Well the weather is changing here and spring can't be to far away. With that comes the road warriors with their toys. What I am starting to see is more and more gray hair warriors but it seems a lot more are driving Mustangs. The usual Corvette crowd is coming out and those seem to continue to be the choice of the second childhood set but the Mustangs are the surprise to me. Oh the other one is the Miata which seems to be a good lost cost sports car. Just an observation.

 

Miatas? Those are GIRL cars. Girls and.... limp wristed?

 

A tuned-up Miata/MX-5 is a cheap & fun track car, so I'm told.

And we have gay neighbours in 4 homes in our street (of 12) with the following:

• Jaguar XK coupe (he bought it about a month after I got the 75)
• Porsche Boxster S vert
• VW Golf GTi
• About 5 fancy push bikes (that's ze Germans)

So, meh, kinda hard to find a pattern there. I suspect the Miata was probably marketed at women in the US, but in some other markets it was pitched as a modern Japanese successor to the MGs, Triumphs and Healeys of the 60s & 70s.

 

Wrong. Rarely will you ever see a girl driving a Miata. It is usually a guy and he is almost always over 50.

 

I think you are confused with the Celica, that car was designed for, and marketed at young women(successfully) in its last generation.

The Miata's emphasis has always been an accessible open top fun machine aimed at guys.

I think a brand dominated by the older crowd is Ferrari. The cost of entry/ownership is such it takes a person much later in life to afford it. I started saving for one in my early teens, aiming to perhaps buy one in my mid 30's. However, after working on my own cars, and seeing how they are put together, I lost interest in them. They are built to be short term toys, not daily drivers. The metal quality on many of them is appalling! The newer Carbon Fiber ones should be good cars, but they lack a little the soul.

 

Every fall we have the vintage cars classic races over at Lime Rock Raceway in Ct. It's my local tract about 25 miles away. They usually turn out vintage race cars dating back to the 1930's up to the 70". They also have car corral parking with groups from English , Italian , German , Corvette and Asian. Over the years there have been some separations to the groups due to larger amounts of participants. Those are Mini's and Porsche and over the last several years Miata. Looking at the yearly track schedule there are also club days at the track and the Miata clubs have grown in size and there now is a Miata race group. So if you want a fun weekend during Labor Day in the fall go see the show and Sunday is there "Day in the Park" car show which turns out some super cars of yesteryear and today. Lime Rock Park - Lime Rock Park

 

Agreed. Here in AZ most of the Q-tips (gray haired dudes) are driving 'Vettes...extremely slow I might add...at least 10 miles UNDER the speed limit. As of late I do see a number of Q-tips driving 'Stangs . Mercedes is popular as well. It's already top down weather here and I must say, the XKR has everyone beat. She's just so damn gorgeous and, there isn't a lot of them. I can count on my fingers how many I've seen in the past year.

 

You will see a lot more car companies running to sell to the just retired crowd. They have just had a rude awakening that not only are the Bernie Sanders youth unable to afford a $80k car, they are all uber drivers.

Have you seen the Miata ad? the ad basically says remind yourself what it was like in your high school years. The only folks remotely trying to remember their school years are the ones who the lights are dimming on.

 

LMAO...too funny

 

What really saves us XKR guys is that those with bad hip joints have trouble getting in and out, and the stiff necks are scared they might snap it with the supercharger's sudden acceleration.

BTW if you go to Bocca, most of the Panameras are driven by 75+ crowd. I love that in a strange way the XKR is once again the domain of the cool no mater what age you are. Never seen one driving below the speed limit.