Interest in cars with the younger generation, what happened?

WillSports3 said:
At my work, a lot of the younger people don't show up on time, they don't want to work hard and they just want to sit around doing nothing. I'm their supervisor and I'm not that much older than them. When I was younger, the military straightened me out but now a lot of the kids I see.. they want the Lambo but they want someone to hand it to them.
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I worked in a warehouse, night shift 30 years ago. Guys wouldn't show up on time, called in sick, hid in the back and went to sleep etc. That's nothing new. Lazy is just that, lazy. My daughter works while attending college, my friends son is a senior in high school and he's bagging groceries.

It's all about the parents and how you raise your kids and the values that you instill in them. As the saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

As for what RippyD said about inflation, sorry but that's debatable. I was making $10.05 per hour in 1988 in a warehouse. 29 years later my daughter is making $10.15 per hour now at the grocery store deli, that really doesn't keep up with inflation. Wages for labor type jobs have not kept up with cost of living increases over the past 20-30 years. The minimum wage is a prime example of that.
 
I asked Rippy the question because he has a pulse and I figured he could chime in. I mean, everyone sees and hears things right

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Klasse Act said:
I asked Rippy the question because he has a pulse and I figured he could chime in. I mean, everyone sees and hears things right

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Did he attend Friday nights rave? Probably not. lol.
 
custmsprty said:
It's all about the parents and how you raise your kids and the values that you instill in them.
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This is true.
Times don't matter all that much, it's the way people raise their kids that matters. In my immediate case, my brother got spoiled in many ways, while I seemed to get the shaft or more like the unlucky timing of lifes situation... Oh well, it made me who I am.
 
custmsprty said:
It's all about the parents and how you raise your kids and the values that you instill in them. As the saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
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Nailed it.

My oldest works her tail off doing post-grad medical school and working part time in her career field. The youngest is in all honors classes, so all her time is spent doing homework. She doesn't have a job, but the work ethic is seen in her academics.

Wow...this started at car culture sidetracked into music, and here we are at parenting!
 
Wow long thread for just staring in 11/2017. 9 pages thus far...

I'm not expert, and all this is just opinion based upon what I've read and seen in the Auto news and auto blogs, and some personal experience with my nieces and nephews. The Millennial's have focused more on moving closer to urban cities and ditching the car.

Short and to the point, if you live in metro area, I think most Millennial's are willing to pay for a monthly transit pass, and use UBER. Cost of car ownership isn't like it was back in the day. Their focus is on technology and social innovation.
 
Yeah, not sure how parenting got in here unless someone didn't pass down the passion.

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Happy to answer, but will admit I don't really know. As I mentioned earlier, my kids and their friends all seem to want to talk about exotics. My kids ask why we don't drive one. My wife drives a very nice Boxster (2014 S). Not exotic, but nice enough. They're not that interested. "Why not a Lotus or a Lambo?" is what she hears over and over. It seems to all be about status, not practicality.

I have a car my 17 yo can use when he gets his license (Sentra). We told him we'll match him dollar-for-dollar when he buys his first car, up to $6K. So far he has saved $0. And all he's interested in is an Audi TTs or a BMW. Tried to show him how maintenance and insurance look - no interest in hearing it.

I'm a step dad for ~8 years, so I didn't have them in the formative years. But I try to role model frugality. I drive a 2006 car. I carried a $60 phone for years - just recently upgraded to a $200 phone. I've never purchased a new car. (My wife has, but I won't do it.) I've never had a car loan. I worked my way through college with no help. These are the values I'm trying to instill in them. (And will help our kids with college).

custmsprty, you're likely younger than I am but it sounds like you were making good money. I was making $5.00 per hour in the 1984 doing part time work and felt like I was well compensated for what I did. $100 in 1985 is $233 now, so my $5.00 would be $11.50 now. So it seems pretty close. Of course skills and regional variation are huge. Downtown Seattle vs. rural Iowa you'll see a big pay differential for the same jobs.

The market dictates what people get paid - that's the bottom line. Short story: until recently I sat on the board of a not-for-profit business (co-op, not a non-profit). About 150 employees, mostly 20-somethings, decided they need to join a union to get higher salaries - the co-op now has a $120K salary shortfall and as a result will have to reduce staff. There's no free money in business - it has to come from somewhere. Most adults under 30 (and some over) don't seem to get this.

(Yikes! That was quite the rant.)
 
Well said Rippy

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KirkH said:
My 22 year old has a 2008 Infinity G37 on my policy for $150/month. Same price as my 2016 Camaro.
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My daughter's 2009 Altima was the same price as her 2016. :cry:

Florida has some of the highest rates from what I understand. Do me a favor and drop me a pm with your auto insurance provider.
 
All excellent points. For me I'm closer to the age gap. I was born in 1990, so I saw how a lot of kids around me were like once we got into the work force. It's true, a lot of millennials move into urban areas where they take public transit. Then there's a lot of millenials who always say "Oh I would love to drive one of those Lambos" But they never try to work hard to move up and instead just sit around and smoke dope and see where they're gonna get drunk friday night. I can only speak for what I see, and what I see is a lot of kids my age who aren't willing to work hard, period. They're more interested in whats on Instagram and snapchat, and all the other stuff. Me, I can't stand taking transit and I've always loved cars. For me, I grew up in a low income neighbourhood, and a car for me meant freedom. Buying a car meant being able to go where I wanted to without being restricted to the buses schedule. I live in the biggest city in Canada and I think I see proportionately, a lot more lazy people my age. They don't understand what real work is, I hear excuses from employees all the time. There's guys older than me, well they don't want the hassle of moving up. Well fine, then stay at your 13 dollar an hour job, I'll go ahead and move up to be able to afford more. My girlfriend is younger than I am by three years and she works for a major bank here supporting the financial departments transaction programming as well as making sure VISA software maintenance stay working. However I don't see a lot of people my age with that much ambition or drive anymore, they just kinda hope to get a job that pays something and then they can blow it all going out and what not.

Sorry, I just get tired of seeing the attitude here amongst people my age and then they wonder why they aren't taken seriously..
 
Klasse Act said:
Glad to hear this and money helps for sure.

Now what level of enthusiast would you say the younger guys are? Do they like older cars nd know about them? How do they carry themselves at the shows?

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For the most part, they carry themselves well. Know some about older cars, and really are pretty nice and well mannered. Well except for the mustang kids ��. There are a few groups of a******** but the worst are usually the mid 30's to mid 40's guys that try to act 20
 
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I have not read through the entire thread, (first day back in the office since leaving for SEMA in Las Vegas), but my thoughts from thinking about this topic for the last month or so is that all the cool cars have been priced out of their budget.

By cool cars I mean SIVs.


The economy has not been good for the last decade or so and this too is a huge factor.



:)
 
So Mike, and others, do you think the economy plays into decent used "fun" cars as well, the new cars are all very expensive without a doubt. Even my car stickered for $27K and there's NO way its worth that much money and I didn't pay that either, also was a demo to boot. I bring up "fun" used car and I'm talking about cars from the late 90's through the 2000's that get into the hobby for about $2-3K. A car like a Contour SVT or Focus SVT can be had, in one piece and not rusting, down south and out west for that kinda of money. I mean I know they'll have miles on them and need some work but this gets you into "cars" for not a lot of money. Not only that, you get a unique car that will actually get a lot of attention at cars and coffee type shows and not use a lot of fuel either, something to think about.

Not sure if this thread inspires some younger person to get into the hobby, a hobby they thought they were priced out of but its worth a shot, just don't like seeing a hobby go down the drain because no one has directed them to think outside of the box :props:
 
The economy is great for the upper class. The kids that live in the gated country club community all drive nice Audis. But NONE of the kids in my neighborhood have their own car. My kids were lucky and got grandparents hand me down cars.


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Like Mike Phillips, I didn't read the whole thread, but...eh, never mind, nobody cares what I think, anyway. I'm just going to sit in my porch chair and yell "get off my lawn!"
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Like Mike Phillips, I didn't read the whole thread, but...eh, never mind, nobody cares what I think, anyway. I'm just going to sit in my porch chair and yell "get off my lawn!"
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:laughing::laughing::laughing: :applause:
 
All comments welcome, I mean we've got comments all over the place and all points are welcome

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Klasse Act said:
All comments welcome, I mean we've got comments all over the place and all points are welcome
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You don't want to hear my rust-belt rant. Well, ok.

Certainly part of it, as mentioned, is the trend that started a long time ago, which is part of a bigger trend maybe from couples having kids later in life, is that new drivers are getting newer cars and not hand-me-downs or $200 fix-em-ups.

But I think another big part of it is the de-industrialization of the country that we have seen in the last 40 years. As there is less manufacturing, less vocational education, there is less exposure to making things and fixing things, less parents, siblings, relatives, friends who work with their hands, and therefore less knowledge, less interest, less ability to learn (first hand) about mechanical things, fixing things, etc.

The internet in a lot of ways has reversed the trend, making it easy to find out things if you are interested, but in some ways it was too little, too late, we kind of lost a generation or two in terms of having any interest to pass down or around to other people. When lawyers make "work product" and there is such a thing as a "financial industry"...products that are made of paper and industries that produce nothing but pushing other people's money around and charging fees for it, and when even high value items like appliances, and to some extent airbag laden cars that get totaled from minor accidents have become essentially "disposable"...it shouldn't be a surprise that there is little interest in machines like cars.

But, as Dennis Miller used to say, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
You don't want to hear my rust-belt rant. Well, ok.

Certainly part of it, as mentioned, is the trend that started a long time ago, which is part of a bigger trend maybe from couples having kids later in life, is that new drivers are getting newer cars and not hand-me-downs or $200 fix-em-ups.

But I think another big part of it is the de-industrialization of the country that we have seen in the last 40 years. As there is less manufacturing, less vocational education, there is less exposure to making things and fixing things, less parents, siblings, relatives, friends who work with their hands, and therefore less knowledge, less interest, less ability to learn (first hand) about mechanical things, fixing things, etc.

The internet in a lot of ways has reversed the trend, making it easy to find out things if you are interested, but in some ways it was too little, too late, we kind of lost a generation or two in terms of having any interest to pass down or around to other people. When lawyers make "work product" and there is such a thing as a "financial industry"...products that are made of paper and industries that produce nothing but pushing other people's money around and charging fees for it, and when even high value items like appliances, and to some extent airbag laden cars that get totaled from minor accidents have become essentially "disposable"...it shouldn't be a surprise that there is little interest in machines like cars.

But, as Dennis Miller used to say, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
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Incredible.

Is there a way to agree with a post more than 100%?

You said a mouthful, there.
 
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