May 10, 2003, 11:02 AM
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A New Generation of Enthusiast Emerges
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Sport Compacts Building New Hot Rod Culture;
A New Generation of Enthusiast Emerges
Auburn Hills, Mich., May 08, 2003 -With the launch of the new Dodge SRT-4 and a growing line of Mopar® parts for Dodge Neon and SRT-4 owners, the Chrysler Group is on target to catch the next wave of automotive enthusiasm.
Chrysler Group is going after a new generation of tuners and appealing to the compact performance market. Vehicle personalization is hot and -- in partnership with Mopar -- Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep are out to be the coolest vehicles on the road.
One look at the Dodge and Mopar display at this week’s Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) International Auto Salon (IAS) reflects the lengths to which Chrysler Group will go to connect its vehicles to a new generation of buyers, the next wave.
“The next decade will include the coming of age of the most promising new generation of buyers since the baby boomers,” said Dieter Zetsche, Chrysler Group Chief Executive Officer.
“Baby boomers” -- the traditional darlings of marketers -- could see their clout in the marketplace slowly superceded by a new generation called “Millennials” (or sometimes “Generation Y”).
By comparison, Boomers are generally agreed to be the post-WWII demographic spike, born between 1946 and 1964, whose members are now between the ages of 38 and 57 years old. Their numbers are 82 million strong. Marketing studies show Boomers to be motivated by comfort, luxury and safety when buying a car.
Millennials represent the offspring of the Baby Boom. Approximately 78 million strong, Millennials include everyone born between 1977 and 1995, and is the second largest age group in U.S. history behind the post-war boom. This generation, half of whom are not yet old enough to drive, are loyal to their brands, want technological gadgets in their cars and an ability to connect with the internet on the road. Millennials, as consumer group, rival Baby Boomers in size and influence.
Deliberate efforts to court teens and twenty-somethings are nothing new to consumer product companies. Teens spent $125 billion of their own money in 2001 and influenced another $245 billion in household spending.
Today, Millennials make up 5 percent of U.S. drivers, and that figure is expected to increase to 40 percent by 2010. They are expected to account for more than one quarter of the U.S. car market by the end of the decade, spending $80 billion on cars each year. By 2020, they’ll own almost half the market.
Total vehicle purchases by Millennial buyers are expected to increase from 760,000 last year to five million by 2020, according to J.D. Power and Associates.
Millennials came of age in an era of unprecedented affluence. And although many or most still rely on their parents for financial support, and often their first wheels, they’re looking for products that distinguish themselves and make a statement, yet deliver loads of features for their money.
A Growing Passion for Cars
Video games have managed to get kids fascinated with sports cars again. Chrysler design chief Trevor Creed admits some of his team’s own design inspiration comes from home video games. The Dodge Avenger concept car unveiled at the 2003 North American International Auto Show in Detroit is just one of the examples driving from the virtual road to the real one.
Combine ready access to a virtual marketplace in the form of games like Gran Turismo 3, dozens of industry-focused magazines, televised events, a web-connected enthusiast community and a growing number of tuner shops, and it’s easy to see how the sport compact performance market has grown from $296 million just five years ago to a $2 billion industry in 2002.
And then there’s “The Fast and the Furious” Effect.
While the movie “The Fast and the Furious” may have dramatized certain aspects of the evolving culture and glorified felonious behavior, real life in the tuner world has more to do with the traditional trappings of the hot rod lifestyle -- drag strips, car clubs and customization shows.
The trend toward small, compact performance cars got its roots about 10 years ago in Los Angeles, gaining acceptance in major coastal markets before spreading to middle America and becoming a nationwide phenomenon with the release of 2001’s “The Fast and the Furious.”
The trend has been fueled by a ready-market of used compact cars, hand-me-downs to a new generation of video gamers just getting their first wheels. Like their predecessors and parents, today’s hot rodders (using the preferred handle “tuners”) have defined their generation.
SEMA, Sport Compact Car Shows Fuel Imagination for Customization
According to aftermarket trade group SEMA, the automotive specialty equipment industry is a $26 billion-a-year business in terms of retail sales. That figure includes everything from wheels to suspension parts, stereo systems and speed equipment.
And the market has shifted into high gear. What was seen as a predominantly Asian and Latino male phenomenon a decade ago has now reached nearly every young demographic group. That includes women, who SEMA projects will account for 25 percent of sales this year. All, male and female alike, are snapping up new and used compacts in droves.
Sport compacts have become the fastest-growing segment in the hot-rod/street machine world, showcasing often times thousands of dollars worth of modifications. And all this from teens and twenty-somethings.
SEMA, in a recent report on the trend, notes: “Fifty years ago, if you had told hot-rodders that one day hot rods would have four-cylinder engines and be dominated by Japanese nameplates, they would have laughed at you. But here we are with hot rods that are just like that. We think Generation Y is falling in love with cars, and we think they are the (future of hot-rodding).”
Industry expert Chris James of PPG Motorsports says: “The tuner market is rapidly becoming the most influential automotive enthusiast group created by today’s youth. Support it and follow it, but no one can dictate it to these young kids.”
Sport compact car shows and racing events are also entertainment-oriented, aligned with related lifestyle activities and interests such as car audio/multimedia displays and demonstrations, and all the trappings of fashion, nightlife, music and urban culture.
Shows have no problem attracting hundreds of elaborately modified cars and tens of thousands of attendees. D.J.s, models, video walls and game booths dot the landscape at these events.
SEMA Provides Connection to Compact Culture
“One of the most exciting aspects of the automotive industry today is the youth market divisions the carmakers are developing,” said Carl Sheffer, SEMA vice president of OEM relations. “Their products are a great canvas for personalization by the Millennials. Our International Auto Salon represents a great opportunity for the automakers, accessory manufacturers, youth marketers and the young auto enthusiasts to come together at this annual event. It’s the perfect venue to spot trends within the industry.”
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Mike Challis - PT Cruiser Club Founder
PT Cruiser Club is built around a community of people with the same interest (the Chrysler PT Cruiser), nowhere else will you find so much PT Cruiser information and as many enthusiasts.
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Join the Club and get Member Discounts at PT Cruiser Club Store on PT Cruiser Accessories.
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Posts: 4943 | From: Long Beach, WA
| Registered: Sep 1, 1999, 12:00 AM
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