I know it sounds odd... but you see kids driving Grand Am's and Alero's, and you see older folks too... it really covered that mid-size sporty normal car thing well.

Remember that RP always points out the Mustang buyer often listed Grand Am, rather than Camaro, as the car they were most likely to buy if they didn't get the Mustang....

 

I think stigmas are regionalized.

For example, driving a Beetle in the Bay area unless you're female tends to mean you aren't exactly hetrosexual. Ditto Audi TTs.

I have yet to see a female driving a new Mini, though one would expect the opposite.

Camaro SSs out here are driven by older guys. Yes, older than me. A female friend in LA does own one though. Black. Loaded.

300 owners seem driven to fit the biggest rims they can find. Ditto Escalade buyers. Not just an urban thing anymore. Even here in the old, rich, borderline retirement community of Monterey and Carmel driven by old rich housewives.

About the only cars I can think of that have no stigma at all is the Mustang.

I see just about everyone driving them. And I've also seen them ranging from "Riced out" to "Race ready" looking.

 

[Homer Simpson] Look at me! I drive a pink Miata! [/Homer]

 

Sticking with GM:
Chevy Impala's, plenty of young and old, single and married drivers..
Grand Am's/G6's
Trucks/SUV's, 2wd or 4wd
Camaro's and Trans Am's
GTO's, a co-worker in his late 20's owns one, and an Older exec..

 

Yuck... folks I know don't look up to these cars (course then I'm kind of a muscle car nut ). In fact to many, THESE are the stigma cars. Skinny tires... 'elegant' chrome trim pieces all over the place ( ). Torque-free engines and that wunnerful quiet-buzzy exhaust note ( ). Bluetooth and other silly doodads. Phoo. NO WAY would I drive or buy one.

 

Way to do some research before you post. In both Europe and Japan the RSX is still known as the Honda Integra, as they have no Acura over there, and don't throw alphanumeric strings at their vehicles to give them names.

 

It doesn't matter what they call it anywhere but in the market we're discussing. It's an entirely new car, very much different than the American market Acura Integra which it replaced. Honda simply decided to re-use the name on the new car in some of their markets.

If GM was selling the Cobalt as a Chevy Cavalier in the UK, would you say "the Cobalt is a Cavalier"?

-Jake

 

I would take note that it is still considered a Cavalier in other parts of the world, yes. Especially since the RSX is still in the same flavor and a formula of the Integra it replaced here. The third gen Camaro's were completely different from the seconds, yet we still call them Camaro's.

 

Cadillac CTS
Mustang
Charger
BMW 3 series

 

Because they were named Camaros, duh.

 

I call them turd gens.

j/k

 

It seems we may have gotten a little of the base here, but I think like others have said, all cars have a stigma. Even new cars are going to have some sort of stigma. I would submit the Accord into the mix. I have a 2 late-20's friends that have them, plus an early-20's friend that just got an '05. That, and here at my office we have everything from 20-something yuppy wannabes to 40-somethings stuck-in-a-ruts. One common theme, we have a ton of Accords in the parking lot. I think that some of the Nissan lines fit this also. I know that at least two people cross-shopped the Maxima with their Accord purchase.

More to the stereotyping, we have one "guy" here that drives a Miata and "his" (ahem) "preferences" are well known. My brother-in-law drives one and at best he could be described as a metrosexual. So there is (from my experience) a stigma with that car that I hope to God does not translate to the Solstice/Sky.

To that, I do see significantly more women driving '05 Mustangs (and earlier models too) than guys. I counted drivers a couple of weeks ago and I had counted nearly a dozen in a row before I got to a male '05 Mustang driver. I did not make note if they were GT's or not, and I'm sure most were V6's, but still something noteworthy. Also noteworthy, was that two of those dozen or so, were clearly not the buyer of the car. They were teens with 3 of their girlfriends piled in to the car out cruising.

 

The Mini and currently the HHR are the only cars you listed I'd agree has no stigma. But the others and nearly every car has some stigma attached (depending on who's doing the judging) and they seem to change over time.

 

Malibu Maxx??

 

And RSXs are named Integras in every other market place in the world but ours, so I feel comfortable in identifying them as the same thing. Perhaps you misunderstand stand.