Young men don't like the same things as old men.
Young men are leaner, fitter, more athletic, have better reflexes and poorer. Old men are fatter, and slower and richer. The cars they like, the sports they like, the women they prefer reflect all the differences between them. Young men want to live on the edge, to take risks to show that they have the reflexes to survive. Old men want it comfortable and plush and to show they have power and the money to buy it.
The Clio Sport Mk 1 was a young mens' car. A light economy car with a big powerful engine stuffed in it. Sure it wouldn't beat a V8 down a drag strip, but it took risk-taking and reflexes to get the best out of it, and that's what it rewarded.
Then they turned it into the Mk2. It was better equipped, and heavier, and generally more "civilised".
Then they created the Mk3. Its everything old men want. Its smooth and quiet and competent. And 180 kgs fatter and slower.
Like pretty much everything else, car manufacturers are run by comfortable well-off old men. Just when you think they've understand what the customer wants, they stop listening to the customers out in the real world and listen to people like themselves and load up cars that young men liked with stuff they like and turn them into old mens' cars. And lose the market they created with the original model. I sometimes wonder whether its stupidity. Or whether its that a car company doesn't want to be seen as producing cars for young me because young men thrash and crash their cars which inevitably pushes up warranty costs and insurance costs and pushes down resale values and product reputations. Or whether they just resent not being young and slim and athletic and having quick reflexes any longer. They want the game to be played by rules that ensure that they win. That they can't be embarrassed by being beaten on the road by some young pup in a young man's car.
Young men are leaner, fitter, more athletic, have better reflexes and poorer. Old men are fatter, and slower and richer. The cars they like, the sports they like, the women they prefer reflect all the differences between them. Young men want to live on the edge, to take risks to show that they have the reflexes to survive. Old men want it comfortable and plush and to show they have power and the money to buy it.
The Clio Sport Mk 1 was a young mens' car. A light economy car with a big powerful engine stuffed in it. Sure it wouldn't beat a V8 down a drag strip, but it took risk-taking and reflexes to get the best out of it, and that's what it rewarded.
Then they turned it into the Mk2. It was better equipped, and heavier, and generally more "civilised".
Then they created the Mk3. Its everything old men want. Its smooth and quiet and competent. And 180 kgs fatter and slower.
Like pretty much everything else, car manufacturers are run by comfortable well-off old men. Just when you think they've understand what the customer wants, they stop listening to the customers out in the real world and listen to people like themselves and load up cars that young men liked with stuff they like and turn them into old mens' cars. And lose the market they created with the original model. I sometimes wonder whether its stupidity. Or whether its that a car company doesn't want to be seen as producing cars for young me because young men thrash and crash their cars which inevitably pushes up warranty costs and insurance costs and pushes down resale values and product reputations. Or whether they just resent not being young and slim and athletic and having quick reflexes any longer. They want the game to be played by rules that ensure that they win. That they can't be embarrassed by being beaten on the road by some young pup in a young man's car.
Damn.
