If Obama had a son, and if his son bought a car, it would be a Kia Soul.
Posted on 03/27/2012 7:47:55 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Kids these days. They don't get married. They don't buy homes. And, much to the dismay of the world's auto makers, they apparently don't feel a deep and abiding urge to own a car.
This week, the New York Times pulled back the curtain on General Motors' recent, slightly bewildered efforts to connect with the Millennials -- that giant generational cohort born in the 1980s and 1990s whose growing consumer power is reshaping the way corporate America markets its wares. Unfortunately for car companies, today's teens and twenty-somethings don't seem all that interested in buying a set of wheels. They're not even particularly keen on driving.
The Times notes that less than half of potential drivers age 19 or younger had a license in 2008, down from nearly two-thirds in 1998. The fraction of 20-to-24-year-olds with a license has also dropped. And according to CNW research, adults between the ages of 21 and 34 buy just 27 percent of all new vehicles sold in America, a far cry from the peak of 38 percent in 1985.
At a major conference last year, Toyota USA President Jim Lentz offered up a fairly doleful summary of the industry's challenge.
"We have to face the growing reality that today young people don't seem to be as interested in cars as previous generations," Lentz said. "Many young people care more about buying the latest smart phone or gaming console than getting their driver's license." The billion-dollar question for automakers is whether this shift is truly permanent, the result of a baked-in attitude shift among Millennials that will last well into adulthood, or the product of an economy that's been particularly brutal on the young.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Most of the cars offered today are particularly uninteresting, and those that are seem to be priced far beyond the reach of the average young car buyer.
Most of the cars offered today are particularly uninteresting, and those that are seem to be priced far beyond the reach of the average young car buyer.
And go were? No jobs, no money. Thank you Obama.
Some of them are hoping Obama will give them one!
True, but since the value of a car is lower than the sticker price... it makes more sense for most people to buy a used car.
Buy American.
Unemployed mostly vote Democrat.
Just because you can ruin a factory which employs unions by sending your business to a Korean factory which employs no Americans, doesn’t take away the now-unemployed American former factory workers’ votes.
Buy American.
When I was a freshman in high school I couldn’t wait to get a car.
The Seniors from well-off families had GTOs, 427 Corvettes, Boss 302s, Hemi-Cudas, Z/28s, etc. Gas was 37 cents per gallon with 100 octane Hi-Test available for a few cents more.
Kids these days are happy schlumping around in trenchcoats, gang tats and face metal staring at their 4G Chicom whatevers.
I’m glad to have lived at the apex of America. It won’t be pretty from here on out.
If Obama had a son, and if his son bought a car, it would be a Kia Soul.
One of my cousins is still driving my dad’s 1982 RX-7, “The Silver Bullet.” He sold it to my uncle when he got the red BMW (from the factory, when my brother was stationed in Germany), and one of the daughters fell in love with it. My brother’s ex-wife ended up with the red BMW, and Dad is still mad about it if he sees a picture ... otherwise it’s lost to Alzheimer’s.
A lot of memories in our old cars ... driving across the desert in a Buick, listening to the Watergate Hearings on the radio ... from Texas to Rhode Island in the ‘72 240Z, with a pissed-off Siamese cat ... looking for a Japanese alternator in West Texas, “Don’t y’all have a ‘Merican car?”
They don’t make cheap VW beetles any more.
More than likely a kids first car is going to be a hand-me-down.
The cost of the average car, not even anything special, has gotten way out of control.
You people on this thread just do not get it. As the article stated, half of them don’t even want a driver’s license. And I will tell ya why...
The scumbags in our government have put too many restrictions on driver’s licenses for kids under 21. It’s not even worth it anymore for them to get one until they are at least 18 years old. There are so many bullshit laws nowdays and an average teen is scared to get behind a wheel.
Plus, all the affordable used cars are scrounged up by the mexicans and exported to mexico.
"Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe."
15-passenger vans off fleet usage, 30K+ miles at a year old, are reasonably priced if you can find them. We had to replace ours in 2009, and I'm still mad every time I write a check. The 2000 Chevy was paid off!
No need to drive with online porn. Girls are delivered directly to your screen.
My Japanese branded cars are made in America, by Americans in non-union plants located in Right to Work (Red) states. That's good enough for me.
I came close to buying a Ford the last time out, but I will not support the UAW. I understand that some or even many of the “rank and file” folks aren't leftists, but the dickwads they vote in to lead their union are.
“No job, no money, no car buying.”
Also, unless you can afford a luxury car, most cars made today are duds. You can’t tell a Chevy from a Toyota.
Might have something to do with cars all costing 20K - 30K any more....
These survived C4C...the mpg is too good...
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