You make a great point. Four or so years ago when I was in high school, the kids who loved their cars were the ones whose parents were paying for them.

 

The truth is kids haven't changed, although the gov't has. Now those old clunkers we used to buy, for cheap, aren't legal to put on the road. Used cars cost way more of the kid's income by percentage these days. But there are other reasons. Kids can't just get a license and pile into a car with a couple of friends and go cruising. That's now illegal. They have graduated licenses and can only ride with family members at first, and that's AFTER they've already jumped through extra driving lessons with parents to even get the license.
Bottom line: car accidents are way down for kids (50% in my State) but it's also because 25% of the kids don't get their license because it's become such a hassle. That's years of driving experience they don't get. These numbers reflect the unintended consequences of do-gooders making more laws punishing kids.

 

When I was in high school (class of 09) maybe like 1 or 2 students actually had cars. And it was their parents cars. I ALWAYS wanted a car but we were a pretty broke family so my family couldn't buy me one lol. I worked for like 3 or 4 months straight at a minimum wage grocery bagging job to afford my v6 camaro lol.

But even before then I always relied on public transportation or walked. I never asked for rides or anything.

It's not that I didn't WANT a car It just wasn't an option until I got it myself

 

I had one of my 12 year old nieces friends lecture me about all the damage I was doing to the environment with my loud gas hog I was like parents drive a Prius huh and she replied why of course we are doing are part to make this world a better place

 

Hahaha I hate people like that, I just ask them if they wanna ride in my 66 nova 350, they get so pissed. Hehe

 

 

What... her brainwashers forgot to tell her about the toxic batteries and the pollution they cause both pre and post use??

 

Next time I'll do that

 

Coming from someone who is 20 years young, I don't really see it, at least in the areas I live. I could see it in more metropolitan areas, but not really in many small towns and suburbs.

 

Coming from a 21 year old i actually see an increase in interest especially in the mustang and even asian imports. With the increase in performance figures off the showroom floor alot of guys around my age (17-30) are snatching up cars left and right when they can. The local saturday car meets are increasing in population each week. Heck theres even lambos, ferarris, and an underground racing tuned Audi r8 v10!

 

Where the hell do you live? Lol
There might be an increase in some areas but I believe in general across the states most teens aren't driving as much as teens did years ago. When I was in school 6 years ago I didnt know one person without their license. I started part time at a theater here in town and already met 2 that dont have a license or even permit and they were telling about more people they know without them. It was surprising to me

 

Good ol corpus christi texas! A new rolss royce and a couple bentlys showed up last week. And a couple turbo vettes and a twin turbo 5.0! I think iit was a 2011. They raced two 2013 shelbyʻs too and it was a super close one. Of course i didnt film cuz we domt condome street racing

 

17-30 covers 10 years of people who aren't teens.

How many of those people are still in high school? I'll bet not more than a couple. Back when I was in high school you were a bona fied loser if you didn't have your own car, and when I turned 16 I was one of the most popular kids in school because I had a FAST car when most were still trying to save up for their first beater.

Friday nights you would often find 200-300 cars hanging out in the high school parking lot. The vast majority were 5+ year old sedans or pickups, but there were some very nice new cars as well as some very nice hot rods and muscle cars. These days you go by the same school and the only student cars you see are nicer than the ones the teachers drive. Only the kids fortunate enough to have parents buy them a car have them.


And I think it's entirely economics. When I was a teen you could work at a fast food place part time and make enough money to buy a decent car in a few months. These days even 5+ year old entry level shoe boxes cost more than a year's wages for a student working part time.

 

I'm 16 and I for one have a passion for cars and trucks. Since I've turned 16 back in May, I've had 4 different vehicles. The first one being a turbo diesel F250 4x4 lifted, next was the same thing but a bit nicer, third was an F350 Luxury model, my most recent is a 2008 Mustang GT Premium that I got for Christmas..

 

I love driving... I'm a youngin.

 

So a lot of these reasons make sense. Cost, age req, teens these days being hipster tree huggers.

But I still don't get it. I turned 16 13 yrs ago. Gas was on the rise toward $3/gal. Ins was insanely expensive. Cars weren't any cheaper than they are today (let's face it, you can still find junkers).

And as far as the social and gaming thing, my friends and I played massive amounts of video games (still do). We all had cell phones. And other than the facebooks of today, nothing was any different. We all had cars first thing when we could. Still today we all play games and still have cars.

That being said there is less "activity" these days. People had their rice burners all over the roads. You could go out and get into a street race in the blink of an eye. Those times have stopped probably due to the harsh laws these days.

 

I think your memory isn't very good.

13 years ago the cost of gasoline was barely over $1 per gallon. I remember a time where I was putting gas in my wife's 98 Honda Accord and paying LESS than $1 per gallon.

The average price of a new car in 2000 was just $18,577. The average price of a new car today is $31,252.


And no, the vast majority of those junkers are no longer on the road thanks to the "Cash for Clunkers" government program in 2009. Nearly 700,000 older cars were pulled off the roads and destroyed under that program. That not only removed the most common car class bought by teens, it also caused the price of the remaining cars to increase due to the law of supply and demand.




Thanks for proving my point. Teens these days can only be "into cars" if mommy and daddy are buying the cars for them. They can't afford one on their own, and are limited to what mommy and daddy are willing to buy them.

 

I know right! Must be nice getting gifts like that all the time!

 

In most circumstances, I completely agree with you, however, there are some that don't fit into that statement. Also, don't forget to factor in unwillingness to work in many kids today, and in some areas, lack of job availability.

 

Did you see that statistic I just posted?


The AVERAGE price of a new car today is $31,252.


Even at 5 years old that's still a $20,000+ car. And that's not a special car, it's not a luxury car, that is an AVERAGE car. Now, an average teenager working 25 hours per week at a minimum wage fast food job will make a little over $7k per year after taxes. If they started working at 16 and didn't spend a dime of their earnings they would be able to buy that 5 year old average car by the time they are 19.