(Bloomberg) – A true sports car — a genuineground-scraping, carbon-veined track monster — is terrible at mostthings. It doesn't lend itself to Uber, it's crap on a Costco runand in today's truck-crazy culture, it's so low that the drivercan't see anything but the bumpers of the SUVs around them.

And that's to say nothing of the traditional drawbacks. There'sthe astronomical expense of purchasing one (plus keeping itrunning) and their tendency to make a driver look a bit cheesyunless handled carefully (see Newman, Paul; Rodriguez, Michelle;and this guy).

Significant change in desire for driving

For all of those reasons and more, swanky sports cars are losingmomentum in the U.S. of late. Sales in the segment have declinedfor the past six quarters. Last year, nearly one-third of premiumsports car purchases vanished, according to Edmunds.com. The trend is only accelerating this year.There was a 52% drop in sales during the first quarter of2016.

“I think there's a significant change in the desire for driving— I think there's a significant slowdown in that,” said ErichJoachimsthaler, CEO of consultancy Vivaldi Partners Group, whichadvises carmakers.

Will the sports car die? Of course. Eventually, the only peopleshredding tires and burning dead dinosaurs will be the small groupof hobbyists on private tracks, where they are dropped off by thefleet of anodyne robot cars the rest of us commute in. But that dayis still a long way off.

The recent skid in the sports car market is far more nuanced andinteresting than road-scanning radar. It is being fueled by strangeturns in consumer psyche, a redefinition of curb appeal and thegamesmanship of auto executives. Here are the three things crimping— but not killing — the swanky sports car.

Foreign delegates check Chevrolet Corvette during Auto Expoin Greater Noida, near New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016.(AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

1. Cheap thrills

The Ford Mustang is, hands-down, the bestselling sports car inAmerica these days. The king of pony cars roped in nearly 123,000U.S. buyers last year, a 48% spike over 2014. That's prettyimpressive for a vehicle that requires backseat passengers topossess the flexibility of a yogi.

This is where all the Porsche priests start furiously draftinge-mails about the Mustang not being a “real” sports car. Theargument goes something like this: Anyone with $130,000 to spend ona two-seated rocket with a Stuttgart pedigree isn't going toconsider a cheap thrill such as the Mustang.

This line of reasoning may have been valid in the past, butthat's the past. Carmakers have gotten so good at their craftthat performance is becoming a commodity (to say nothing offetching design and reliability). The newest Mustang can be hadwith paddle shifters and a V-8 engine that makes 435 horsepower. Itgallops to 60 miles per hour in less than 5 seconds, faster thanmany Ferraris from the 1990s and just a hair slower than acontemporary Porsche Cayman.

Customers who love to drive thinning

Chevrolet's new Camaro puts up even more impressive performancemetrics, and Dodge's Challenger Hellcat offers an engine that makesan astonishing 707 horsepower. Those in the market for somethingmore refined are clamoring for Mazda's new MX-5 Miata. Small,light, and almost perfectly balanced, it's the driving equivalentof a bonsai tree. Any of these cars can be had for less than$30,000. Taken together, U.S. drivers bought 373,000 of them lastyear, a 23% increase over 2014.

There is evidence that at least some of those customers wouldhave otherwise bought more expensive vehicles. According toEdmunds.com, 11% of drivers looking at the $56,000 Porsche Boxsterthese days also consider the considerably cheaper Mazda Miata, and8% of potential Chevrolet Corvette customers kick the tires on aMustang.

Masahiro Moro, chief executive officer of Mazda North America,concedes that the ranks of customers who really love to drive arethinning. “Right now, it might be 10%,” he said. “But we are atiny, 2% [market-share] company, so it's enough for us.”

BMW X6 Sprots Activity Coupe (Photo: bmwusa.com)

2. SUV fever

Anyone who questions how keen Americans are for utility vehiclesand so-called crossovers should look at the BMW X6. It isessentially a sports car that has been jacked-up from the road abit. It doesn't handle quite as well as a traditional car, and itholds, at best, a couple of additional grocery bags. Mostly, it'staller.

Since its launch in 2008, the weird speed buggy has experiencedan irrational amount of success. Last year, BMW sold almost 8,000of them in the U.S., and in the first quarter of this year Americanbuyers bought two X6 models for every one of the company's 6-seriessports coupes.

“The X6 was the first to kind of say 'We can be a sports car anda utility at the same time,'” said Eric Lyman, vice president ofindustry insights at TrueCar. “It was a pioneer in terms of whatwe're seeing in other products coming to market.”

Premium luxury SUVs sales have swelled

Now virtually every blue chip brand has something similar to theX6, including Jaguar and Maserati. Bigger, burlier family trucksare speeding off lots, too. In all, sales of premium luxury SUVshave swelled by 40% in the past three years. Granted, not all ofthose purchases are in lieu of two-seated speed machines, but someundoubtedly are.

It helps that these new SUVs have the looks and performance oftheir low-slung relatives. Porsche's baby SUV, the Macan, puts upspecs similar to those of the brand's famous 911 from 10 years or15 years ago. Plus, the Macan has the clamshell hood of a race car.“Brands like Porsche have found a way to create the authentic 911experience in the SUV,” Joachimsthaler said.

Tesla Motors unveils the new lower-priced Model 3 sedan atthe Tesla Motors design studio Thursday, March 31, 2016. (APPhoto/Justin Prichard)

3. Tesla

“We don't make slow cars,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk assured the worldlast week, as he pulled the cover off his company's newest machine,the Model 3. Indeed, car critics have plenty of gripes about Teslavehicles, but the way they drive typically isn't one ofthem. Tesla's electric motors offers immediate acceleration, sothere's no need to wait around for the controlled explosion of aninternal combustion engine. Plus, plastering a tombstone-heavybattery along the floor of the vehicle establishes the low, levelcenter of gravity that engineers covet.

Related: Musk unveils Tesla's $35,000 Model 3 in push formass market

Again, purists will gripe that Tesla's Model S isn't a sportscar; it's a luxury product, a four-door sedan, and a quietcommuter. Those people probably haven't gone down the Internetrabbit hole that is a YouTube search of “Tesla drag race.” Namingone of its driving modes “insane” was not just a marketingexercise. The Model S is properly fast. Tesla plans to deliver upto 90,000 vehicles this year, a Mustang-sized disruption in theheart of the market for luxurious speed machines.

All that said, the swanky sports car won't die soon. Decadesfrom now, Porsche will still be offering a new 911 you can'tafford. Even if sales continue to swoon, car companies will keepmaking these speed pods just to burnish their brands. Lyman atTrueCar believes the real utility of these vehicles is to conveycredibility in the overall product line. “It's an emotional thing,”he said. “I talk to a lot of people, and no one ever asks me what'sthe SUV with the most cargo capacity; they ask about speed.”

In a way, the future of the sports car, like most things in theauto industry, comes down to semantics. What is a “sports car?”Depending on your definition, there are more of them at the momentthan there ever have been. They just look a little different thanthey used to, cost a lot less, and drive a lot better.

Related: Best cars and motorcycles to buy in 2016: Critic'spicks

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