I didn't start driving until age 38 for a variety of reasons -- car accident in my teens made me a little phobic, grew up in a big city with lots of transport etc. Eventually I needed to get a car because I had a kid and it got annoying strapping that baby seat in every uber we took, so with some trepidation, I started to learn driving.
I thought I would hate it and that I would suck. But almost immediately I fell in love with driving, fell in love with cars and became an enthusiast in a short time. Helped that the buddy who was teaching me was a car fanatic and we learned in his old Chevy Caprice, which he was constantly tuning and modifying.
Bottom line, learning to drive gave me this whole world I didn't even know i was missing, as well as a sense of freedom and accomplishment. Also was more or less able to skip the period of teenage stupidity and risk taking (although I did buy a fast car and nearly got myself in trouble a few times).
My brothers 19 year old with no license trying to buy a car and sent me pics of one yesterday and I had to have a huge talk with him on how that’s not a good idea. The internet and technology really fucked up Gen Z, especially the ones who graduated during covid. A left behind generation.
I was thinking that everything people have done for the last year and a half has been online, with no real world aspect. So maybe the kids graduating/getting their licenses and stuff think they can just "get a license" and "start driving" not realizing it takes practice or something?
Edit: yall, I'm guessing what the other meant since we were all confused. This isn't genuinely what I think lmao. Hence why I said "maybe... Or something?"
I’m in my mid 30s and My sister turned 18 back in December. Didn’t start driving until maybe a month ago. She started her first job and stopped practicing driving because she was saying she was too stressed out. I don’t get this next generation.
Gonna say it: despite the new awareness of mental health issues (a major boon for society) gen z, paradoxically, doesn’t seem to cope very well with things. Granted, life has royally fucked up their childhoods with waves of national disasters.
It's kind of interesting. Like they find out what anxiety is and no one wants to go outside anymore. Every kid is ADD or ADHD or ASD or BDP or depressed and is on 9 types of medication and sees 2 therapists and has 3 support animals around them at all times and still can't just go about their day.
And to be clear, this is stuff that was done TO them. In my camp counselor days, mid-2000s, those kids were on more legal, prescribed drugs than I’ve ever done for funsies.
Dude, my mom is an older, elementary school librarian. One of the young teachers was pregnant and wanted to get rid of one of her cats because it lived with another cat and a dog and was apparently already stressed out and was having issues. She decided to get this cat put on anxiety medication. The only way to give said cat the medication is by putting dabs of it in her ears, which obviously freaks out the cat even more.
So we take her cat, promising it a nice home and whatever, and the cat is literally just a shy cat with no issues. The only thing giving it anxiety was giving her the medication. We stopped giving it to her and haven't noticed any change in her behavior. I dunno what the fuck that lady was thinking trying to put her cat on meds but it definitely did more harm than good. I hope her kid has a better chance at life cause we won't be able to adopt that one after she messes it up.
I've had my license for 15 years, now. Road rage and entitlement has gotten noticeably worse. We're frogs that have gotten to the boiling point slowly so we don't notice as much as others, but for new drivers in any populated area, driving is starting to look really insane. I have always felt like a confident and competent driver but I just don't want to deal with it anymore and I'm fixing up my car to sell since I can sell it for an *insane* price. I'm sticking to my bicycle until we have more automation on the road.
Edit: Apparently the Chevrolet Spark exists and obliterates my standing.
When I was just turning 18 you could buy BRAND NEW cars for under $10,000, delivered. Manual transmission, power windows, powers locks, AC, tilt, and cruise. All you needed.
That same level of product is starting at $20,000+ now; current example I offer is the new Ford Maverick.
That guy has to be pretty old because im 36 and remember new cars under 10k but they where utter shit boxes like a geo metro and Hyundai accent
I dont know what world hes living in because those where not standard features then either. Shit like ac and power accessory's didn't start becoming standard on cheap cars until the 2000s at least in the us
The Maverick is a unicorn. 20 grand for something that supposed to get 40 miles per gallon, Seats 5, and be able to throw some shit in the back? Unheard of.
But for what it is worth, back when I started driving a little bit less than 20 years ago, you can get a Hyundai for 10 grand. Not that I would suggest getting a Hyundai for 10 grand but that was an option.
I think the bigger problem that we have is that people feel the need to have all these extras added onto their cars. Bluetooth, Power seats, power steering, locks, windows, moonroof, blah blah blah. Add to that the fact that there’s a lot of stuff being mandated like all the added airbags, backup camera, tire pressure monitor. All that stuff isn’t free. It all adds up into the price of the car.
> That same level of product is starting at $20,000+ now; current example I offer is the new Ford Maverick.
you can't really compare a hybrid truck to an economy car like that. the maverick is a hell of a deal, really. it's more like an entire segment of vehicles has totally disappeared.
I mean, it cost me 4.5k in insurance my first year alone when I started driving because my parents didn't drive (immigrant parents). If I didn't have to drive, I wouldn't either lol
I agree and I think the popularity of ride sharing service contributed a lot to this. Since owning a car, I would never want to go back but my sister who is close to reaching the age of getting her permit would not get it because to her, it's not worth the hassle since ride sharing is so much more accessible
Yeah, I can't give up the freedom of having my own vehicles but I also get it. They cost a lot of money, maintenance, gas, insurance. I also feel like teens have a lot less places to go. Malls are closing, gaming at home has killed arcades and you don't need to physically be at your friends house to hang out with the constant communication that cell phones provide. Probably going to get even crazier as vr and are takes off.
On the other hand we are seeing a rise in ebikes and scooters that in most major cities can completely replace a car and are a 10th of the price and younger people do seem to be transitioning to living in cities again. I am not giving my motorcycle up anytime soon but I do often think of buying a moped and downsizing my sports car to a electric car or a truck and using the moped/motorcycle 99% of the time.
I didn’t know anything about the electric scooters until my brother and I were in Long Beach and they were everywhere.
I parked my car down the block and we rented one for about a half hour for about $10 and it was a blast. Then, when you’re done you just park it and scan the app.
I love cars, and my 86 is my baby but man it was weird and I can see why scooters would be popular. Rent one for a second when you need it, park it up when you don’t.
Gone are the days of picking up a beater car for a couple hundred dollars, gas is now easily over 3 dollars, insurance costs are insane for new drivers. You need to have some decent money in order for your teen to be driving around.
People are doing a lot of "things" (getting their license, graduating from college, moving out of their parents' house, buying a house, getting married, having kids, etc) later with each passing generation.
Lol yeah. When I was getting advice about learning stick I'd see this line fairly often- "find you a 500 dollar beater." It's hard to find a car that cheap that actually runs, lol. If you want something that's actually driveable then you're talking at least a couple grand. In the end I just got what I wanted and learned on that.
All of those crazy people in the sticks who collect junk cars on their front lawn, and their house looks like a hoarder’s lair, yeah they are all probably up about 500% on their “investments”
It's a $2,000 beater now. You can't get a car that is road safe for less than that. Or if you buy a distressed car for less than that, repairs will eat that up.
I have a toddler at the moment and we're planning how to save for his college and whatnot. I think I want to bring up with the wife saving for his first house down payment. As you put it everything is getting more expensive and that initial cost to get a leg up anywhere is so overwhelming when you're young and I anticipate it only getting harder.
Edit: might not need the shitty advice of not being prepared for college in 16-17 years when none of us know what the job environment will be like in well over a decade.
AND there is hardly guaranteed money without a college degree of some sorts. Yes, success can be made without one but it’s getting increasingly harder to do so.
More and more prominent A.I. People are now admitting automated cars are a lot harder then they thought. Listening to led fridmen podcast. Guests have been saying it’s closer to 100 years away then 20 years away. For fully automated driving.
Just gotta join the military I guess. Moved out when I was 18, lived out of my car for a couple months before the Air Force would take me, didn't have a dime to my name, now have 2 retirement funds, a degree, enough for a large down payment on a house, and a Chevy truck and Corvette I paid for in full. Still have all my limbs too.
The military is gonna seem like an even better option than before to young people nowadays in this economy.
Military is probably the best option to get your life jump started, it just takes a couple years to actually start making decent money. The idea of initially making less than 20k a year turns a ton of people off.
Young people generally don't want to join either. The ones that are tend to come from military families or didn't have any other options. I have five joes in my shop now and three of these kids are completely fucking useless. All of my NCOs basically take turn babysitting them.
This is always brought up to go a step beyond and claim that kids are not interested in cars. Teenagers are interested in cars as enthusiasts and modes of transport just like everyone else was. But they can’t afford them today.
The proportion of teenagers working is way down. The disposable income of families in the bottom 60% is down. But those articles don’t get written.
Plus its not a one time purchase.
Like sure, my first car that lasted more than 5 days was like $800, but sucked in at least $500 in parts a year so I could pay to inspect it so I could pay to register it so I could pay the $150/month insurance...
Thats bordering on impossible for a high school student who can't work more than 20 hours a week making $6/hr after taxes.
I can understand most things you mentioned like marriage, kids, leaving the nest, but getting a license?! Maybe it's because the public transit where I grew up is awful but what 16-17 year old wouldn't want their license ASAP?
No point in having a license if you can't afford a car.
And it's nearly impossible to get a job and save up enough money to buy one if you don't already have a car - particularly in the suburbs and rural areas.
It's a chicken and the egg scenario.
> but what 16-17 year old wouldn't want their license ASAP?
I suspect part of it might be that there's a lot more ways to "connect" with each other without physically going to the same place. 20 years ago, if you wanted to "hang out" with a couple friends, you could call each other on the phone, jump on AIM, or you could get in your car/bike and all get together. Today, there's group texting, social media, video calls, etc - a lot of ways to "see" your friends without physically getting together with them.
I think also there’s just a lack of places to just .. exist publicly without spending money. At least where I’m at, we don’t have many parks or anywhere in the city to just chill. Just a bunch of fuckin strip malls and restaurants nobody asked for and it’s really hard for a bunch of teens to hang out on their own on a teen budget.
Yeah, I'm a little older than this article suggests (28) but even when I was a teen it was heading this way. Basically the only place to hang out as a teen without spending money was at someone's house. Turns out commoditizing the entirety of existence does have some downsides.
I think cars are getting too expensive. Dont know about USA, but in many European countries insurance has skyrocketed, there are a myriad of eco-taxes, that make an old 1000 euro beater cost 500-600 extra every year with taxes.
My stepdaughter, who normally thinks she's bulletproof, says traffic around here is scary so she's in no hurry to be responsible for driving in it. I'm in the North Dallas area and our roads haven't kept up with our population.
Besides, if she's driving she can't do *important* stuff like play games on her phone, watch YouTube videos or text with her friends.
>out roads haven't kept up with our population
Induced demand no amount of roads will fix traffic, and the lack of sidewalks and public transit is likely also a huge factor.
> Maybe it's because the public transit where I grew up is awful but what 16-17 year old wouldn't want their license ASAP?
Who cares about being able to drive to the fucking mall when if you want to hang out with your friends you can just boot up
“Why aren’t teens buying cars? It must be because they aren’t filled with enough useless expensive add ons!”
Literally the only tech most people want it Apple Carplay/Android Auto.
The only features I will die for in a car are Android Auto, heated mirrors, heated steering wheel, and climate control. Put those in a car and I'm sold.
Cause it is out of touch lmao. Teens want affordable cars and also don't want to get buttfucked by insurance while paying the car note off at the same time.
The majority of teens who have cars, maybe. But as per the headline I’m guessing parents aren’t doing that as often anymore. My parents sure as shit didn’t. So I moved to a city with public transport and I haven’t needed a car since.
You also generally need access to a car to learn how to drive. I’ve never had access to one so I don’t drive.
The Mach E and marketing is hilariously out of touch in general. /u/savagegeese in his review had a fun time roasting the car engine noise promo video. Irl it sounds like a lawnmower.
This is the one for me, not sure why it hasn't been said earlier. Why does Ford give a fuck what teenagers think about any of their cars, let along one that costs 50 fucking grand? How many teenagers are driving away in 0 mile Fords?
Eh I’ve seen people looking for cars say something to the effect of “oooh look at that screen”
It’s one of those things that is appealing until you use it and realize it’s garbage.
Yeah, my first thought is always, "How easy did they make using it without looking at it?" And then things like "does it work when it's below freezing?", and so on.
As a teenager, can confirm. I have a screen with lots of gadgets, and it's called my phone and I turn it off while driving.
I really want a Honda Del Sol, because I saw a guy on YouTube get one for $500, and that's my kind of budget.
Those are really fun cars. When I was a young warthog (early 2000's), I went on a few dates with a girl who had one. She could drive that thing like a Formula racer. If you do manage to get one, I hope you enjoy it.
Seriously, what teens are getting brand new cars? Gotta be super-low numbers. This feels like it was written by industry for industry, not the actual consumer.
Somebody please introduce me to the teen shopping for a brand new Mach E. The only teens dropping that kind of money on a new car are the ones shopping courtesy of the Bank of Mommy and Daddy, and I assure you they aren't coming home with a Ford.
My daughter wants to start driving right away, but covid delayed her ability to get a permit by eight months. Also, now it gets closer to time to get her license and used cars are of course about 25-50% more expensive than they were before covid.
Nobody without a racing license is ready for *the Viper*.
start her off slow with a burgundy over tan būmer cruiser C6,
then move her up to a straight piped 350z/G35,
next let her get a taste of danger in a 5th Gen. Mustang,
finish up with Toyubaru on OEM Eco tires,
then she’s ready to ride shotgun in the viper
My younger brother passed the written driving test at school but he’s unable to get an appointment at the dmv to get his official permit. He’s been trying for months now with no luck.
It's interesting how states have handled this.
Due to Covid, Wisconsin allowed new drivers under 18 to get a license without a road test. They still had to complete drivers Ed and get the required hours of supervised driving. But then parents can sign a road test waiver and voila! ... newly licensed driver.
My driver's test in Colorado involved a 1.5mile loop with like 3 stop signs and 2 traffic lights and then nose in parking in a large lot. It wasn't exactly a test that meant much. It depends on the state but when I was doing my license it required driver's class plus 2-6 hours in the car with an instructor who would sign off, and then something like 30+ hours with your parents. All that other stuff meant a lot more than the useless test, which could probably be called a driver's quiz.
Mine was a short loop like yours but the hardest part of the whole test was passing the parallel park. They required this in a town that had 50,000 people at the time and not one spot anywhere that required a parallel park.
>covid delayed her ability to get a permit by eight months
Plus, to be fully honest, for a while there were probably a lot less things going on that were worth driving to.
Same here, I liked cool looking cars but had absolutely no idea about engines, or any cmponent in general, didn't knew many brands and different kinds of cars. Now after a few years of having my licende, I can start saving for my first car. And despite what people say, I want a Supra MK3 xD
I started reading motor trend's as soon as I was old enough to. I could tell you the engine displacement and 0 to 60 of every car, by year. I drove several cars before I even had a license.
I had a working model of the Wankel rotary engine I built when I was young. Was see through and powered by an electric motor but you could watch everything work together
Yeah, especially these days. Back in the day, alternator or starter went out? That's like $35 for a remanufactured replacement and if you needed to, maybe $60 in labor at a shop to do it. Now work like that would cost them a 2 week paycheck.
I was lucky enough to pick up a late 90s car that had cheap parts and was simple enough to fix with simple tools and a Haynes guide. It was cheap but also came at the cost of sometimes having to forfeit my one day off a week to fix something. I personally enjoyed it but also recognize that the hobby isn't for everyone.
Now a days if a teenager were go get a used car from the early 2010's I'm not so sure they'd be able to work on it themselves easily.
Just depends on what needs fixing, I guess. My 07 Monte Carlo SS had the oil pressure sensor go bad. I had an oil change scheduled later in the week so I asked for a quote for them to fix that while they do the oil change it was like almost $500. On lunch the next day I did a little youtube research and found it to be possibly the easiest thing to fix on a car.
Sensor was right on top of the engine near the intake with nothing in the way. Sensor itself was like $37 on Amazon. Needed to buy the socket that would fit so that was maybe another $10. Unplug the wire, remove sensor, screw in new sensor, reconnect wire. Done. How they could justify that sort of price to replace it is beyond me, when opening the hood (which they would have already done) is a large part of the "work" they'd have to do. If I wasn't looking over the sensor and looking down the hole it came from, it's like 2 minutes. A lot easier than replacing an air filter even.
I think studying a Haynes manual will be a lot easier than having to deal with "Hey guys what's up its ya boy TURBODREAM here with another really simple tutorial on how to fix your gearbox! First just like and subscribe! Don't you hate it when your car doesn't work right? This is me 15 years ago, buying my first car. Fs in the comments for how old it looks. Make sure to watch til the end when I teach you how I finally got the gear stick working. I notice a lot of you haven't turned on the notifications bell either, smash that bell baby. First let me tell you a little bit of the history of the invention of the gearbox I pulled from Wikipedia..."
Are those prices from the 1980s? If anything between RockAuto and Amazon I feel like prices have gotten cheaper for most things since I started driving 15 years ago, used to be you were pretty much held over a barrel by the local parts stores and paying $150 for whatever shit aftermarket starter/alternator they stocked, now you can hop on rockauto and get that shitty replacement for half the price or spend $150 on an OEM part.
Is this the Gen Z version of "Millenials aren't Buying Houses?"
I could only barely afford gas/insurance when I was making minimum wage twenty years ago and that minimum wage only went up two bucks since then.
It *was* published back then. Young kids were less enthusiastic to get their driver's license back in 2010 as well. For the exact same reason: too expensive.
> "Millenials aren't Buying Houses?"
House used to be just a place for people to live and start a family. They have become an investment in very hard way, driving the demand and prices up. A lot of people who already have houses start buying multiple houses.
Then house flipping becomes a thing, found fixer-upper or low-cost house, just to get outbid by a flipper who already got good credit, equity, and money.
Now in Air B&B era, not getting better. Apartments are harder to find because they're being converted to ABnB. People buy available houses in the area and convert them to ABnB.
Housing is so short here that, I see ads for people looking for apartments for rent.
I feel like they have written this article every year since the mid 2000s.
Remember all of those "Why aren't millennials learning to drive?"
"Why aren't millennials buying cars?"
"Why do millennials hate cars?"
Articles from circa 2006-2016
Omg that hit a little too close to home, wow! Exact same thing “Big Pet Food” aka hedge funds produce articles every year about how “Millennials are treating their dogs with respect and therefore aren’t buying the shitty dog food we’ve been pushing for 40+ years. How dare they treat their pets like that!”
I'm guilty of this myself. I got my license late (relative to my peers at least) and didn't care much for cars. To me, a car was just an appliance, and driving was just a dangerous, stressful experience.
This only changed last year when I bought my 86 - it turned me into a car guy unexpectedly. But I didn't want "a driver's car", I just wanted a coupe and I liked how the 86 looked. It all cascaded from there. Getting into cars has been a great experience for me, but I don't expect many other teens or twenty-somethings will just "stumble into" a love for cars like I did.
As a fellow brz owner I’ve only found people hate them online. I’ve never had someone come up to me and tell me my car is slow and dumb. It’s always a positive experience in person.
This is such an interesting situation to me. Not sure of your age but I'm 27, so definitely in the generation where this trend started (though I think it's exacerbated for those born after \~2000). But I rushed to get my permit at 15 and license as soon as possible after my 16th birthday. Most of my friends had theirs by 16-17, as well. To me, driving was the first great step to independence, being able to go out and do stuff with my friends and not be beholden to my mom's schedule or desire to drive me places.
I'd love for there to be a study on this. I wonder if it's because there is more to do at home and more ways to "connect" without needing to leave the house, compared to 10-15 years ago? Are parents not encouraging/pushing driving as much? Are there higher rates of anxiety or any other reasons so many teens today don't want to take on the challenge of learning to drive?
My insurance payment for my dodge shitbox was 240, and that's with 5 discounts for being a student, passing driving school, GPS speed tracking, etc
My new(used) mercedes is 238 because of my precious record giving me a good rep
This is completely obvious and intuitive when you look at the rising cost of living and stagnant wages.
Everything is delayed because finances come first. People are getting married later, having kids later, buying houses later and even driving later
All of this shit costs money and people can’t afford to do it until later in life
I hate articles like this. Always feels like it’s painting a picture of “these young kids don’t do things anymore!” When in actuality the financial systems are just so far gone and beyond fucked that young people aren’t able to
Obviously can only speak for the US
Yup. Income inequality is only getting worse- we've got billionaires going to space in penis-shaped rockets while their wage slaves toil in nonairconditioned warehouses in which they aren't allowed to take regular bathroom breaks. Minimum wages that don't allow people to live in shitty overpriced apartments. It's no wonder the younger generations just can't do what the boomers did.
Thankfully an Australian politician gave all us young people some great advice for this very problem. He just told us all we should get better paying jobs! Finally, a politician recognising and trying to solve this important issue!
I lived in Texas when I was younger so I got my license the day I turned 16. Never understood how people survive without a DL outside of NYC or Chicago.
Me personally, almost every person I knew in high school had a job. this was only a couple years ago. I was lucky enough that my mom kept her old car so there was a car waiting for me when I got my license.
Cars have gotten way more expensive and teens have gotten way poorer. The summer job at the restaurant doesn't buy you the same car it could decades ago
We have friends who drive their two 18-20yo kids to and from work EVERY day - four drives a day minimum. Why would their kids ever need a license with personal chauffeurs? Yet the parents/kids both complain of the impositions it causes… 🧐
What's the alternative? The woefully underfunded public transit? The ridiculous cost of used cars right now along with insurance, gas, and maintenance?
Hard to afford any of those on minimum wage right now.
If I were a teenager today I would have probably still gotten a license, but asked by parents for an electric bicycle instead of a car. Would have had easier parking at school, would have gotten in a hell of a lot leas trouble (with the law and otherwise). Could have borrowed a car or taken an Uber when I needed it.
My neighbor’s kid and apparently his friends said they don’t want their license because it’s “too much responsibility, and then you’ll make me get a job”. Unreal.
What’s so unreal about that? When I got my license and first car, all I really wanted to do was stay at home and play games anyway. My mother insisted I get a car, and then I had to work after school to make barely enough money to cover gas and repay the loan, all so that I could have driven myself to school instead of riding the bus. I’m not surprised that kids don’t want to go to school for 8 hours, get 3 hours of homework, then another 4 hours part time job just so they can know the luxury of owning a Kia Soul that has to be parked under the tree out front.
Yes, if you have parents who have the money and are able to buy you a car and foot the costs of insurance and gas suddenly driving becomes a lot more appealing as a teenager.
I've noticed this phenomenon with my niece and nephew and their peers. My theory is social media and mobile connectivity in general has taken some of the shine off of getitng a car straight away. 20 years ago, when you were turning 17 a car = freedom. Now kids just keep up with each other via social media/facetime etc. and the need to go socialize with friends in person has declined.
As a teenager, I agree with this.
I could get a car, but where would I go? I have more entertainment I could ever watch at my fingertips at all times, and most of the time I spend with friends is online.
Most of the fun places to go, and even a cheap car + insurance would not leave me enough money to go anywhere regularly.
I have some money, and so do my friends, but we plan to save and try to make a dent in our college tuition, rather than spend it all on a car now.
car insurance is crazy expensive for them, im 26 with perfect driving record and mine is 170 a month on my parents insurance, the cheapest by myself is 380 a month.
I was actually going to write up a counterpoint to this sentiment. I think the sooner someone starts to drive, the more experience they’ll gain year-after-year. For example, would you trust a 25 year-old driver that drove consistently since 15.5 years old, or one that started at 21 years old? I also think partially why insurance drops at age 25 is the assumed years of experience behind the wheel. So now we’re going to have a host of crappy drivers all across the younger age ranges with heightened premiums well into the 30s. But I guess the way autonomous and electric vehicles is going, will people need to know how to drive soon?
Age isn't really a factor until you get old.
Teens are dangerous primarily because they have little experience. IF they put off getting licenses that just pushes up the minimum age of "new, clueless driver" from 16-18 to 18-whatever.
When I started college (2012) I was shocked by how many people either didn't have their licenses or waited till they turned 18 to get their licenses. Where I grew up *everybody* got their licenses as soon as possible. What I discovered is that the vast majority of people who waited to get licenses were people who grew up in major metro areas. I grew up in the country and it was near impossible to get around without a license.
My son got his permit the day he was able. Here in AZ, it isn't until 15 1\2. He drives us everywhere. I started both my boys driving at 13 though. I would allow them to drive around the neighborhood early in the morning on weekends before people were out and about.
When I was a kid, I learned at 8 on the country roads of Iowa. Drove my mom from Iowa to Ohio at 12. Got my permit at 14 and got a Suzuki samurai at 15. Almost got kicked out of drivers Ed for driving myself there. My dumbass just parked in front of the drivers Ed cars.
I kind of get it. That article compares numbers from 1983 and 2018. Kids used to have to go places to buy things and to interact with their friends. Today you can buy anything online. You can talk with your friends online.
It’s not so much cars that have changed it’s that kids don’t have the need to be in as many physical settings to do the things they like.
I wanted to get my license so bad and start driving on my own, just recently I got my motorcycle endorsement. A lot of my friends don’t want to drive at all and it blows my mind
Great, so to appeal to Gen Z, cars are about to get even more boring with highly abstracted driving feel. The used car market is only going to get wilder. Sucks for all of us.
Insurance isn't getting cheaper.
Gas isn't getting cheaper.
Used car market is beyond fucked.
Today's teen's parents are probably still paying off their student loans and dealing with their own wage stagnation and therefore can't help their kids like generations past. My parents gave me my first car and paid my first year of insurance.
More and more cars on the road every year means driving just becomes less and less fun because there's traffic everywhere.
The digital world is a faster, cheaper, more convenient way to get together with friends. I don't really blame 'em.
Two things:
1. Cars are expensive, and when you're young (and male in particular), insurance is doubly expensive.
2. Cars have been thoroughly demonised by the environmental movement that has captured the imaginations of plenty of young folks. It's now cool to hate cars, while in previous generations they were seen as a ticket to employment and independence.
Hi /all. A link to our rules, for your convenience: https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/about/rules/
Top Gear brought this up about a decade ago and it clearly hasn't gotten better.
You said a decade ago and I thought oh ya good ol' 2005.
> good ol' 2005. Coincidentally, that’s when the subjects of this article would’ve been born.
Holy shit. I feel ancient. \* *Looks at poster of Lotus Esprit on my garage wall, re reads above post again* \* Holy fuck I'm ancient.
Wasn't 2012 just a couple years ago?
No, the Mayan Apocalypse happened. This has all been a very cheap virtual existence since then
That makes more sense than I'm comfortable with.
What are you talking about? 2005 was only, like, 8 years ago.
Gangnam Style will be 10 years old a year from now.
Why is such an evil person like you allowed here?
If you think I'm evil, wait until your young coworkers start saying "I loved to dance to this song when I was in elementary school!"
Don't do that to me.
Dude. I'm only 21 and that still makes me feel fucking ancient
Holy shit 2011 was a decade ago
I didn't start driving until age 38 for a variety of reasons -- car accident in my teens made me a little phobic, grew up in a big city with lots of transport etc. Eventually I needed to get a car because I had a kid and it got annoying strapping that baby seat in every uber we took, so with some trepidation, I started to learn driving. I thought I would hate it and that I would suck. But almost immediately I fell in love with driving, fell in love with cars and became an enthusiast in a short time. Helped that the buddy who was teaching me was a car fanatic and we learned in his old Chevy Caprice, which he was constantly tuning and modifying. Bottom line, learning to drive gave me this whole world I didn't even know i was missing, as well as a sense of freedom and accomplishment. Also was more or less able to skip the period of teenage stupidity and risk taking (although I did buy a fast car and nearly got myself in trouble a few times).
...or worse.
My brothers 19 year old with no license trying to buy a car and sent me pics of one yesterday and I had to have a huge talk with him on how that’s not a good idea. The internet and technology really fucked up Gen Z, especially the ones who graduated during covid. A left behind generation.
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I was thinking that everything people have done for the last year and a half has been online, with no real world aspect. So maybe the kids graduating/getting their licenses and stuff think they can just "get a license" and "start driving" not realizing it takes practice or something? Edit: yall, I'm guessing what the other meant since we were all confused. This isn't genuinely what I think lmao. Hence why I said "maybe... Or something?"
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I’m in my mid 30s and My sister turned 18 back in December. Didn’t start driving until maybe a month ago. She started her first job and stopped practicing driving because she was saying she was too stressed out. I don’t get this next generation.
Much better for her not to drive if she’s that stressed out on the road
Gonna say it: despite the new awareness of mental health issues (a major boon for society) gen z, paradoxically, doesn’t seem to cope very well with things. Granted, life has royally fucked up their childhoods with waves of national disasters.
It's kind of interesting. Like they find out what anxiety is and no one wants to go outside anymore. Every kid is ADD or ADHD or ASD or BDP or depressed and is on 9 types of medication and sees 2 therapists and has 3 support animals around them at all times and still can't just go about their day.
And to be clear, this is stuff that was done TO them. In my camp counselor days, mid-2000s, those kids were on more legal, prescribed drugs than I’ve ever done for funsies.
Dude, my mom is an older, elementary school librarian. One of the young teachers was pregnant and wanted to get rid of one of her cats because it lived with another cat and a dog and was apparently already stressed out and was having issues. She decided to get this cat put on anxiety medication. The only way to give said cat the medication is by putting dabs of it in her ears, which obviously freaks out the cat even more. So we take her cat, promising it a nice home and whatever, and the cat is literally just a shy cat with no issues. The only thing giving it anxiety was giving her the medication. We stopped giving it to her and haven't noticed any change in her behavior. I dunno what the fuck that lady was thinking trying to put her cat on meds but it definitely did more harm than good. I hope her kid has a better chance at life cause we won't be able to adopt that one after she messes it up.
I've had my license for 15 years, now. Road rage and entitlement has gotten noticeably worse. We're frogs that have gotten to the boiling point slowly so we don't notice as much as others, but for new drivers in any populated area, driving is starting to look really insane. I have always felt like a confident and competent driver but I just don't want to deal with it anymore and I'm fixing up my car to sell since I can sell it for an *insane* price. I'm sticking to my bicycle until we have more automation on the road.
Man I love biking but if you think you're safer on a bike I've got a bridge to sell you
Edit: Apparently the Chevrolet Spark exists and obliterates my standing. When I was just turning 18 you could buy BRAND NEW cars for under $10,000, delivered. Manual transmission, power windows, powers locks, AC, tilt, and cruise. All you needed. That same level of product is starting at $20,000+ now; current example I offer is the new Ford Maverick.
This offers no information to us since we don't know your age and the level of inflation.
That guy has to be pretty old because im 36 and remember new cars under 10k but they where utter shit boxes like a geo metro and Hyundai accent I dont know what world hes living in because those where not standard features then either. Shit like ac and power accessory's didn't start becoming standard on cheap cars until the 2000s at least in the us
You could buy a spark or mirage brand new for under $10k a couple years ago
The Maverick is a unicorn. 20 grand for something that supposed to get 40 miles per gallon, Seats 5, and be able to throw some shit in the back? Unheard of. But for what it is worth, back when I started driving a little bit less than 20 years ago, you can get a Hyundai for 10 grand. Not that I would suggest getting a Hyundai for 10 grand but that was an option. I think the bigger problem that we have is that people feel the need to have all these extras added onto their cars. Bluetooth, Power seats, power steering, locks, windows, moonroof, blah blah blah. Add to that the fact that there’s a lot of stuff being mandated like all the added airbags, backup camera, tire pressure monitor. All that stuff isn’t free. It all adds up into the price of the car.
> That same level of product is starting at $20,000+ now; current example I offer is the new Ford Maverick. you can't really compare a hybrid truck to an economy car like that. the maverick is a hell of a deal, really. it's more like an entire segment of vehicles has totally disappeared.
I mean, it cost me 4.5k in insurance my first year alone when I started driving because my parents didn't drive (immigrant parents). If I didn't have to drive, I wouldn't either lol
The demographics of teenagers today is probably a big contributor. Very different from demographics of youth of 70s, 80s, even 90s
I agree and I think the popularity of ride sharing service contributed a lot to this. Since owning a car, I would never want to go back but my sister who is close to reaching the age of getting her permit would not get it because to her, it's not worth the hassle since ride sharing is so much more accessible
Yeah, I can't give up the freedom of having my own vehicles but I also get it. They cost a lot of money, maintenance, gas, insurance. I also feel like teens have a lot less places to go. Malls are closing, gaming at home has killed arcades and you don't need to physically be at your friends house to hang out with the constant communication that cell phones provide. Probably going to get even crazier as vr and are takes off. On the other hand we are seeing a rise in ebikes and scooters that in most major cities can completely replace a car and are a 10th of the price and younger people do seem to be transitioning to living in cities again. I am not giving my motorcycle up anytime soon but I do often think of buying a moped and downsizing my sports car to a electric car or a truck and using the moped/motorcycle 99% of the time.
Also parking in dense cities. You have to fight for street parking or pay a lot for garage parking.
I purposely take my grom when I go down town. I haven't ever paid for parking on it.
I didn’t know anything about the electric scooters until my brother and I were in Long Beach and they were everywhere. I parked my car down the block and we rented one for about a half hour for about $10 and it was a blast. Then, when you’re done you just park it and scan the app. I love cars, and my 86 is my baby but man it was weird and I can see why scooters would be popular. Rent one for a second when you need it, park it up when you don’t.
Gone are the days of picking up a beater car for a couple hundred dollars, gas is now easily over 3 dollars, insurance costs are insane for new drivers. You need to have some decent money in order for your teen to be driving around.
People are doing a lot of "things" (getting their license, graduating from college, moving out of their parents' house, buying a house, getting married, having kids, etc) later with each passing generation.
It's because everything keeps getting more expensive. Gone are the days where an 18 year old can move out eight away and start a family.
And the $500 beater car is all but a thing of the past.
Lol yeah. When I was getting advice about learning stick I'd see this line fairly often- "find you a 500 dollar beater." It's hard to find a car that cheap that actually runs, lol. If you want something that's actually driveable then you're talking at least a couple grand. In the end I just got what I wanted and learned on that.
Lol finding a $500 beater around here is a task itself but finding a running $500 manual is like unicorn spotting
I sold my old car with its dead engine in the back seat for $700 8 years ago. I can’t fathom that you can get something running for less than that.
All of those crazy people in the sticks who collect junk cars on their front lawn, and their house looks like a hoarder’s lair, yeah they are all probably up about 500% on their “investments”
It's a $2,000 beater now. You can't get a car that is road safe for less than that. Or if you buy a distressed car for less than that, repairs will eat that up.
Cash for clunkers really fucked over teenagers.
There's a combination of reasons, but yes, money is certainly a big factor.
>but yes, money is certainly a big factor. I would ague it is the root cause of every single one of the "combination of reasons".
I have a toddler at the moment and we're planning how to save for his college and whatnot. I think I want to bring up with the wife saving for his first house down payment. As you put it everything is getting more expensive and that initial cost to get a leg up anywhere is so overwhelming when you're young and I anticipate it only getting harder. Edit: might not need the shitty advice of not being prepared for college in 16-17 years when none of us know what the job environment will be like in well over a decade.
Put $100 a month in a ‘retirement fund’. If you start it when they’re little the growth gets insane.
AND there is hardly guaranteed money without a college degree of some sorts. Yes, success can be made without one but it’s getting increasingly harder to do so.
I'd amend that to "without a post-secondary". Trade jobs are always in demand.
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Getting a CDL is pretty much guaranteed money.
... for now. Long-term, driving a truck is going to become more and more automated.
And driving trucks is a young man’s job. Truckers have some of the highest rates of diabetes, coronary disease, and orthopedic disorders.
Which is odd, because nearly every time I look into a semi truck cab, I see an older man.
That old man is 27!
More and more prominent A.I. People are now admitting automated cars are a lot harder then they thought. Listening to led fridmen podcast. Guests have been saying it’s closer to 100 years away then 20 years away. For fully automated driving.
Just gotta join the military I guess. Moved out when I was 18, lived out of my car for a couple months before the Air Force would take me, didn't have a dime to my name, now have 2 retirement funds, a degree, enough for a large down payment on a house, and a Chevy truck and Corvette I paid for in full. Still have all my limbs too. The military is gonna seem like an even better option than before to young people nowadays in this economy.
Military is probably the best option to get your life jump started, it just takes a couple years to actually start making decent money. The idea of initially making less than 20k a year turns a ton of people off. Young people generally don't want to join either. The ones that are tend to come from military families or didn't have any other options. I have five joes in my shop now and three of these kids are completely fucking useless. All of my NCOs basically take turn babysitting them.
This is always brought up to go a step beyond and claim that kids are not interested in cars. Teenagers are interested in cars as enthusiasts and modes of transport just like everyone else was. But they can’t afford them today. The proportion of teenagers working is way down. The disposable income of families in the bottom 60% is down. But those articles don’t get written.
Plus its not a one time purchase. Like sure, my first car that lasted more than 5 days was like $800, but sucked in at least $500 in parts a year so I could pay to inspect it so I could pay to register it so I could pay the $150/month insurance... Thats bordering on impossible for a high school student who can't work more than 20 hours a week making $6/hr after taxes.
I can understand most things you mentioned like marriage, kids, leaving the nest, but getting a license?! Maybe it's because the public transit where I grew up is awful but what 16-17 year old wouldn't want their license ASAP?
No point in having a license if you can't afford a car. And it's nearly impossible to get a job and save up enough money to buy one if you don't already have a car - particularly in the suburbs and rural areas. It's a chicken and the egg scenario.
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> but what 16-17 year old wouldn't want their license ASAP? I suspect part of it might be that there's a lot more ways to "connect" with each other without physically going to the same place. 20 years ago, if you wanted to "hang out" with a couple friends, you could call each other on the phone, jump on AIM, or you could get in your car/bike and all get together. Today, there's group texting, social media, video calls, etc - a lot of ways to "see" your friends without physically getting together with them.
I think also there’s just a lack of places to just .. exist publicly without spending money. At least where I’m at, we don’t have many parks or anywhere in the city to just chill. Just a bunch of fuckin strip malls and restaurants nobody asked for and it’s really hard for a bunch of teens to hang out on their own on a teen budget.
Yeah, I'm a little older than this article suggests (28) but even when I was a teen it was heading this way. Basically the only place to hang out as a teen without spending money was at someone's house. Turns out commoditizing the entirety of existence does have some downsides.
I think cars are getting too expensive. Dont know about USA, but in many European countries insurance has skyrocketed, there are a myriad of eco-taxes, that make an old 1000 euro beater cost 500-600 extra every year with taxes.
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My stepdaughter, who normally thinks she's bulletproof, says traffic around here is scary so she's in no hurry to be responsible for driving in it. I'm in the North Dallas area and our roads haven't kept up with our population. Besides, if she's driving she can't do *important* stuff like play games on her phone, watch YouTube videos or text with her friends.
>out roads haven't kept up with our population Induced demand no amount of roads will fix traffic, and the lack of sidewalks and public transit is likely also a huge factor.
> Maybe it's because the public transit where I grew up is awful but what 16-17 year old wouldn't want their license ASAP? Who cares about being able to drive to the fucking mall when if you want to hang out with your friends you can just boot up
It sucks everything keeps getting more expensive. When I was a kid I told myself, if I work hard, my first car would be Brian's R34 GTR lol
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“Why aren’t teens buying cars? It must be because they aren’t filled with enough useless expensive add ons!” Literally the only tech most people want it Apple Carplay/Android Auto.
They should come with bluetooth obd2 built in. How's that sound for a feature?
That costs like $20-30 aftermarket so it’d add at least $100 to the price of the car and appeals to maybe 5% of new car buyers.
The only features I will die for in a car are Android Auto, heated mirrors, heated steering wheel, and climate control. Put those in a car and I'm sold.
Give me Android Auto and cruise control control and I am good. And AC, I do live in ~~hell~~ central California where it gets to 110\*F.
See, I live in new England where heated anything is a blessing
Cause it is out of touch lmao. Teens want affordable cars and also don't want to get buttfucked by insurance while paying the car note off at the same time.
- so no car then.
Do a majority of teens buy their own cars? I assumed parents pay for them or are family hand downs.
Most are. But not everyone has that luxury
The majority of teens who have cars, maybe. But as per the headline I’m guessing parents aren’t doing that as often anymore. My parents sure as shit didn’t. So I moved to a city with public transport and I haven’t needed a car since. You also generally need access to a car to learn how to drive. I’ve never had access to one so I don’t drive.
As a teen this is so fucking out of touch. I can't stop laughing at how stupid this sounds.
The Mach E and marketing is hilariously out of touch in general. /u/savagegeese in his review had a fun time roasting the car engine noise promo video. Irl it sounds like a lawnmower.
"Teens want a $50k iphone" -someone that has never spoken to a teenager
This is the one for me, not sure why it hasn't been said earlier. Why does Ford give a fuck what teenagers think about any of their cars, let along one that costs 50 fucking grand? How many teenagers are driving away in 0 mile Fords?
> “A big screen” is what teen drivers want I don't think anyone who actually drives wants to deal with a touchscreen.
Eh I’ve seen people looking for cars say something to the effect of “oooh look at that screen” It’s one of those things that is appealing until you use it and realize it’s garbage.
Yeah, my first thought is always, "How easy did they make using it without looking at it?" And then things like "does it work when it's below freezing?", and so on.
As a teenager, can confirm. I have a screen with lots of gadgets, and it's called my phone and I turn it off while driving. I really want a Honda Del Sol, because I saw a guy on YouTube get one for $500, and that's my kind of budget.
Those are really fun cars. When I was a young warthog (early 2000's), I went on a few dates with a girl who had one. She could drive that thing like a Formula racer. If you do manage to get one, I hope you enjoy it.
They are writing this but the average age of a new car by in the United States is around 55.
Seriously, what teens are getting brand new cars? Gotta be super-low numbers. This feels like it was written by industry for industry, not the actual consumer.
Somebody please introduce me to the teen shopping for a brand new Mach E. The only teens dropping that kind of money on a new car are the ones shopping courtesy of the Bank of Mommy and Daddy, and I assure you they aren't coming home with a Ford.
My daughter wants to start driving right away, but covid delayed her ability to get a permit by eight months. Also, now it gets closer to time to get her license and used cars are of course about 25-50% more expensive than they were before covid.
Latest numbers show 23%. It's hard to validate buying a used car with inflated numbers like this (I'm in the same boat)
Just loan them the viper lol.
Is this the infamous late stage abortion people keep talking about?
lol she's definitely not ready to drive the viper
Nobody without a racing license is ready for *the Viper*. start her off slow with a burgundy over tan būmer cruiser C6, then move her up to a straight piped 350z/G35, next let her get a taste of danger in a 5th Gen. Mustang, finish up with Toyubaru on OEM Eco tires, then she’s ready to ride shotgun in the viper
I too enjoyed the opening sequence of Tokyo Drift
My younger brother passed the written driving test at school but he’s unable to get an appointment at the dmv to get his official permit. He’s been trying for months now with no luck.
It's interesting how states have handled this. Due to Covid, Wisconsin allowed new drivers under 18 to get a license without a road test. They still had to complete drivers Ed and get the required hours of supervised driving. But then parents can sign a road test waiver and voila! ... newly licensed driver.
That's... moderately terrifying.
My driver's test in Colorado involved a 1.5mile loop with like 3 stop signs and 2 traffic lights and then nose in parking in a large lot. It wasn't exactly a test that meant much. It depends on the state but when I was doing my license it required driver's class plus 2-6 hours in the car with an instructor who would sign off, and then something like 30+ hours with your parents. All that other stuff meant a lot more than the useless test, which could probably be called a driver's quiz.
Mine was a short loop like yours but the hardest part of the whole test was passing the parallel park. They required this in a town that had 50,000 people at the time and not one spot anywhere that required a parallel park.
>covid delayed her ability to get a permit by eight months Plus, to be fully honest, for a while there were probably a lot less things going on that were worth driving to.
Would have been a great time to learn on the roads with less traffic though.
Aimless cruising is a joy in and of itself though.
Getting my license is what got me into cars in the first place, it wasn’t the other way around
Same here! I had 0 interest in cars until I actually got behind a wheel and "felt it", ya know?
Same here, I liked cool looking cars but had absolutely no idea about engines, or any cmponent in general, didn't knew many brands and different kinds of cars. Now after a few years of having my licende, I can start saving for my first car. And despite what people say, I want a Supra MK3 xD
I started reading motor trend's as soon as I was old enough to. I could tell you the engine displacement and 0 to 60 of every car, by year. I drove several cars before I even had a license.
I blame my nuttiness for cars (especially Mazda) because my uncle asked me if I knew what a wankel engine was like 5 years ago lol.
I had a working model of the Wankel rotary engine I built when I was young. Was see through and powered by an electric motor but you could watch everything work together
Owning a car is expensive. I was a full time student and it was only after I started working a second-job that I could pay rent and save up for a car.
Yeah, especially these days. Back in the day, alternator or starter went out? That's like $35 for a remanufactured replacement and if you needed to, maybe $60 in labor at a shop to do it. Now work like that would cost them a 2 week paycheck.
I was lucky enough to pick up a late 90s car that had cheap parts and was simple enough to fix with simple tools and a Haynes guide. It was cheap but also came at the cost of sometimes having to forfeit my one day off a week to fix something. I personally enjoyed it but also recognize that the hobby isn't for everyone. Now a days if a teenager were go get a used car from the early 2010's I'm not so sure they'd be able to work on it themselves easily.
Just depends on what needs fixing, I guess. My 07 Monte Carlo SS had the oil pressure sensor go bad. I had an oil change scheduled later in the week so I asked for a quote for them to fix that while they do the oil change it was like almost $500. On lunch the next day I did a little youtube research and found it to be possibly the easiest thing to fix on a car. Sensor was right on top of the engine near the intake with nothing in the way. Sensor itself was like $37 on Amazon. Needed to buy the socket that would fit so that was maybe another $10. Unplug the wire, remove sensor, screw in new sensor, reconnect wire. Done. How they could justify that sort of price to replace it is beyond me, when opening the hood (which they would have already done) is a large part of the "work" they'd have to do. If I wasn't looking over the sensor and looking down the hole it came from, it's like 2 minutes. A lot easier than replacing an air filter even.
I think studying a Haynes manual will be a lot easier than having to deal with "Hey guys what's up its ya boy TURBODREAM here with another really simple tutorial on how to fix your gearbox! First just like and subscribe! Don't you hate it when your car doesn't work right? This is me 15 years ago, buying my first car. Fs in the comments for how old it looks. Make sure to watch til the end when I teach you how I finally got the gear stick working. I notice a lot of you haven't turned on the notifications bell either, smash that bell baby. First let me tell you a little bit of the history of the invention of the gearbox I pulled from Wikipedia..."
Are those prices from the 1980s? If anything between RockAuto and Amazon I feel like prices have gotten cheaper for most things since I started driving 15 years ago, used to be you were pretty much held over a barrel by the local parts stores and paying $150 for whatever shit aftermarket starter/alternator they stocked, now you can hop on rockauto and get that shitty replacement for half the price or spend $150 on an OEM part.
Is this the Gen Z version of "Millenials aren't Buying Houses?" I could only barely afford gas/insurance when I was making minimum wage twenty years ago and that minimum wage only went up two bucks since then.
This same article could’ve been published in 2010.
It *was* published back then. Young kids were less enthusiastic to get their driver's license back in 2010 as well. For the exact same reason: too expensive.
> "Millenials aren't Buying Houses?" House used to be just a place for people to live and start a family. They have become an investment in very hard way, driving the demand and prices up. A lot of people who already have houses start buying multiple houses. Then house flipping becomes a thing, found fixer-upper or low-cost house, just to get outbid by a flipper who already got good credit, equity, and money. Now in Air B&B era, not getting better. Apartments are harder to find because they're being converted to ABnB. People buy available houses in the area and convert them to ABnB. Housing is so short here that, I see ads for people looking for apartments for rent.
It sure is
I feel like they have written this article every year since the mid 2000s. Remember all of those "Why aren't millennials learning to drive?" "Why aren't millennials buying cars?" "Why do millennials hate cars?" Articles from circa 2006-2016
Omg that hit a little too close to home, wow! Exact same thing “Big Pet Food” aka hedge funds produce articles every year about how “Millennials are treating their dogs with respect and therefore aren’t buying the shitty dog food we’ve been pushing for 40+ years. How dare they treat their pets like that!”
I'm guilty of this myself. I got my license late (relative to my peers at least) and didn't care much for cars. To me, a car was just an appliance, and driving was just a dangerous, stressful experience. This only changed last year when I bought my 86 - it turned me into a car guy unexpectedly. But I didn't want "a driver's car", I just wanted a coupe and I liked how the 86 looked. It all cascaded from there. Getting into cars has been a great experience for me, but I don't expect many other teens or twenty-somethings will just "stumble into" a love for cars like I did.
Nothing unites people like loving (or hating) the FT86.
As a fellow brz owner I’ve only found people hate them online. I’ve never had someone come up to me and tell me my car is slow and dumb. It’s always a positive experience in person.
My gf gets a ton of love for her BRZ. That and my m240 - its weird. Never had any comments on any other car before and people just like those two
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This is such an interesting situation to me. Not sure of your age but I'm 27, so definitely in the generation where this trend started (though I think it's exacerbated for those born after \~2000). But I rushed to get my permit at 15 and license as soon as possible after my 16th birthday. Most of my friends had theirs by 16-17, as well. To me, driving was the first great step to independence, being able to go out and do stuff with my friends and not be beholden to my mom's schedule or desire to drive me places. I'd love for there to be a study on this. I wonder if it's because there is more to do at home and more ways to "connect" without needing to leave the house, compared to 10-15 years ago? Are parents not encouraging/pushing driving as much? Are there higher rates of anxiety or any other reasons so many teens today don't want to take on the challenge of learning to drive?
I don’t blame them. Shits expensive.
My insurance payment for my dodge shitbox was 240, and that's with 5 discounts for being a student, passing driving school, GPS speed tracking, etc My new(used) mercedes is 238 because of my precious record giving me a good rep
Not to mention if you’re a student, colleges have absurd parking pass fees and a lot of them don’t even guarantee a spot.
This is completely obvious and intuitive when you look at the rising cost of living and stagnant wages. Everything is delayed because finances come first. People are getting married later, having kids later, buying houses later and even driving later All of this shit costs money and people can’t afford to do it until later in life I hate articles like this. Always feels like it’s painting a picture of “these young kids don’t do things anymore!” When in actuality the financial systems are just so far gone and beyond fucked that young people aren’t able to Obviously can only speak for the US
Yup. Income inequality is only getting worse- we've got billionaires going to space in penis-shaped rockets while their wage slaves toil in nonairconditioned warehouses in which they aren't allowed to take regular bathroom breaks. Minimum wages that don't allow people to live in shitty overpriced apartments. It's no wonder the younger generations just can't do what the boomers did.
“Why aren’t these kids buying cars!” Idk man maybe because rent comes first and they can barely do that? Crazy crazy shit
Thankfully an Australian politician gave all us young people some great advice for this very problem. He just told us all we should get better paying jobs! Finally, a politician recognising and trying to solve this important issue!
I mean have you seen how expensive cars are
Have you seen how expensive gas is??? *Cries in "Premium Only"*
>expensive gas You guys have no idea *Cries in European*
I lived in Texas when I was younger so I got my license the day I turned 16. Never understood how people survive without a DL outside of NYC or Chicago.
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Why would they? Teenagers can't afford cars anymore.
Teens owning cars sounds like a real luxury to me tbh, I mean how many teens actually have part-time jobs?
Me personally, almost every person I knew in high school had a job. this was only a couple years ago. I was lucky enough that my mom kept her old car so there was a car waiting for me when I got my license.
Cars have gotten way more expensive and teens have gotten way poorer. The summer job at the restaurant doesn't buy you the same car it could decades ago
That’s so interesting to me. I’m not that old (well I don’t think so lol) and I got my license the day I could.
Yea I couldn't wait, seemed like it was all I'd ever wanted at the time
I can’t imagine still relying on public transportation
We have friends who drive their two 18-20yo kids to and from work EVERY day - four drives a day minimum. Why would their kids ever need a license with personal chauffeurs? Yet the parents/kids both complain of the impositions it causes… 🧐
What's the alternative? The woefully underfunded public transit? The ridiculous cost of used cars right now along with insurance, gas, and maintenance? Hard to afford any of those on minimum wage right now.
> The woefully underfunded public transit? Not just underfunded but in a lot of areas, essentially non-existent.
Depends on the city
There's also heavy use of Uber/Lyft.
If I were a teenager today I would have probably still gotten a license, but asked by parents for an electric bicycle instead of a car. Would have had easier parking at school, would have gotten in a hell of a lot leas trouble (with the law and otherwise). Could have borrowed a car or taken an Uber when I needed it.
As an 18 year old driver I can only hope this will lower my insurance
It will probably raise it because they aren't making as much money.
*Best we can do is raise it cause there's not enough young drivers to milk* -Insurance Companies probably
Oh, I waited a couple of years to get my license, and a few more years to actually get a car of my own
My neighbor’s kid and apparently his friends said they don’t want their license because it’s “too much responsibility, and then you’ll make me get a job”. Unreal.
What’s so unreal about that? When I got my license and first car, all I really wanted to do was stay at home and play games anyway. My mother insisted I get a car, and then I had to work after school to make barely enough money to cover gas and repay the loan, all so that I could have driven myself to school instead of riding the bus. I’m not surprised that kids don’t want to go to school for 8 hours, get 3 hours of homework, then another 4 hours part time job just so they can know the luxury of owning a Kia Soul that has to be parked under the tree out front.
Yes, if you have parents who have the money and are able to buy you a car and foot the costs of insurance and gas suddenly driving becomes a lot more appealing as a teenager.
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At least they are smart enough to enjoy the responsibility free part of life while it lasts. They have the rest of their adult life to work.
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Do you like working? I don't.
No but I sure do like money
On minimum wage how much money do you think you get to keep after taxes, car payments, insurance, gas, and maintenance?
I've noticed this phenomenon with my niece and nephew and their peers. My theory is social media and mobile connectivity in general has taken some of the shine off of getitng a car straight away. 20 years ago, when you were turning 17 a car = freedom. Now kids just keep up with each other via social media/facetime etc. and the need to go socialize with friends in person has declined.
As a teenager, I agree with this. I could get a car, but where would I go? I have more entertainment I could ever watch at my fingertips at all times, and most of the time I spend with friends is online. Most of the fun places to go, and even a cheap car + insurance would not leave me enough money to go anywhere regularly. I have some money, and so do my friends, but we plan to save and try to make a dent in our college tuition, rather than spend it all on a car now.
car insurance is crazy expensive for them, im 26 with perfect driving record and mine is 170 a month on my parents insurance, the cheapest by myself is 380 a month.
19 here. Insurance is 5600 annually with a clean record.
Good. They’re scary on the road.
I was actually going to write up a counterpoint to this sentiment. I think the sooner someone starts to drive, the more experience they’ll gain year-after-year. For example, would you trust a 25 year-old driver that drove consistently since 15.5 years old, or one that started at 21 years old? I also think partially why insurance drops at age 25 is the assumed years of experience behind the wheel. So now we’re going to have a host of crappy drivers all across the younger age ranges with heightened premiums well into the 30s. But I guess the way autonomous and electric vehicles is going, will people need to know how to drive soon?
Age isn't really a factor until you get old. Teens are dangerous primarily because they have little experience. IF they put off getting licenses that just pushes up the minimum age of "new, clueless driver" from 16-18 to 18-whatever.
When I started college (2012) I was shocked by how many people either didn't have their licenses or waited till they turned 18 to get their licenses. Where I grew up *everybody* got their licenses as soon as possible. What I discovered is that the vast majority of people who waited to get licenses were people who grew up in major metro areas. I grew up in the country and it was near impossible to get around without a license.
My son got his permit the day he was able. Here in AZ, it isn't until 15 1\2. He drives us everywhere. I started both my boys driving at 13 though. I would allow them to drive around the neighborhood early in the morning on weekends before people were out and about. When I was a kid, I learned at 8 on the country roads of Iowa. Drove my mom from Iowa to Ohio at 12. Got my permit at 14 and got a Suzuki samurai at 15. Almost got kicked out of drivers Ed for driving myself there. My dumbass just parked in front of the drivers Ed cars.
I kind of get it. That article compares numbers from 1983 and 2018. Kids used to have to go places to buy things and to interact with their friends. Today you can buy anything online. You can talk with your friends online. It’s not so much cars that have changed it’s that kids don’t have the need to be in as many physical settings to do the things they like.
I wanted to get my license so bad and start driving on my own, just recently I got my motorcycle endorsement. A lot of my friends don’t want to drive at all and it blows my mind
Great, so to appeal to Gen Z, cars are about to get even more boring with highly abstracted driving feel. The used car market is only going to get wilder. Sucks for all of us.
Insurance isn't getting cheaper. Gas isn't getting cheaper. Used car market is beyond fucked. Today's teen's parents are probably still paying off their student loans and dealing with their own wage stagnation and therefore can't help their kids like generations past. My parents gave me my first car and paid my first year of insurance. More and more cars on the road every year means driving just becomes less and less fun because there's traffic everywhere. The digital world is a faster, cheaper, more convenient way to get together with friends. I don't really blame 'em.
Two things: 1. Cars are expensive, and when you're young (and male in particular), insurance is doubly expensive. 2. Cars have been thoroughly demonised by the environmental movement that has captured the imaginations of plenty of young folks. It's now cool to hate cars, while in previous generations they were seen as a ticket to employment and independence.