The word in Japan is how popular the Honda CR-Z is proving to be with older people, the latest sales figures indicate the goal posts for would be ’sports car buyers’ have shifted into a much older age category than is normally the case.
Traditionally, new sports cars are the domain of the 20 to 30 year age bracket. Not any more. The CR-Z is the first of a potentially long line of cars to appeal to older buyers in their 40’s and over. All of them sporting something Hybrid.
Older buyers are taking to the ‘Hybrid Sports’ concept, and specifically the Honda CR-Z, like it was 70% off at Makro, with a strength in sales even Honda hadn’t envisioned. Numbers speak of sales at more than 10 times the previous estimations that were made by the Japanese company, indicating a massive surge in support toward the movement for ‘Green Sports Cars’.
Men in their 30’s make up the bulk of the CR-Z’s sales, which is acceptable to the casual observer. The real shock comes from where the other chunk of buyers of the car are coming from and, according to the figures, a whopping 35% of buyers are those over 40, marking out a real paradigm shift in the sports car mentality for the Japanese male. This doesn’t rule out that the Japanese males Western counterparts may desire something different and are arguably a lot younger and hungrier for a traditional turbo charged inline-4, as opposed to ‘Hybrid’ anything. A meager 15% of males in their 20’s have purchased the CR-Z, which reflects the story of how impotent the ’sports car’ is to young Japanese adults.
Obviously the people at Honda are not listening to any of this and are happy to just sell cars it seems. The sports car market, itself, is still in good shape – price, design and concept wise. Based on the current climate and if the product is right, there is a chance that these cars will sell, and sell well. Why? Perhaps BP has an idea.
Right now, the Japanese market is poised to take on an onslaught of ‘Hybrid-Sports’ vehicles, with each manufacturer keen to offer up its own take on the theme. But does this signal the death of the ‘traditional’ Japanese sports car as we know it and if so, is this what the manufacturers would have us accept as its replacement? It makes us wonder whether the riots in Thailand were over the direction Honda is taking with its Hybrid technology instead of over a pay dispute.
Adapted from 7Tune
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