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 ...
Oh that another free thing the DEMS can give them. We need a new cheap people’s car. /sarcasm
obama has not given them the money yet, probably. A big majority of them back in 2008 wanted to be a part of history and “put a Black man in as President”.They did. He is there. And through the results of his policies, they have no opportunity to work and earn money for said car. Me, I was sixteen years old when I eatned the money for my mother to purchase my first cat. Back then the insurance was so high for young drivers, our parents purchased our cars in their name and carried us as occasional drivers on their insurance. We paid the difference in insurance costs.
I doubt it.
I would prefer to think the drivers license is a formality they are ignoring.
Not Bob, but I'd guess about 8%
7%
Speaking of Mustangs...here is one that can get me excited http://www.aeclassiccars.com/OnlineCars/Mustang/67FastbackREPROBLUE/67FastbackREPROBLUE/album/index.html
There's the answer, folks.
Many kids are leaving college these days with the equivalent of a home mortgage payment, and very little job prospects due to the "new normal" unemployment rate. How can they then afford to buy a home? How can they afford a new car with no job? I'm not saying that they have no responsibilty for their situation, just that we can't copy the European model and not expect the same results.
Young adult Europeans live with their parents, because of economic conditions that Obama is replicating for us here. Multiple generations live in the same home.
Obama wants a European model for the USA, and he's getting it. If we continue down this path, our country we'll graduate from being like Italy to being like Greece, and the American dream will finally be dead for future generations.
Thanks - I wondered what that would be in today’s dollars but was too lazy to figure it out. At any rate, doubtful if we could buy a house and car like we had at $136,000 today. Just a new Mustang would take up a chunk of it.
Cars like that are usually bought and insured by the parents so they don’t count as a “young buyer”.
I worked after HS and saved $1700.00 for a 74 Camaro...My first....Lots of fun and speeding tic’s to boot(:
The last good car my mom had was a leased Volvo when was I was about 10. Since then it’s all been American and all of them have been pieces of shite that she’s wasted money fixing and on rental cars when they wouldn’t run.
If I could afford a car I sure wouldn’t get an American one. Sorry US Autoworkers but Europe and Japan seem to do a better job. Also they don’t subsidize the Michigan Democratic Party.
I’m guessing money is reason most people who don’t have cars don’t have them. Give some kid a million bucks and the first thing he’d probably buy is a sports car.
My old truck could do 80, downhill with a tailwind! But you could sleep in it, because we had a cover on the back.
My father doesn’t have much memory left, but the last time I saw him, he still remembered how we drove hundreds of miles around west Texas, looking for the ONE Japanese alternator between San Antonio and El Paso. Good times ...
Yes it was back then....And my father drove my Camaro more then I did(:
A used Car also gets you from point A to point B but for thousands of dollars less.
It's not rocket surgery you automakers you...
There you go! Sh*tboxes that were/are always in the shop.
“If I could afford a car I sure wouldn’t get an American one. Sorry US Autoworkers but Europe and Japan seem to do a better job. Also they don’t subsidize the Michigan Democratic Party.”
Big “AMEN” to that!!!
“I’m guessing money is reason most people who don’t have cars don’t have them.”
No jobs = no money = no car.
Camaros got to be crummy in the 80s. One of my college roomates had one.
My dad was a Navy pilot. He loved sports cars. The BMW, his last car before he couldn’t drive any more, had an incredible engine. We were driving down the east side of Kansas one day, and I discovered I was going 120. It didn’t feel or sound any different from 55.
Well it was a 74 LT....Same here.....drove fast and you didn’t know....Oh and it had a big feathery roach clip attached to the mirror(:
I saw some of those in college. It had to be explained to me ... Never cared to smoke anything, myself.
Well I have no regrets, it was fun back then....Fast cars, cute guys, VH blasting and Reagan was president(:
My first election was the second Reagan campaign, 1984. George H.W. Bush - Vice President Bush, as was - came to our campus to campaign. The College Republicans got to shake his hand. “Oooooh! Nice to meet you, Mr. Vice President! Wow, we want you to be reelected!”
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