The car modification trend continues with car owners adding everything from souped up sound systems to flat-screen tvs to their vehicles. A Christian Science Monitor article says that specialty automotives is now a $31 billion industry. The Monitor also says it isn't just 20-somethings customizing and personalizing their cars but baby boomers as well:
But American giants may be leading the race toward after-market friendliness for an older demographic. In recent years US automakers have taken a nostalgic turn to reach more boomers with money, rereleasing such cars as the Dodge Charger and Ford Mustang.
Mustangs now come with about 50 after-market options, including a variety of body kits made by 3dCarbon, a Newport Beach, Calif., firm recently launched by the founders of tuning giant Wings West. The company also creates kits for Ford F150 and Lincoln trucks, says Ernie Bunnell, a founder.
"Baby boomers really have this kind of staying-young syndrome," says George Moschis, professor of marketing and director of the Center for Mature Consumer Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta. "They feel free to be themselves, and the things that appealed to them in their youth appeal to them now in their middle years."
