[...]Creative Class » Blog Archive » End of the Car as Status Symbol – Creative Class[...]…

Saab is just another division of GM, like Chevy or Buick.

GM has been trying to unload both Saab and Hummer, and has found no buyers.

Saab would be hard to sell. The cars themselves have significant GM content, and GM is using Saab’s turbocharging technology throughout the corporation.

That’s why I like Saab. They largely perfected the turbocharged passenger car in the ’70s. You get an engine that is as small as a Hyundai subcompact, but the horsepower of a large V6 in a midsize car. I get over 30mpg if I can keep the speed down on the highway (not an easy thing to do, it likes to drive fast, as do I).

Apart from the genius of “pedal away, bike boy”, which has remained with me as quite a funny put down, the fact struck me that for him, and probably thousands of other inner city kids like him, cars represent freedom and status. The alternatives – using public transport or walking – are simply untenable for large sections of society. It’s a class thing.

I have been driving an SUV since i first received my license at 16. My current SUV is a 4×4 ford escape hybrid which I got in late 2004. It is the smallest and most fuel efficient of the 4 SUVs that I have driven in the last 20 years. It is coming up on 5 yrs old and I will probably keep it another 3 or 4 years.

I hope that there will be a plug-hybrid large SUV (maybe a toyota landcruiser) that gets 35 mpg by 2012.

btw, I went to the Washington Wizards game tonite and as we pulled out after the game we passed the player’s parking lot… One of the younger wizards players (19 yrs old i think) was pulling out in his Maybach. Fancy/powerful cars will always have a place in the US marketplace.

To the extent that it endures, strict traffic enforcement will be yet another factor poisoning the individualistic love affair with the car and, thereby, eroding the profit margin earned selling fast, muscular-looking cars. For this and other reasons, we may be at a tipping point toward marketing plug-ins, four-wheel-steering, composite chassis, satellite radios, cup-holders, wheel-chair-enablement, and kid-friendliness and dog-friendly cars. Earlier than the designers and dealers were prepared for, we’ll be saying hello to a “communitarian” car, a time-shared car, a self-driving car, and any other car for which we may have fondness, but not attachment — a modest car.

More broadly, an alert person is reminded not to commute, but instead to live close to a center of talent, money, intellect, and innovation. In yet another way, we are reminded of place-as-differentiator.

I was wrong. I looked at a small decal on the car I’ve had for 10 years and it says Indiana. Not very observant and jumping to conclusions. I also know that they import Subarus through Vancouver across the river. So I’m not sure how it works.

So does GM own Saab or part of it? I think GM owns 30% of Fuji Heavy Industries, Subaru’s parent. I wonder what the GM crisis means for these “foreign” brands.

I know Subaru has had pretty explicit ad campaigns aimed at Gays, particularly women.

An old friend runs Zipcar here, but I haven’t seen him for a while. I’m not sure how they’re doing. He ran the local company, Flexcar which Zipcar bought a few years ago.