Nissan Cube Finds Middle-Age Fans

It turns out the Nissan Cube is kind of like the Twitter of cars.

Nissan’s cloying, occasionally cringe-inducing attempts to market its econobox, the Cube, to young buyers have instead landed fans in an older demographic. Maybe middle-age adults were drawn in by the marketing jargon: Don’t call the Cube a car, it’s a “mobile device,” and please don’t ask for accessories, just “set preferences.”

Maybe they just think it looks cool.

Either way, Nissan has found that the average Cube buyer is in his or her 40s; this is the case for all tall, boxy cars. Back in 2003, Honda marketed the Element as a “dorm room on wheels,” but it’s more likely Mom will be dropping you off in it.

Nissan calls this gap “expected,” and maybe it is. The average new car buyer is 56 years old, according to AutoPacific, a research firm for the auto industry. Young people frequently buy used vehicles the first time they make a car purchase. The same phenomenon also hit the Scion xB when it debuted as a youth-targeted wagon.

Nissan, Honda and Scion likely see their boxy cars as not just a young person’s car but as a way to get a foot in the door and establish brand loyalty by starting the car buyer on an affordable yet unique vehicle. The thinking is if they liked the Cube maybe someday they’ll come back for a look at the Altima.

Grown-ups Bask in Cubes’ Youthful Glow (USA Today)

2009|Nissan|Cube

Comments

Ugly as sin.

Sometimes sin can be a good thing. Are there any cars out there that can hit the 20-something demographic?

Yes, anything that is cheap to finance.

I'm 21 and this thing is ugly. Plus I don't have 14K to spend on a car. Expensive!

I like the Soul better, the Cube and the Xb are really ugly.

I think this was the same problem the original xB had. The fact is that these cube-shaped vehicles are really efficient for what most people use their vehicles for, but it seems that is lost on youth but realized by people who have owned more than a few cars. So they bloated the new xB into something for the forty-somethings and now this tries to muscle in on the original xB territory only it succeeds in muscling in on the forty-something crowd instead.

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yeah, i was thinking xB all over again. it might have something to do with a functional shape with suprisingly large amounts of room (for it's size) that is easy for middle-aged people to get in and out of...while still returning respectable fuel economy.

Last time I checked young buyers like vehicles such as Mustangs, Camaros, and Civics.

If automakers want to have models popular with young buyers, then design a cheap sporty vehicle.

GREAT LITTLE VEHICLES...the "box" cars are totally the wave of the future. It's high time that all of those bloated SUVs and fuel guzzling luxury cars were replaced with something fun, frugal, and different.