Here is a question I have been pondering for awhile

Nothing would stop them, if they wanted to do it. But cars are much safer now, handle and brake better etc. They definitely get more money to insure them, because they are high performance. The insurance companies would be cutting their own throats by shutting down the manufacturers by making the rates too high. Their actuaries will let them know when things get out of kilter.

 

There were many factors that impacted the availability of what I still think are stunning cars in the 60's:

1) Gasoline price and availability: Currently this looks to be in the favor of powerful cars and the domestic auto industry as long as they don't make electric or hybrid cars. I think for the next decade at least that the electric car business is not going to do well.

2) Technology: Current tech affords us some really safe cars.....that also happen to have 500 HP! Stability control, anti-lock brakes, improved tires and passenger safety systems are sure to lessen the "impact" of any insurance industry effect on the marketability of a new car.

3) Price: the automakers have become extremely good at cranking out great cars at a reasonable price.

I think the next decade in the USA is going to continue an obvious trend that we've got today, great cars at a great price. The environmentalists may have input into this but I think that it will be outweighed by the above factors.

 

I was just starting to buy cars in the late sixties and of course now. There is no doubt that car insurance was expensive if you are 25 years old and own a muscle car. But there were other factors at play that stopped the muscle cars.

The HP dropped in the early 60's because of the EPA exhaust regulations. My 1968 Corvette was powerful by the standards of the day at 350hp. by 1971 the real power was 120 hp. IT had dropped that much.

Then we hit a gas crisis and there were long lines at gas stations and then you could only get 5-10 gallons. Gas went from $0.25 cents a gallon to over a $1 dollar overnight, Horrors.

The high gas prices and the difficulty getting gas stopped the high HP Muscle car craze. You could still buy some but really in name only Muscle cars died.

Cars today are just awesome. They handle and stop well, get good gas mileage and are more powerful than cars of the past..

Life is good again but and there is always a but HP is going down again in order to meet new Federal gas mileage regulations. You can still buy fast cars but the Federal Government makes the consumer pay a gas guzzling tax.

Also the Federal Government hold each manufacturer to a " Fleet average" for miles per gallon. So they can still make a high performance car but they have to make off setting lower MPG cars to conform to the mandated MPG requirements.

The issue for us enthusiasts is the MPG guidelines tighten each year.

The good news is all cars are getting better gas mileage some cars like the new Corvette are amazing. Even my 700hp Adventador gets over 17 mpg.

My 1966 427/390hp Vette got maybe 7 mpg my new Vette with 460 gets high 20's for gas usage. If someone posts 30 mpg in there Corvette I would not be surprised.

Best

Lee