I understand that automakers can’t make everybody happy, but it would be nice if they at least made me happy.
I have major doubts about that after reading a story in the Free Press yesterday about GM and other automakers’ plans to entice my generation into buying new cars.
First, a little background: My generation is called, among many other things, “millennials.” There are about 80 million of us, born roughly between 1981 and 2000. And we’re not buying new cars.
Why? Here’s three big reasons:
#1 – We’re broke. Outstanding student loans in the United States now exceed credit card debt, totaling some $750 billion. When it comes to paying for school or paying for a car, automakers will lose this battle every time.
#2 – We’re smart shoppers. Say I’m lucky enough to have an extra $20,000 to go buy a car. There are hundreds of websites out there that can help me find one. That means automakers not only have to compete with other dealerships’ inventory I see online, they have to compete with the person 150 miles away selling their used car.
#3 – You’re competing with lots of other cool stuff. Let’s go back to that same $20,000 situation. Do I spend it on a new car or buy a used one and go buy an iPad 2? My generation loves gadgets and we love connecting with our family and friends. And most of us can’t deal with feeling left behind with the old iPhone. But we can deal with riding the bus.
Obviously there’s a disconnect between us. How about producing a new American-made, fuel-efficient, good-looking car that costs less than $20,000 and isn’t the size of my closet? If you leave out the extra options that my smartphone can already do to make it affordable, so be it. Besides, I need a car, not more gadgets. I already have that covered.
My advice is to keep shifting your market research toward asking about our lives and what we need instead of what we want. Because for me and many other millennials I’ve talked to, this or these aren’t grabbing our attention.
What do you think?
