Declining sales, layoffs, bankruptcies. You’ve seen the headlines, you know the stories. The Big Three are out of touch; they just aren’t making cars that Americans want to buy, et cetera. The thing is, I don’t blame it on Detroit. American car companies haven’t changed their game, the American people have changed their tastes. Specifically, teenage girls.
Once upon a time, the relative “hotness” of a guy’s car directly affected his level of desirability with the ladies. Our teenage fascination with the automobile was synonymous with youth culture since the 50s. GM oozed style. When did the guy with the Trans Am become a douchebag? Enter Hollywood.
The sudden rise of Nerd chic is all around us. Awkward is the new cool. Poster-child Michael Cera: a person uncomfortable in every situation.
Mr. Cera’s appeal, the surge in popularity of cardigan sweaters in people under forty, vintage Sega Genesis systems, emo music; it’s all part of the same phenomenon. And it grants a bizarre kind of street cred to the hipster in the 1994 Toyota Tercel with 184,000 miles.
Is Detroit making cars Americans want to buy? No. It's too cool for a nerdier nation.
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