Teens not interested in driving or owning cars

[Rick]

How did you ever run a tractor at 13 without 10 different kinds of radar on the tractor giving you warnings when something was too close??

BTW, a good friend of mine and his wife are in SD working on a ranch for the summer. The ranch belongs to one of their relatives. They go up there to beat the AZ heat!

 

[FIND]

Hah, they've got the right idea. One of my old professors goes down to Arizona for the summers for research with a university down there. Has been doing it for about a decade now. I kept telling him he had it backwards, winters should be in AZ and summers in SD.

What part of the state is the ranch in?

By the way, the only tractor I got to drive at 13 was a '54 Farmall. First time I got in a tractor with hydrostatic drive, GPS and all that computer stuff, I was lost for half a day trying to study the manual.

 

[LONO100]

I think it's a great thing to see that todays youth are finding out that cars are not necessity in life. Mass transit is awesome, I've never been happier during my work week taking the train to work instead of sitting in traffic sucking fumes. The auto and oil industries has had all of us by the balls for so long making us think we need their products to live, I think that if more of us say no to the cost of fuel, the car itself, insurance, parking, repairs and all of that that comes with owning a vehicle it will give all of these industries incentive to make a better, more reliable and cheaper product to bring people back. I'm a Gen Y kid, and when I hear that more and more people are NOT owning cars what I hear is less traffic, less pollution, more room on the road for my truck, cheaper prices for everything car related, better insurance services, and cheaper fuel costs. I take public transit, but I still own a truck and a jeep for my weekend adventures, and on not burning all kinds of money away in driving them to work everyday. I think its a win-win.

 

[BigRondo]

By the way, the only tractor I got to drive at 13 was a '54 Farmall. First time I got in a tractor with hydrostatic drive, GPS and all that computer stuff, I was lost for half a day trying to study the manual.

My boss has a couple of old Farmall's for his farm:

 

[Dano!]

I think its just harder for teenagers and "young adults" to go about getting / insuring / maintaining / and affording gas than it used to be. And do it by themselves.

I bought my daughter a 91 Navajo for 1k almost two years ago.
I registered and insured it but did not add her to the policy because i couldn't afford it.
I would have to put 200+ dollars of gas in the tank for her to get to school and go with her basketball team wherever they were playing.

Now my daughter is a few years older and works at McDonald's and works at the school cafeteria. She saved up money and i took a 4k loan out so she could buy a more fuel efficient newer vehicle. Mind you, i wouldn't let her buy a 2 door car because teens should be placed in bigger / heavier vehicles with airbags so they can survive a crash. So it had to be at least a 4 door sedan.

She couldn't afford the loan so she pays me the monthly payment. My daughter needed me to be the co signer on the insurance, so i had to get her full coverage to cover my own back so i don't get sued because of insufficient insurance, which was a thousand dollars per six months.

So in the end she technically owes me $250 dollars a month. Its hard for her because her schedule is so packed with basketball and practice. If she had to do it on her own she would need to make at least 3000-4000 dollars a year just to cover the gas / maintenance. insurance and the car loan.
In my opinion its harder for a young independent adult to get a vehicle and do it right. u

 

[2TimingTom]

I only know one person that doesn't have a car. But he lives in SF and is close to work and shops and good public transit.

The area I live in is your typical suburbia. You need a car. The grocery store is 1.5 miles away- but it's fairly flat between here and there. There's a state park between my house and where I work so I have to go around it one way or the other- 12 miles each way. And I work at a secured facility at the end of a state highway. Buses don't go there. I could ride a bike, but it snows occasionally here. And gets cold.

But the city is expanding its light rail trains. These are pretty popular and probably actually make money- unlike the buses that are almost always completely empty in this area. If I work in a direction that light rail serviced, I would utilize it. I'd still own a car (or 3) but I wouldn't drive them as much.

I'm also big time in favor of fuel efficient commuter cars. My VUE isn't super efficient but it gets 27 mpg, can carry 4 adults comfortably, can haul 2x4s home from the lumber yard, and has a trailer hitch and roof rack for added utility. Driving my Explorer daily just doesn't make any sense. It does all the things the VUE does but gets a little better than half the mileage while doing it.

I don't really know anyone with kids in this age bracket. But I have a nephew that's just a couple years away, so I'll see how it goes with him. The day I turned 16, it was the longest day of school ever. I couldn't wait to go take my test THAT day.

 

[OffTrac]

As a Gen Y now at 27, I found a way to restore a '69 Cougar, put gas in it, and insure it through high school. I was also an all A student, played football in the fall and baseball the other seven months of the year. I have worked since I was 14 and by choice. I wanted a cool car and that's what it required.

I didn't want my parents to buy me an F150 as they offered and all the other guys in my school had. I would have only been responsible for gas in that scenario. I guess I've never really been the most practical with vehicles but I have specific tastes.

I'm obviously a different kind of Gen Yer though because I can remember filling up at $0.58/gal. I always preferred being outdoors to video games or tinkering with cars instead of the latest tech.

 

[FIND]

I can't recall any time in the last 30 years when gas was $0.58 a gallon. It dipped below a buck in the late 90s and mid-late 80s, but $0.80 is the lowest I can recall for at least the previous 30 years.

 

[OffTrac]

It was regularly .58-.68 in Georgia from '00-'03, my driving years in high school. I used to fill up the Cougar and drive to the Alabama border and back or cruise the country roads. It was more in the .78-.88 range my senior year and I was getting upset.

I did use the campus and city buses, or walked more than drove while in college. That just isn't available everywhere or even feasible.

 

[JMan689]

I'll be honest, I've been finding myself not going out recently for not wanting to drive, sometimes it is just a hassle especially with how many terrible drivers are out there. I constantly think about selling everything I own automotive related and just buying something small with good gas mileage like a Fiesta, then I take the Lightning out and I realize I'm an idiot.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

It was regularly .58-.68 in Georgia from '00-'03, my driving years in high school. I used to fill up the Cougar and drive to the Alabama border and back or cruise the country roads. It was more in the .78-.88 range my senior year and I was getting upset.

I did use the campus and city buses, or walked more than drove while in college. That just isn't available everywhere or even feasible.

In the Kansas City area in '00-03 it was around 1.35-1.45

 

[OffTrac]

Those were the prices at the QwikTrip and Racetrac stations across from each other. BP and Shell were always .20-.30 higher.

 

[2TimingTom]

We sold our '99 Mountaineer 5.0L AWD in May of 2004 because gas was about $1.87. And it had some issues and we were only using it to drive my wife and I around on pavement.

$1.87?!?!? The horror!

But that was nearly 10 years ago and we are now in a much better place financially.

 

[LONO100]

I remember being 16 in the late 90s and buying gas for .99 a gallon. In fact I found an old faded receipt from those days I wanted to scan and post. That was California prices too! Out here we invented the saying "I got 5 on it", and it didn't just pertain to weed, it meant you had five dollars for petro if you wanted a ride somewhere far from a friend.

I think the more ways we can all find to get around in our daily lives, the cheaper things will eventually get like the price of cars, insurance, and hopefully fuel. I used to spend 500 a month to almost 600 a month on gas and bridge tolls driving to work. Now I spend 272 on a monthly train pass which is subsidized by my company so I'm actually only paying half that, and then I ride my bicycle the 4 miles from my house to the station and from the station to my work. Saves me a ton in fuel, toll, insurance and upkeep costs. I had a conversation with the CEO of Nokia last week and he was talking about natural resources. He was making an interesting point about sustaining resources by bringing public utility strategies used in larger cities and branching them out into rural and suburban areas like rail and light rail lines, and changing the way we distribute electricity. It made a lot of sense. I'm sure in more rural areas its not possible to give up your wheels, but if there is any way you can find to limit using your car or truck for anything but weekend fun I say do it. I've never been happier with my commutes since I cut the car/truck out of the equation. I think a lot of young people are making a smart move by doing the same.

 

[FLOffroad]

The only problem I see with the solution of cars, insurance and fuel hopefully getting cheaper, is that it's based upon a significant drop in demand (ergo supply rises, then prices drop, cars become more accessible, popularity rises again, presumably).
Apart from the problematic assumptions there, for US demand to reach the levels it would need for those assumptions to occur, most Americans would have to use public transport for most of their travel.
This could be viable, but the US population is too spread out and too many local governments could care less about public transport. For comparisons, US population density is more like Eastern Europe than Germany or France. Light rail, etc. works in those places because virtually everyone lives close by, in Eastern Europe, cars are way more necessary because people are more spread out.

In my mind, the most dangerous thing about this whole teens not interested in driving bit, is that manufacturers might continue to chase the younger market and all new vehicles will just be terrible because manufacturers just make overly mpg-conscious, droll vehicles with tons of tech stuffed into them.

 

[Maniak]

Another thing to think about, which isn't just about younger generation, is the people who don't drive at all because they live in the city..

The issue I have with that is I want to be the master of my own destiny. I don't want to have to bum a ride from someone or not be able to get to work becuase the trains aren't running or there is a bus driver strike.

Now even for the people that live where its just not cost effective to own a vehicle because of the cost of parking it (no place to park) and insurance but they should at least know how to drive and drive once in a while. Otherwise, in addition to be at the mercy of public transportation your life is limited. You want to go somewhere your going to need to hire someone and again, your stuck at the mercy of someone else. Not all places have good/safe public transic and/or taxi systems.

~Mark

 

[Rick]

Ahh the joy of riding public transportation...

^ Strong language ^

 

[FLOffroad]

Yeah, and sitting next to crazed drunkards is always fun too.

I'm so happy I don't live in an urban area.

 

[LONO100]

To each his own I grew up in the inner city and now I live in the burbs. I ride the train every day, and I have ridden the bay area rail (Bart) the ny, dc and Chicago subway and metros and I love it. Its not as they make it seem on tv. Its pretty much people from all walks of life either going to work or go to school. Its a great cross section of what this country is made of.

 

[OffTrac]

The only public transportation in Atlanta is MARTA and it is just awful, rail or bus. They're working on turning some abandoned commercial rail lines into a perimeter light rail surrounded by mixed income housing. The social engineering of mixed income housing has not worked as well as some hoped...at least not yet.

It has to be understood that the people that work in Atlanta don't live in Atlanta. My dad works with people that drive from Alabama and Tennessee. Atlanta is the next Detroit, I'm afraid.