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I am on a flight to Houston as I write this. I travel for work every month or two, to rail yards all over the country. Several years ago I went to Ottowa, Illinois, and while driving through the town I suddenly realized that nearly every car was a domestic make. While waiting at a light I counted 18 domestics and just 2 or 3 Asia-branded cars, and nothing European. That’s quite different than what I am used to in San Diego; now I always pay attention to the cars around me when I travel, and the makeup of the local fleet is indeed quite different in different towns.
It turns out that Google Street View is a great way to investigate this phenomenon. One day I got curious (bored?) and decided to do a little unscientific analysis. I chose three suburban towns, each about 25 miles from a city center: Poway, California (my current hometown of 11 years, just outside San Diego); East Goshen Township, Pennsylvania (my childhood hometown, near Philadelphia); and Arlington, Texas (between Dallas and Fort Worth).
In each town I chose one residential street about a mile long. I didn’t dig into the exact demographics, but I tried to find middle class working family neighborhoods. I “drove” each street in Street View and tabulated the cars I could see by type of vehicle (sedan, coupe/hatch, sports, luxury, SUV/CUV, station wagon, pickup or full-sized van), and by brand nationality (American, Japanese, Korean, German, other (mostly Swedish and British)). (I didn’t go by factory location, as that would have made it a hugely more complex analysis.)
The results were not terribly surprising -Texas was heavy with domestic pickups, and California had the most German cars -but are interesting nonetheless.
One variable I did not evaluate was the age of the cars. (Presumably the cars of Eugene would have among the oldest average age.) So, what does the fleet in you neck of the woods look like? And does anyone want to take a stab at doing the analysis by age, or by make?
I live in an older and rather nice neighborhood on the east side of Manhattan. Some young people, a lot more older and, at least relative to the rest of the world, very rich people. One of the easiest neighborhoods to get taxis and car service because they’re literally dropping off and picking up people all the time.
The garages mostly contain BMWs, Jaguars, Lexis 400 series, and S-Class Mercedes models. A few mothers with Lexis SUVs.
There are some interesting models mixed in however. One older fellow still drives a ’90-’92 Cadillac Brougham, navy with navy interior and navy padded roof. A few Porsches of Carrera and Panamera variety. Some old (pre-90s) Mercedes models, a dark grey convertible (450 SEL is in my mind as the model but not sure) a black 300E among them. An immaculate maroon ’91-’96 Buick Roadmaster wagon. A 1984-87 grey Mercury Grand Marquis LS. On the street you see a number of older Volvos, Saabs, and W Body impalas, plenty of Camries and Priii, but oddly very very few Hondas. However, the parking restrictions are tight on the streets near me so mostly parking is prohibited during the day. These cars appear at night and disappear by 8AM.
Truth be told even many of the people who can easily afford them don’t keep cars in the city, unless they have a place up in Connecticut or out in the Hamptons to drive them to on weekends. Even then sometimes the cars just stay out there, and they take MetroNorth, the LIRR, or the Jitney, and just use the car out there. They take cabs or ride the bus–but interesting rarely the subway.
I keep my ’77 Electra 225 out in Queens most of the time, where I have a space. But I receive many compliments from the older folks when bring it into the city and park in front of my apartment. A lot of them used to drive Electras, DeVilles, and Fleetwoods. I once drove a client from the neighborhood to a court appearance. She has a driver, but wanted to keep the matter confidential. I thought she’d be repulsed by my old Buick, but instead, she brightened up, and kept remarking happily how it had no blind spots. That early C-Body greenhouse…
On my street in Wailuku,Maui it is Camry & Accordland!
Sounds like Maui!! Las Pinatas killer burritos whenever I hit Maui, and take back some Krispy Kremes to Honolulu !! On Oahu, the predominance of models depends on what area/neighborhood you’re in. I’d say the most common vehicle on Oahu these days is a Toyota Tacoma pickup, usually a crew cab Pre-Runner. Camrys, Camrys, Camrys, Camrys. As you get away from the Waianae coast, and into Kapolei, Waipahu, Pearl City into town, Dodge Chargers/Chrysler 300s, Nissan Altimas . . . lots of riced Infiniti G35/G37s . . . . Aiea and Aiea heights and downtown neighborhoods: Prius, Nissan Leaves, Ford Fusions . . . Windward? Korean brands, Dodge Pickups. Ditto North Shore . . . however, most common on Oahu are Toyota Tacomas.
Out here in sunny HK, it’s mercedes, mercedes, mercedes. At least it is the preferred brand for the ‘old money’ hongkongers. Mainland immigrants buy Audi and those bloody eight seater MPVs’. The middle class run mostly mid-range Japanese saloons, while Fords are pretty much non-existent in this town; nor are any American models. Visitors always comment on how nice, clean and well maintained our cars our. They don’t realise that an army of third world domestics get up at 5am to clean ”
“master’s” car every morning.
Visit any scrap yard in this town and you would weep to see perfectly good, rust free car being crushed for their metal value. It just ‘aint cool to drive anything over ten years old.
I live on a 1 mile dead end road in the country with 7 houses on it. My next door neighbor, neighbor across the street and I all have GMC Sierras, completely by coincidence. Other vehicles are a newer Jeep Grand Cherokee, early 2000s F150, new Chrysler T&C, Chrysler Pacifica (pretty much the only Pacifica I ever see anywhere), Nissan Titan, Prius, first gen Cadillac CTS, and a couple mid 90s Chevy ECSB pickups.
Richmond, VA here, in one of the older neighborhoods near downtown. It’s an interesting mix of students, young professionals, and families/couples with money, as you can find rentals for as little as $800 a month or so but the entry price to buy even a small condo is probably $200K and the bigger houses clear $1 million. Very diverse income levels. My block is primarily rentals, and mostly graduate students/young professionals 25 to 35.
It’s nearly all street parking (row houses and small apt buildings, some have garages but more don’t) so the car-scenery changes frequently as spots get competetive in the evening. But of the “regulars” on my block:
-’97 Ford Crown Victoria and ’12 Kia Forte Koup (mine and my wife’s)
-Toyota RAV4 (early 00’s)
-2x Honda Civic Coupe (1 early 00’s, 1 late 00’s)
-Honda Civic Sedan (2013)
-Ford Windstar (early 00’s)
-BMW 540i (E39)
-Subaru Forester (late 00’s)
-Jeep CJ5 (1970’s, lifted and with a good amount of work done)
-Kia Spectra (late 00’s)
-3x Honda Accord sedan (early 90’s, late 90’s, mid 00’s)
-Nissan Altima (early 00’s)
-Toyota Prius (late 00’s)
-Jeep Wrangler (early 10’s)
-VW Jetta (early 10’s)
-Toyota Avalon (late 90’s)
-Honda CR-V (early 10’s)
-Toyota Camry (early 00’s)
Nothing dominant, though I suppose Hondas are the most numerous by that count. Not a huge number of domestic cars on my block but they’re out there. The neighborhood as a whole has as wide a variety commensurate with the varied income levels, though not much at the high end as it’s not a “see and be seen” kind of area.
There are, however, a huge variety of interesting street-parked cars. Highlights near me include a ’59 Edsel, a ’75 Volvo 146E, ’67 Mustang, mid 70’s Dodge Dart Swinger, ’77 or so Lincoln Town Coupe, ’66 Cadillac Sedan DeVille, ’63 Chevy Nova SS Convertible, 80s BMW 635csi, a number of 70’s Volkswagens (Type I and II), and several 60’s and 70’s Ford F-series pickups. Plus the neighborhood as a whole has oddly high numbers of FJ60 Land Cruisers and old Volvo 240’s.
I live in a late 1960’s middle class suburb of Hamilton, Canada. Our area is quite diverse with everything from BMW’s, lots and lots of minivans, down to beaters. I work in a more upscale area, and there almost every car I see is german. If you don’t have BMW, Audi or Mercedes apparently you can live there.
When in Las Vegas the other week, we were packing up our rental car in the hotel parking lot and finally saw a Focus just like ours at home. Who should hop out but one of the hotel cleaning staff. Nobody actually staying at the hotel was driving a 13 year old Focus.
My immediate neighborhood of Ma’ili, Waianae, Oahu, Hawaii? Pickup trucks; lots of full size pickups. Evenly split, I’d say between Ford/Dodge and then Chevy/GMC. Lots of Toyotas (Tacoma x-cabs/crew cabs are very popular sellers in the Aloha State, usually the 4×2 Pre-Runners); some Tundras. This would be followed by Toyota Camrys, Honda Accords. Lots of full size pickup trucks on Oahu and in Nanakuli, Ma’ili and Waianae, Makaha . . . . it’s full size pickups that rule.
Ford, Mopar, GM, Tundra.
My cars are a ’13 Mercedes Benz GLK 350, a 2010 Ford Ranger XLT and an ’07 Mustang 4.0L Pony Package.
Both of my next-door neighbors have a near identical gold color Chrysler minivan of about year 2000. Both of these neighbors are senior citizen retirees in their upper eighties. Not sure, but I think they both bought them new. And, not sure but I suspect they are both rather low mileage compared to my (running strong) 220K 1999 Dodge.
OK, another neighbor has a bright red Dodge Ram of about 2004-2006. Another neighbor replaced and old, high-mileage, rusted out Ford Ranger with a newer Ranger a couple years ago. The contractor neighbor across the street has a late model Chevy Silverado. Somebody else has about a 10-year old Nissan Altima.
I live in a new (ca 2000) area in a moderately sized town in southwestern Indiana. Nearly all of the cars in my neighborhood are some variety of “Toy-onda-san”, U.S. branded cars are thin on the ground. There are many full-sized American pickups and many houses have some variety of SUV or minivan. Since my friend with the Viper moved away there aren’t many interesting or collector type cars around here. Several blocks from my house there is a 1966 Charger parked in a garage and as far as I know it has not moved since I have lived here; occasionally the garage door will be open and the Charger is buried under a thick coat of dust. A few blocks past that there is a 1967 Mustang that I would occasionally see out and about but not recently.
I wonder if the Toyota plant in Princeton has an effect there. I would suspect that it would boost the Toyota numbers in that part of the State.
Probably some but Toyotas (and Hondas & Nissans) were reasonably popular before the plant opened. One of the things that helped these brands become popular was that, at least here, they are all sold by long established dealers. It is probably easier to buy that first Toyota when the dealer is the same one who sold your father and your grandfather their Chevrolets. Here both Honda and Nissan are both sold by a group that started selling Fords many years ago and the Toyota store is owned by a big Chevrolet dealer. I suspect that if someone had come in 40 years ago and opened a Toyota dealership “from scratch”, things might be different.
Long time lurker here first time poster. I haven’t seen anyone else from Louisiana represent yet. Here in North Louisiana it is all about domestic pickups. Chevy seems to have the upper hand. In my (small) parking lot right now there are no less than 4 Silverados. Additionally, one GMC Terrain, one Chevy Equinox (wife’s), one Mercedes C class, and of course my Suzuki Grand Vitara.