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Dibujaron t1_izmalr4 wrote

I think some factors you're seeing are that:

  • Cambridge is a relatively wealthy place

  • lots of tight spaces

  • The local population is exceptionally socially progressive

Because Cambridge is wealthy, brands that target people with poorer credit such as Nissan are less common here. Because space is tight, large vehicles like SUVs and trucks are very rare, and those make up a large fraction of Ford, GMC etc's product line. Also the progressive population tends to favor electric cars and quirkier brands like Subaru.

I don't know about Saab, maybe we just have a large international population, some of whom like them?

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and_dont_blink t1_izqimp5 wrote

>The local population is exceptionally socially progressive

...except for property taxes, zoning/housing/building, etc. e.g., I'd rephrase this as they're very progressive-brand-conscious regardless of the realities as everything turns into a bank branch.

Road & Track had a good writeup as to how Subaru became pretty entrenched in the area compared to other brands:

>With initial curiosity-driven demand dried up, and the Consumer Reports review echoing maliciously, U.S. Subaru sales ground to a halt.
>
>In 1971, Subaru of America embarked on an ambitious plan to outrun the bad review. As co-founder Bricklin told Automotive News in a rollicking interview earlier this year, "Somebody called me and said, 'Have you seen Consumer Reports?' I said, 'What's Consumer Reports?' [...] At the time, they had a circulation of half a million. So I thought, so what? Half a million people saw it, out of how many million in the United States?"
>
>So Subaru of America decided to focus on markets where Consumer Reports had less sway—as Automotive News puts it, "small towns where the reputation of the local dealer was more important than awareness of the brand he was selling." The American importer targeted rural regions far away from the big cities. Places like Vermont, Minnesota, Washington state, New Hampshire and western Pennsylvania—where hardworking people on a budget might be willing to try a relatively-unknown brand offering cheap, frugal transportation.

You then had the 1973 oil embargo and subaru's use of 4-wheel drive in a family car kind of sealing the deal.

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MussleGeeYem OP t1_izmbl7p wrote

I have seen several Saab 9-3 around here and there, and several days ago, I have even seen a Saab 9-5 whilst biking around Cambridge.

I am curious how many trucks you see in Cambridge belong to the residents? From what I have seen, nearly all trucks belong to the contractors who work in Cambridge.

Even though Ford does sell a lot of trucks, they do sell passenger cars as well, such as the Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, Ford Fusion, Ford Taurus, Ford Escape, Ford Edge, Ford Explorer, etc, and virtually all police cars in Cambridge are Ford Explorers.

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smashey t1_izmo8o4 wrote

The Saab used to be really popular. It was kind of like the Tesla of its day. Quirky, luxurious but not ostentatious, good design. It's sort of a classic professorial status symbol. It doesn't denote wealth as much as modesty and intelligence.

Unfortunately they stopped making them, and the latter models were rebadged Subaru at least in one case.

If you want an example of an even earlier example of this kind of vehicle, there's a Morris mini that lives near Dali.

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Dibujaron t1_iznsmrj wrote

Ford is still sort of "all American"; their target market is more conservative than Cambridge. As far as the police, I think I heard that the Explorer interceptor is basically the only new police cruiser sold in America these days.

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MussleGeeYem OP t1_izo9ven wrote

I have also seen some Ford Expedition being used as police cars in Boston by the way, so it is not only Ford Explorers. But you are correct that most police cars are Ford Explorers.

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