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Posted on 05/12/2014 9:47:14 AM PDT by mkleesma
With most consumers favoring smaller foreign cars and the US auto industry seemingly headed for the toilet, there is still one demographic that Detroit has a solid hold on… Retirees. Buyers over 65 are the last hope for the good old American car. In some dealerships, upwards of 85 percent of all Buick buyers are 55 and older. That’s an ominous sign for the future of American autos.
The over-65ers look at brands like Buick, Lincoln and Cadillac as status symbols. Those brands have what advertisers call the “Mind Share” in that demographic. Retirees remember a time when the only people driving those cars were celebrities and other high profile members of society; now they want in to that high-profile group of Cadillac drivers. Plus, older folks like familiarity, they know these brands, they've heard them their whole life.
Check out the list of the top ten cars most popular with retirees:
(Excerpt) Read more at ridelust.com ...
Now,your just showing off!
You passing my 89 year old Father?
Sweet. How does she handle? I have actually been looking at one and am curious as to how she handles and performs.
Interesting list in that the #3 car STS is what my 89 year old Father drives. When he purchased it about 18 months ago I questioned his buying a Government Motors car as he is a very Anti-Union and Anti-Obama fan and he told me that He was more comfortable in a Caddy vs another car. So I said buy what you want. He enjoys the car but does not like all the electronic items on the dash. My Mother at 82 wants a nice luxury car but with a traditional anolog dash. Told her that was a deal breaker. Nobody makes a basic dash anymore.
Our oldsters were always loyal Oldsmobile.
One fellow had a record starting in 1941.
Every 2 yrs . We figure about 35 of them.
We bought Olds for years. I think they made a
Mistake dumping Olds. Lots of Americans jumped to Toyota and Honda.
Just avoid Buicks entirely. They’re little more than semi-portable obstacles.
I love to have a Mafia staff car (Lincoln Town car in black from the 80’s).
Rather a dated article. It’s from 2008.
I got the hint from the fact that it lists the Cadillac STS. Those haven’t been in production for a few years now (since 2009 maybe, or maybe 2010).
“We live in a 55 plus community and the most popular car is a Lexus RX350. Tone of them.”
My wife and I are in our 70’s. I bought my wife a Lexus 300 about ten years ago, and it has been an incredibly good vehicle. The paint job is still great. When we wash it or have it washed, people ask if we have a new car.
One of our SIL’s, who lives in the snow country of the Midwest leased an RX about the same time, and she is now on her third one.
In our area, grannies with grandkids have flocked to the RX. They can load kiddy seats in the vehicles and still haul people and stuff. Toyota’s only problem is the RXs are so reliable, people buy them after or before their lease is over. Then, if they own one, they often don’t want to sell it or trade it in.
Another BIL and SIL, also, in the Midwest and after visiting us and riding/driving our Ridgelines, sold one Silverado pickup and bought a Ridgeline. After a brutal winter when the Silverado Pickups took a backseat to the Ridgeline, they bought their second one.
Here in our area of Californicator land, retired grampas and grannies seem to like the Honda Ridgelines. We can haul grandkids, fishing gear in the back or gear in the hidden trunk. I have 3 kayaks ranging from 12’ to 14’6”, and I haul the yaks one or two at a time in the truck bed with a truck bed extender and a net extender to secure the yaks. I have stopped using roof mounts to eliminate the noise and loss of mileage per gallon.
I still have trailer for the big yaks, but we never use it on the road to haul the yaks around. Even the big yak fits in the bed with the bed extender, and hauling it in Cali land is legal if I have red flag on the rear of the yak.
There is no loss of mileage hauling the yaks in the truck bed w/o a trailer. Not having a trailer to back up or park to get a yak in or out of the water is very easy.
Now, the trailer serves as a good place to store the yaks on.
We haul the yaks in the bed of the Ridgeline to local rivers, lakes and to the ocean for day trips. When we spend the night, we get a motel room on the ground floor to bring our big yak in at night for security or to go to a restaurant and not have a yak unprotected and extending past the tailgate.
Grannies, who are into big gardens/yards seem to love the Ridgelines to haul new stuff from Home Depot/nurseries or old stuff to the dump. About once a month, my wife directs our Ridgeline/me to the local Home Depot, Orchard or a local nursery. Then she loads it up with what she needs for her yard and garden.
She uses cattle water troughs to plant her veggies in, and the Ridgeline has hauled many troughs from the farm store to our home and the bags and bags of dirt/organic fertilizer, and other necessities to fill them and plant goodies in them. Then, she buys plants from local farmers and the nurseries, which are hauled home in the Ridgeline.
Here, the big Caddie SUV’s are about as popular for the grannies as they are for the drug gang leaders in Oakland/Richmond/San Jose.
The non outdoor type of retired gramps seem to like the Buicks.
I come from the other retiree camp ..... Ah’s ride dah city bus!
I deem my ‘01 Buick dependable transportation, not at all a “status symbol,” and bought it (in ‘07 at a bit under 24K miles, had mostly been resting in an elderly widow’s garage) because, after having owned about ten Oldsmobiles (88s, or equivalent) since 1954, they had been judged obsolete.
Anytime I get stuck behind a real slowpoke, I can guarantee you the vehicle will be a beige, or perhaps a silver, Buick. Always. The driver, either male or female will be driving with their hands at 11 and 1 on the wheel and their chin resting on the wheel smack dab in the middle. The driver has no idea where the front and the rear of the vehicle are because they aren’t about to turn their to look. Backing out of a parking space is an excruciatingly slow process for this reason.
And for the record, I will be 69 in a month and I am driving a new turquoise CRV. Hehe.
Buicks have other purposes.
When travelling and it gets to meal time, I look in parking lots of resturants. I look for cop cars and buicks.
The cops know the area and old folks don’t waste their money on bad food. Spot a herd of buicks and you are in tall cotton.
Slowpokes here tend to be one of three vehicles: A Jeep CJ with manual transmission (why they’re driven so slow I don’t know but they are), a Toyota Prius driver trying to get maximum mileage or, as you say, a nineties Buick Regal or LeSabre driven by an elderly person.
A neighbor of mine used to swear by GM for decades. Now he swears at them. His last two GM trucks were the worst vehicles he ever owned. Now he’s all Honda and Toyota only.
Hyundai Entourage owner here ... I like all the doors and the stowable third row seating. Will tow up to 3000 pounds and I have a class 2 hitch.
Probably because they are relatively cheap, reliable, easy to repair, and they last a LONG time...
I drive a tweaked WRX that infuriates local Harley riders by blowing their "doors" off, wife drives a 4Runner so we have offroad capability.
Will likely buy a Wrangler when the WRX needs to be replaced. Who wants one of those bloated city cars?
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