When you think of Chevrolet, you call to mind such greats as the Corvette, Camaro, Silverado, and more. But calling a dealership today and looking for a fresh car, at least for folks under 35, has them steering away from such extravagances and more toward small and compact cars.

Reports say that he Volt, Cruze, Sonic, and Spark have together made a growing trend in Bowtie sales. In fact, year over year, the small and compact models have been going up 229%, starting from the second quarter of 2010 to the same quarter this year.

Chevy officials attribute this trend to isolating what youngsters are looking for in cars: fuel economy, functionality, and affordability. By far the best seller of the four cars is the Cruze, which is among the top-selling Chevrolet vehicles to those under 25.

An interesting statistic to consider is this–one in four Sonic and Spark buyers are under 25, and 7 in 10 buyers of these new cars are new buyers themselves, having never bought a Chevrolet car before. Cristi Landy, the marketing director for Small Cars and Electrified Vehicles, argues that this boon is due to “really [listening] to what is important in their lives today…”

And it’s really thanks to an aggressive but clever array of advertising styles and tactics that Chevrolet has managed to do so well. Using social media like Vine, which loops six-second videos on mobile applications, to sell the Cruze Diesel, as well as the 2012 “Let’s Do This” campaign (as seen above) had the Chevrolet on the radar of young adults everywhere.

Dora Nowicki, marketing director for the Sonic, states that forty percent of millenial buyers are perusing car choices in the compact car segment. Sadly, better gas mileage, electronic bells and whistles, and low price tags seem to be the wave of the future, as environmentalism, government-provided incentives, peer pressure, and high gas prices sway the mind of those under 35. Pretty sad, if you ask us.

What do you think? Will the puny compacts usurp the pickup throne? Or is it just a phase we’re going through? Let us know in the comments.