Ironically, retro-styled American muscle cars are now replacing tepid four-door sedans which once replaced the muscle cars of the 70s.

But this time it isn’t entirely due to gas prices: consumers are attracted to the personality of fast, two-door coupes and SUVs which have killed the demand for sedans.

“What’s dying is the commoditized, four-door nothingburger, no-personality cars,” industry insider Tim Kuniskis told Bloomberg, adding that muscle cars “have a really well-defined personality and positioning.”

Interestingly, a report by Bloomberg included this interesting tidbit:

David Kelleher, a Philadelphia-area Jeep, Ram and Chrysler dealer who has a marketing agreement with several basketball and football players from the Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Eagles, finds that 20-something athletes often opt for Challengers and Chargers over higher-volume models. “The kids think it’s the coolest thing going,” Kelleher said. “Those are cars that say something about who you are.”

Also notice another thing: these cars come in bright colors, unlike the white, black and grey (and occasional dark red) of most sedans.

In other words, drivers are using cars with personality as a vehicle (no pun intended) to showcase their own personalities. That’s something you could never quite get with a sterile four-door sedan, which tend to be driven by urban dwellers who treat their lookalike cars like disposable kitchen appliances.

And it underscores an ongoing trend of people breaking away from the herd mentality – and there’s probably also something to the fact that people are replacing sedans with the rugged utilitarianism of a four-door pickup.

Even if urban buyers purchase a 4×4 truck that they never take off-road, doesn’t that suggest, perhaps, that their psyches are trying to subconsciously break away from the boring, Borg-like zombie culture pushed on them?

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