While it’s common for older generations to fret about the behavior of younger generations, Ford’s sales trends show that there is hope for the future. While most auto buyers are gravitating toward sport utility vehicles, younger people are responding to Ford’s sporty, EcoBoost-powered performance vehicles.

That’s right, millennials contributed to a 45-percent sales increase in Ford Performance offerings over the first three months of the year.

“With repeat customers making up around half of industry sales, capturing younger buyers while they still have many vehicle purchases remaining in their lives is good for business,” Corey Holter, Ford car group marketing manager, said.

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Buyers of Ford Performance variants tend to be younger and more affluent than those who purchase standard models. Even EcoBoost Mustang buyers are, on average, three years younger than V6 buyers.

According to new vehicle data from MaritzCX, performance buyers are three to 10 years younger than buyers of the standard models. For example, the average Fiesta buyer is 45 years old, while the average Fiesta ST buyer is 35 and the average Focus customer is 48, while the Focus ST purchaser averages 36 years old.

Not only are these buyers inclined toward performance, but they also seem to have a bigger budget for these purchases, as their household incomes are 70 percent higher than buyers of standard models.

These are interesting stats, but what’s most important is that performance cars are selling well, which means they have a future in a world headed toward self-driving, electric machines.