Young Americans don't seem to care about owning a car

[jeffrey]

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...

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/why-dont-young-americans-buy-cars/255001/

[NetSkyBlue]

Is this perhaps because of an influx to larger cities with reliable public transportation? Where I am in the midwest, it is almost unheard of to get past 16 or 17 without a car of your own. Public transportation is almost nonexistent, towns are small and spread out, and it's almost impossible to work or participate in extracurricular activities without a means of transportation.

[snshijuptr]

I live in California, notorious for bad public transportation, and I hate my car. I can't wait for my lease to end in a month and to be rid of it. I live on a college campus, and we have ZipCar, a car sharing program. I'm just going to sign up for that. I would much rather have good public transportation and use the train than own a car.

[kork13]

Is this perhaps because of an influx to larger cities with reliable public transportation? Where I am in the midwest, it is almost unheard of to get past 16 or 17 without a car of your own. Public transportation is almost nonexistent, towns are small and spread out, and it's almost impossible to work or participate in extracurricular activities without a means of transportation.

I've got a number of friends who exemplify this... One in particular, she didn't even have a driver's license until her junior year in college! We were in Colorado, so poor public transit there. She grew up in New Jersey, where apparently the public transit runs at least fairly reliably. She always said she took city busses to school every day, and the bus/train/subway around town or to surrounding cities.

Personally, though, I enjoy the freedom of having my own car, and beyond that, owning said car.

[kv968]

I've got a number of friends who exemplify this... One in particular, she didn't even have a driver's license until her junior year in college! We were in Colorado, so poor public transit there. She grew up in New Jersey, where apparently the public transit runs at least fairly reliably. She always said she took city busses to school every day, and the bus/train/subway around town or to surrounding cities.

Personally, though, I enjoy the freedom of having my own car, and beyond that, owning said car.

It's not totally impossible to get around in a decent amount of NJ on public transportation but you need to live near a bigger city for it to anywhere near convenient. And of course there are still areas where no public transportation exists at all.

[Bishop12]

Well, with the economy not being very kind, it's not a stretch that kids wouldn't opt for a car.

[bjl584]

When I turned 16 I couldn't wait to get a car. I would be able to get out of the house, go visit friends, get a job, and start making some money. It was a sense of independance and freedom for me.

Of course, that was 1994, and the internet wasn't commonplace, no one had cell phones, Facebook didn't exist, videogames were primative, no texting, no I-pods, no downloads, no instant messaging. It was the tail end of the era of going outside to play, visiting people face to face, and cruising around the town with friends on 99 cent a gallon gasoline. Today, it seems a lot easier for kids to hide in their rooms and live a digital life.