[Steve_Seattle]

I’ve read somewhere that (youth) car culture is dying because modern cars are computerized and you can’t tinker with them as easily as forty or fifty years ago. Plus, back in the day, popular culture was “pro-car” and fiddling with cars was seen as cool. Now, cars are stigmatized s an environmental threat, masculinity is demonized, and boys are playing video games and experimenting with their gender.

[dainbramaged]

fiddling with cars was seen as cool
It still is, but the young people I met last Sunday prefer the older vehicles which are still shadetree mechanic friendly.
The Mason County Forest Festival car show had over 400 exhibitors, and is run by the Shelton high school junior ROTC as a fund raiser. Great kids.
The sad part is their school (among many others) does not offer auto shop, which is understandable considering the automobiles of today. A mechanic these days needs to attend a trade school for a career in that field.

[kearnyirish2]

I think the main reason young people no longer know these skills is because none of them work with them - nobody will hire them when so many foreign scabs are available. Peers in the trades all complain about it, and have seen incomes fall.