Peak Car Generation for Millennials

[Harrison-91xcg]

I'm not saying this is just for Millennials, but my experience as now a 37 year old, is that nothing truly exciting has really hit the market for 10+ years.

The sweet spot of cars, seems to be from circa 2001-2010. Is it just my age? or is there something in this?

The 2000s saw, reliable;

- A host of V8 super saloons, including NA and Supercharged
- Exclusive V10s
- High revving NAs
- Proper handling hatchbacks
- Sat Nav
- Plethora of 6 pot turbos
- Turbo 4 pots

The 2010s saw,
- Start of the EV era

[ARH]

yep its your age ask your Dad what he thinks, or just wait till all the old blokes here chip in.

Being 62, for me its the 80's.

[Leon R]

Less for sure but not none.

GR Yaris, GM T50, UP GTi, Hyundai I20/30 N, F Type and M2 to name a few.

[bigandclever]

Harrison-91xcg said:

The 2010s saw,
- Start of the EV era

And the Lexus LFA. McLaren had a bit of a resurgence. It's not all bad.

[alabbasi]

I think late 90's - late 00's is about right. You had enough safety to make them safe, enough electronics to make them reliable and convenient, but still easy enough to work on where they won't be mechanically totaled because of a relatively minor issue.

[SweptVolume]

It's a broad statement, but I see the 2008 global financial crisis as the start of the decline. You'll notice that by 2010 or 2011, slow selling but 'aspirational' variants of cars were disappearing (think big engines in regular cars). These cars only ever made sense to make a model feel more special and bring in buyers who would ultimately get a cooking version, and it was clearly not worth the investment with less cash around generally.

But things were still good overall at that time...until downsizing started to appear. The V8 became the V6 became the straight 4, and forced induction became the norm. Hydraulic PAS became electronic, and manual gearboxes almost disappeared overnight in really fancy cars.

Then ordinary manufacturers gave up on interesting cars, with notable exceptions not doing all that well anyway (Peugeot RCZ, for example). The idea of a Vauxhall VX220 or Nissan 200SX by 2015 was just laughable.

Safety legislation forced higher bonnets, which forced taller cars in general, and pillars started to get ever larger. Wheels grew to keep up, and privacy glass crept in to try to hide it all.

Dieselgate contributed to WLTP, which in turn almost killed customisation in ordinary cars (so the ugly wheels and dark glass can't be swapped out even if you wanted it to).

All of a sudden, the de-facto car is a crossover with a turbo and auto, with feather light steering and oversized wheels and available in 50 shades of grey but very limited trim and engine options.

To be honest, EV propulsion is a tiny part of what's gone wrong and in some ways, improves the problems of downsizing etc.

[Quhet]

Broadly it's the 'Top Gear' generation cars for me as a 37 year old. Though the show got tiresome towards the end of CHM, I look on most of the cars featured with some fondness.

[_Rodders_]

I'd go with 97-09 for peak car as an older Millennial.

I would have finished it a couple of years earlier but I have to include the LFA.

[TGCOTF-dewey]

If you like the sound of non forced induction ICE then perhaps...but for handling, the next generations of EVs will blow your mind in handling terms.

A motor per wheel, future battery tech that drops hundreds of kilos off the car weight, plus additive manufacturing, could see 1200kg cars with big power that you can essentially dial in how you want it to handle.

When mitsubishi dropped the Evo years ago, I said on this forum that they'd missed a trick by not doing an wheel per motor WRC concept to drum up excitement about what an EV future could look like. It took until Rimac to show that...partly.

I'm really excited about what the SC-01 promises for an EV future. Looks like an Elise, 1400kg, AWD, and decent range. What lotus should be exploring IMO.

[rOB.bOb]

For me, someone circa 20 years older, mid 90's (to include my 200SX S14 and the Mk1 Impreza Turbo) to 2010 is a good definition of peak car. Reliable, easy to work on, enough power, manual, just the right electronic help, styling choice included more than an overweight generic blob.

[CanAm]

Rodders_ said:

I'd go with 97-09 for peak car as an older Millennial.

I would have finished it a couple of years earlier but I have to include the LFA.

Despite being a Boomer, and a very early one at that, I'd go along with that. Though still some fine cars after that period, until the arrival of the nanny state "safety" features.

[RandomCarChat]

2005-2015 for me as a 33 year old.

[Alex_225]

Suppose it is an era thing and your age. I suppose for me, I'm 44 now and got my first car in 2000. I suppose I took a real interest in cars of that era, watched Top Gear religiously and of course then lusted over various cars of that period. My favourite cars of all time are the Ford GT and McLaren SLR which are both mid-00s V8s.

Since then, my daily car is a 2014 plate, bought for comfort and for being purely piling on the miles but for anything fun, I've only owned cars from 2005-2010. Not deliberately but all cars I liked at the time (Merc CLS, BMW 6 series etc.) and all mostly V8s!

That said, I have a soft spot for older Japanese cars that mates had from the 90s and have a fondness for 80s cars too. Partly due to what my parents/grand parents owned and also what mates had as their first cars. Novas, Fiestas, Clios all from the 80s and 90s.

One feeling I do have is that cars from the 00s seemed to be modern enough to have worthwhile features and not feel old but have modern reliability and modern driving aids but minimal interference. I find many features in newer cars quite intrusive and a bit annoying. I know different generations will have their own views but I can't imagine many who drove old cars didn't like the introduction of power steering!

[Lefty]

Early 90’s to mid 00’s for me, I’m tail end of Gen X rather than Millenial though

Subarus, Evos and Skylines
Wheeler era TVR’s
Elise
E36 M3
993 911
F355, F550
Peugeot Rallyes
Sierra & Escort Cosworths
Lotus Carlton
Etc etc

Manual boxes
Limited or no driver aids (other than ABS)
No touch screens
Round steering wheels with no buttons

[CABC]

CanAm said:

Rodders_ said:

I'd go with 97-09 for peak car as an older Millennial.

I would have finished it a couple of years earlier but I have to include the LFA.

Despite being a Boomer, and a very early one at that, I'd go along with that. Though still some fine cars after that period, until the arrival of the nanny state "safety" features.

+1 from this boomer too.

people from many age groups have cited this 90s-2010 era, maybe because it predates the focus on H&S? (weight, power wars etc)

cars from my youth were mostly crap. moderns are mostly less rewarding to drive but I'm not in complete denial - my daily needs to be as modern as possible. I have many cars and believe an EV deserves a slot just for its interesting powertrain. As an overall package the R5 appears to be fun, so there's hope.

[CABC]

maybe 2015-25 was one of the worst decades. badly implemented ADAS, manufacturers caught out by legislation and Tesla.
it's the decade that made picking up a hire car very uninteresting.
EVs were in the "iPhone 3" phase, we're now moving into the "4S" phase of greater usability and adoption.

[Teh3692]

As a 34 year old (driving a 2005 car) nothing really from the last 5 years or so seems really appealing. Seems like ADAS and most things seemingly to be an SUV of some sort are sucking the fun out of it to me

[Baldchap]

CABC said:

maybe 2015-25 was one of the worst decades.

I dunno. Four of my cars are from that era and I'd consider them all spectacular:

Alpina B5 Touring (G31)
Lotus Elise 250 Cup
Lotus Evora 410GT
Toyota GR Yaris

I think every generation has its highs and its lows. Let's not for a second forget that the overwhelming majority of cars ever sold anywhere ever were utter st from a petrolhead perspective.

At least our current utter st is fast, as well as st.

[CABC]

Baldchap said:

CABC said:

maybe 2015-25 was one of the worst decades.

I dunno. Four of my cars are from that era and I'd consider them all spectacular:

Alpina B5 Touring (G31)
Lotus Elise 250 Cup
Lotus Evora 410GT
Toyota GR Yaris

I think every generation has its highs and its lows. Let's not for a second forget that the overwhelming majority of cars ever sold anywhere ever were utter st from a petrolhead perspective.

At least our current utter st is fast, as well as st.

I'd say you've just provided the exception that proves the rule.
only you provided 4 spectacular exceptions...

[MC Bodge]

For everyman cars, late 90s, early 2000s:


Great cars