Baby, you can drive my car

[Phineas Crow]

Jeez, where's the love for the classic car? You're all driving shiny new autos.


I drive a '65 Mustang GT with a Hipro V8 engine (289 cu. in./271 bhp).

 

[Impeesa]

I drive a red '90 Civic in a world of trucks. Seriously, up here it's all pickups, all the time. Might have something to do with the fact that our civic lineage consists of "lumberjack" and not much else, resulting in a redneck-saturated culture. The pickups are either tiny old rusty things, or hulking shiny new monsters, depending on whether the owners are purebred redneck or a yuppie cross.

Jeez, where's the love for the classic car? You're all driving shiny new autos.

The love is right here, keeping me company, because the money sure isn't. Money is such a fair-weather friend - hangs around all summer, and takes off at the first sign of tuition and car insurance. Now, if you're offering to buy me a classic car, that's another matter entirely. I'd love a '65 Corvette Stingray Convertible, like my dad had when he was in college... beautiful car. Pity it was stolen and driven off a cliff when he'd only had it for a year..

--Impeesa--

 

[The Shaman]

I drive a '65 Mustang GT with a Hipro V8 engine (289 cu. in./271 bhp).

I had a '70 Mustang (with the 351) for awhile - amazing I managed to keep my license.

Now I have a Toyota pickup - utility all the way.

 

[reanjr]

On the drive in to work this morning, I was watching the other cars and thinking about the funky little car culture that we have here in Charlottesville, VA. We have a huge number of hybrid gas/electric vehicles, lots of BMWs and Volvos, more MiniCoopers than I can count, and a huge number of tricked out import cars that are also used for racing. I work with a guy who runs one of the largest (possibly the largest) MR2 racing messageboards online. There are at least 3 customization clubs around town, probably more. It's a really weird mix of cars on the street.

So, whats the car culture like in your town? What do you drive? For the record, I've got a burgandy 2002 Mazda Protege.

I live in Detroit area. It depends on where you are, really. The western suburbs (especially Dearborn and Dearborn Heights) are absolutely dominated by Ford. Downriver area seems to be more GM. Chrysler is dispersed around in smaller quantities. Hybrid? What's that? (I've seen two).

Foreign cars are, expectedly, pretty rare.

It is exceedingly difficult to find a household in this area that doesn't have a member who works for Ford, GM, Damiler-Chrysler, or a company that works directly with one of those companies.

I personally work for Bay Logistics which (at my facility) handles GM engine parts for a particular plant. True to form (and it wasn't even planned), I drive a GM, a 2k2 Saturn SL2.

 

[reanjr]

Jeez, where's the love for the classic car? You're all driving shiny new autos.


I drive a '65 Mustang GT with a Hipro V8 engine (289 cu. in./271 bhp).

There's lots of old cars in Detroit area. People just don't take them out of the garage. But during sunny summer days, you'll see gatherings of them all over the place.

 

[MonsterMash]

more MiniCoopers than I can count

New or old style Minis?

Round where I live in London and work in Essex, its really varied: lots of Fords (and I drive past a Ford factory everyday), quite a few Beemers and Mercs, and just about everything else at different times.

Personally I drive a dark green Peugeot 106 at the moment (small, sub-compact in US terminology), nice handling and cheap to run as it sips petrol - which at 80 pence a litre is important.

 

[jonesy]

Top 10 cars bought by Finns in 2004.

Toyota Corolla
Volkswagen Golf
Toyota Avensis
Ford Focus
Renault Megane
Peugeot 307
Nissan Primera
Fiat Punto
Volvo S40
Nissan Almera

Together they made up 30% of the market share (with Corolla having 6.6% of it). Most of the older cars in traffic are pretty much all older models by the same manufacturers.

And me? I drive a 1985 Toyota 4x4 SR5. A rugged, beat up, trashed, little beast .

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Jeez, where's the love for the classic car?

In college I owned a 63 Ford Galaxy Convertible. Big old beast, it could hold 8 people easily, and did on many occasions. I also took my drivers test in high school on my Dad's candy apple red 68 Camaro. Talk about getting the evil eye from the driving test administrator.

Hybrid? What's that?

Hybrids are hybid gas/electric powered cars. Honda has the Hybid Civic and Insight, Toyota has the Prius, and Ford just introduced the Escape Hybrid SUV. I think Chevy is going to introduce a hybrid pickup next year (maybe the year after that), although it will actually get less MPG than the standard gas pickup. They are going to target it towards contractors and construction companies, as it will have electrical outlets in the bed designed for power tools on jobsites.

New or old style Minis?

Lots of new Minis, but a fair number of old ones as well. I've seen at lease 3 old ones on the road, and there is a Classic Mini Owners club somewhere around here. The Vespa Scooter dealer in town also has one in thier showroom, and it's lower than the scooter they have sitting next to it.

 

[derelictjay]

As someone mentioned earlier, trucks = Texas. And the bigger the better. I don't think I've ever had a conversation about automobiles that didn't include pickup trucks somewhere in it, whether we were talking about the latest sportscars or the classics, somehow the conversation always veers towards how big, powerful, durable or lasting a certain truck is. Of course I don't drive a truck, my mode of transportation is a 2004 mustang.

 

[Desdichado]

As someone mentioned earlier, trucks = Texas. And the bigger the better. I don't think I've ever had a conversation about automobiles that didn't include pickup trucks somewhere in it, whether we were talking about the latest sportscars or the classics, somehow the conversation always veers towards how big, powerful, durable or lasting a certain truck is. Of course I don't drive a truck, my mode of transportation is a 2004 mustang.

Quite true. I never really realized this until I left Texas, though. It's actually hard to find someone with a big pick-up I can call to go help me pick something up anymore. I used to take it for granted.

Of course, working in Motor City, MI for an automobile manufacturer, I've also seen sales data on trucks in Texas. Pretty impressive.