car enthusiast vs an ordinary commuter

There two groups of drivers out there.. the ordinary commuter who buys a car just to get from point A to point B, they don't care so much about the car's performance and is more concerned about fuel economy, reliability, safety and price. These are the same bunch of people who would opt for a very safe Toyota or Honda (non sporty models), Daihatsu, low end Chevrolet, entry level Renault or entry level VW. These cars literally can put you to sleep while doing long distance driving.
On the other hand there are those who will only buy fun and exciting cars to drive. Being seen in a Toyota or a Honda will make them feel embarrassed or ashamed! They do not care so much about fuel economy. The key element is excitement and the fun factor. Quite often the buyers will opt for a BMW, Porsche, Subaru (performance models), AMG Mercedes, sports model Renaults and performance Audis or VWs.
Unfortunately the bulk of the population fall into the ordinary commuter category thats why car companies design the bulk of their cars to be boring! some companies such as Kia and Hyundai invested heavily in pinching top tier designers which has made the cars look much more appealing. The investment has paid off handsomely with both Kia and Hyundai attracting more buyers who would previously shy away from these two brands. Of course to the car enthusiasts they would still snicker at the thought of buying a Kia or Hyundai since these cars have never been exciting to drive.
A simple aesthetic redesign can change the way a buyer perceives a brand. Car companies cannot be blamed for pursuing this direction in car development. Companies like Toyota are the best at making boring cars and just alter the exterior and interior parts of the car to make it look new but underneath the car is still using the same old engine and same old transmission. The introduction of a new engine or transmission is usually more than 10 years apart. They keep holding on to the ideology of "if it is not broken don't fix it". This has served Toyota well for the past 3 decades but the problem now comes with the competitors introducing better engines and better transmission system which has eaten into Toyota's market share. Toyota is now scrambling to redesign their cars and introduce new innovations to the new models, they are quite late to this but Toyota has the financial capabilities and resources to make it work for them. One of the key changes will be engine down sizing with turbo. While the Europeans have been doing this for the past 20 years Toyota now only decided to join the party.

The next time you see a car pull up next to you at the traffic lights, take a look and see what car it is. Often you can tell if the owner of that car is an ordinary commuter or a car enthusiast.