Interest in cars with the younger generation, what happened?

[Setec Astronomy]

Follow the money, LOL!

I'm trying to figure out how the little guys bailing out the banks factors in to why the younger generation isn't into cars like we all were when their age but it's cool

I think it's a reflection of how the values of the country have changed over time, in many ways. How many car factory employees who lived through the wage changes after 2008 told their sons not to follow in their footsteps? I remember reading in the 90's how the Japanese, who were still killing it back then, had a factory labor shortage, because the children of the workers in the Honda, Toyota, etc. plants, didn't want to be factory workers like their parents.

[Paul A.]

To pick up on ronin's post way back on page 1 here, I think today's youth, along with our entire society, is peppered with info overload supplying a ripe environment for ADD. You can't watch a sports telecast without a scroller running along the bottom of the screen or another broadcast with a talking head in the middle of the screen surrounded by data blocks of info all around it. That's not neccessarily a bad thing but it makes the eyes and the brain jump around to process it all.

And its not just tv shows but throughout our new daily lives and it fosters a mind that can't keep a focused attention on any one thing for long. I have maybe 50 apps on my phone and I bounce around about 8 of them daily. And that's on a device that's in my pocket 18 hours a day!

When I was a kid I had cars, school, family stuff, chicks, beers with the boyz and sports. That was about it. Cars were a culture along with the other 4-5 things. Nowadays cars are immersed in a hundred other daily things in a kids life. And all rapidly change from minute to minute.

And the phone was in the house on a wall with a cord...

[Klasse Act]

Paul, the last part is

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Desertnate]

When I was a kid I had cars, school, family stuff, chicks, beers with the boyz and sports. That was about it. Cars were a culture along with the other 4-5 things. Nowadays cars are immersed in a hundred other daily things in a kids life. And all rapidly change from minute to minute.

And the phone was in the house on a wall with a cord...

I don't know if life for many youth today is that much different than what you describe when you grew up (my life was very similar). I've got two daughters in the rough demographic we're discussing. Both of them occupied their lives with friends, family, school, and sports. The only difference is the way the interact and the length of time involved. Each was only in one sporting activity, but it ran year-round and took up a good chunk of their spare time. I did three sports that took up less of my life than the one sport they participate. Interactions with friends are often ad-hoc and via electronic means, whereas we would have to take our bikes/cars to a friends house or beg our parents for a little time on the phone mounted to the wall.

The hobbies and interests have shifted from things of a more concrete nature like cars, hunting/fishing, etc to a more virtual world. We hung out at malls, they hang out on social media. We went to the movies, they watch Netflix. We'd go to a park and play pick up games of football or beach volleyball, they fire up an XBox and join an online game. We used to discuss the V-8 in the latest Mustang or the 4WS on new Honda Prelude, they discuss the IT infrastructure of their favorite multi-player gaming environment, or tech-specs on the latest on the hottest devices.

I view it simply a shift which must be understood in order to find opportunities to pass along my interests to a younger generation in hopes it will stick. The young gear-heads are out there. They are a smaller group and I'd say they are smarter and more passionate. Conversations I've had with guys in their late teen's - early 20's show an incredibly deep understanding and way more background than I posses. Heck, I spent 20 minutes one day debating the merits of the Mk6 vs Mk7 GTI with three high school kids one Saturday!

If you're up for it, stroll over to Jalopnik some day if you don't already. The entire editorial staff of that blog is under 35, and I'd bet most of the thousands of commenters are as well. There is some naivete in their writing and comments, but there is no doubt the culture lives on...just different.

[BudgetPlan1]

I saw a figure that said we could've paid off every US citizens mortgage with the bank bailout money. Instead they were convinced to give it to the banks, because the banks said they'd loan it out to people. They didn't . They bought stuff and gave bonuses with it.

And no one held them accountable.

Unfortunately, whoever came up with that fable musta skipped math class. Bank bailout was around $700 Billion, mortgage debt at the time was around $10 Trillion.

Not condoning bank bailout by any means but re-directing to private mortgage payoffs might have been even more irritating to me personally. Signed first mortgage at 9% in 1991, paid off by 2003, did this by being fiscally responsible and watching every penny. Shoveling money to idiots who thought they could afford 6000 sq ft McMansions, 2 jet skis, a Cadillac Escalade and an Audi on $50K a year would have been a tragic case of enabling stupidity.

While there was, in fact, definite cases of predatory lending going on, the majority were likely just folks whose reach exceeded their grasp...and somewhere deep down they must realized the impracticality of it and yet signed on the line anyway. Don't do the crime if ya can't do the time.

Now if there were some kinda Federal program to provide me some financial relief after all the Black Friday/Holiday sales at Autogeek, Autopia and others, I'd will willing to listen and get behind that program.

[RippyD]

Good discussion. Going to skip the stuff veering toward politics since I likely won't add anything new it will likely end up being divisive. My take on car cost is that I don't see cars as being more expensive now than they were 20 or 30 years ago.

In the year I bought a 2012 Sentra with 60K miles and in great shape for $6.5K. That's about $3K in 1988 dollars. In 1988 I paid right around $3K for a 1983 Mazda 626 with 90K miles on it. It was good car that I drove to over 250K miles with no major repairs. I'm hoping to do the same with the Sentra. I could have bought a less nice but reliable car for as little as $3K. Reliable commuter cars between $2-3K are out there.

I get that people want to believe emotionally that cars and insurance are more expensive now. That data doesn't show that. I could be wrong, and an happy to learn how and why I'm not getting it. If anything cars seem to be less expensive now than they were when most of us were in our late teens and early 20s.

[FUNX650]

My take on car cost is that I don't see cars
as being more expensive now than they
were 20 or 30 years ago.

I get that people want to believe emotionally
that cars and insurance are more expensive
now. That data doesn't show that. I could be
wrong, and an happy to learn how and why
I'm not getting it. If anything cars seem to be
less expensive now than they were when most
of us were in our late teens and early 20s.

Top of the line, total cost ~$5500...
(1967 dollars):




Top of the line, starting at >$120,000...
(2018 dollars):





Bob

[Klasse Act]

I did a quick Google search of 1967 dollars and 2017 dollars and its shocking....how shocking you may ask! Well the car Bob posted, the upcoming ZR1 @ $120K and the "loaded" 1967 Corvette with the tri-power option at almost $5600 would put it @$41K. Without looking it up, when did the Corvette last cost $41K in top spec I wonder?

Now I will say that the L-88 was THE top spec Corvette in 1967 but was VERY limited production and not really a street car, so this is probably why Bob chose the car he did, for comparison sakes. Now I know this, if a loaded Corvette, even a Z51, would cost $41K you'd see a lot more people driving them around and I mean people that can get in and out of them easy, just sayin'.

Im putting on my flame suit as I type this but if I'm spending $120K, I'll take this, a lightly modded pro-touring Mid-Year coupe:



........or this thing with its picnic table rear wing and yeah, I'm sure it works or it wouldn't be there but hey, that's just my .02 cents worth, or .75 cents worth, gotta factor in inflation, LOL!

[RippyD]

Apples and oranges. You could argue that luxury and sports car cost have gone up relative to inflation. I won't debate that. What we're talking about is young adults being able to afford cars. This likely means the low end of the car new car spectrum.

My parents bought a new 1967 VW bug for about $1800. As an adult I asked why they bought it and was told it was the cheapest car they could find. (Maybe, maybe not.) But I think we'll all agree that in 1967 that was a budget car. That's the same as $14,000 now.

Last year I looked at budget cars. I could have gotten a Chevy Spark out the door for $12K and change. which is the equivalent of $1600 in 1967. A stripped down Kia Soul (stick) was $13.5K out the door. And it has a 100K mile warranty. Relative to the 60s, this a is a much better value.

I'm still not seeing that budge cars are more expensive now than they have been historically. If anything they seem less expensive.

[yakky]

Budget cars are dirt cheap because SUV owners are paying for them. They are made to meet (offset) fuel efficiency numbers.