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One thing to note about the drop in teen driver's licenses- it's a lot harder and more expensive to get a driver's license now in many locations than it was back in the day.
When I was in high school, you took driver's ed as a summer school class, got a hand me down Delta 88 from Uncle Stosh on your 16th birthday, and you 'paid' for it through either an after school job or by agreeing to drive five other kids in the neighborhood to school.
The schools cut driver's ed and other non-core summer school classes years back, and at the same time many states have gone to graduated driver's licenses so a kid is no longer really allowed to drive a carload of under-18 friends or neighbors anywhere any more and is restricted in the hours they can drive. (It does apparently cut down on teen accident rates as long as they stay off their darn phones.) The kids are competing for McJobs with adults who can be scheduled 24/7 and don't have to work around class schedules and sports practices, and it's easier for the manager to pick the over-18 adult who can work the daily lunch shift in October and legally use a meat slicer. Other kids are encouraged to load up on extracurriculars to make the college application look good at the expense of the part time job. So you've got parents trying to save up for tuition payments, kids who don't make enough to buy their own car from Uncle Stosh, and a sit down meeting about whether it's worth it to pay the car insurance increase for a teen driver or just promise to get them driving lessons as a college graduation present instead.
Probably fairer to look at percentage of 23-25 year olds who have driver's license to account for those people who are interested in driving and having a car but have perfectly reasonable reasons for delaying that until after college.
Wages adjusted for inflation pay considerably less than in the 1980's... thus less disposable income to just blow on toys.. that's the main reason. Are millennials more practical? Considering I see them all sporting iphones and paying $150/month phone bills and eating out all the time, I'd say no.. they still know how to waste money. My kids aren't getting iphone 6 s pluses.. they'll learn to like the nexus 6 equivalent for a third the price or go without.
Me, I'm just a minimalist, and practical. I don't need 400 HP and loud, obnoxious exhausts to get my jollies.. for me refinement is driving excitement. A 280 HP V6 is plenty.. nice, quiet interior.. smooth ride. Practical, good bang for the buck.
Extra vehicles with more horsepower that I can just get ticketed by the police for using? To each their own. Just money pits on my eyes.
With a little luck and foresight... car ownership does not have to be a blackhole...
I was always buying sub $1000 cars, driving them and then trading when something better came along...
Never sold a car for less... now my cars are so old they are actually appreciating.
My boss bought a brand new Ford GT in 2005... enjoyed it for 7 years and sold if for 50k profit... from a new car off the dealer showroom.
No cell phones or cable bills in this house... I detest recurring costs that are like vampire sucking dollars each month.
At age 16 over Christmas break me and a couple of high school friends piled into my 71 Mustang convertible for a road trip from Oakland to Vancouver Canada... we were all 16 and drove through Northern California, Oregon, Washington and into Canada... no chance of that happening again!
I will say, during my time in HS and even into my early 20's, I didn't know a whole lot people in my age group that were into cars. I mean look at what we were exposed to?? Most of the 80's and 90's cars are horrendously ugly and all looked very bland for the most part. IT was all import cars like Civic Hatchbacks Toyo Supra's, 3 Series BMW's, Subaru WRX's and Mitsubishi Eclipses during my time.
I guarantee you if all the teachers rolled up in some beautiful 50's and 60's rolling art pieces, muscle cars and hot rods, maybe the interest in classics among a lot of young kids back then would have been much higher. Usually when someone isn't exposed to something, they have very little interest for it but all it takes is to see something that catches your eye and the rest is history.
Sometimes it is just "In you" being a car enthusiast and wanting to learn how to fix and work on cars. I believe some people are born with the interest already inside them especially if there parents or grandparents were heavily into cars. But unfortunately what I notice even with people currently my age as a Millennial, it's not necessarily the fact that a lot of us don't have the money to buy a classic car, because some of us older Millennials do, but the fact remains that many of them don't know how to work on old cars, and really don't care to learn. Some don't even know how to change a tire or replace a fuse for crying out loud!
I see kids as young as 8-10 years old staring at my 64 Cadillac sometimes while I am filling up for gas or at the mall parking lot and completing it when their own parents fail to even notice the car. So if little kids are enamoured by my 64 Caddy and think it's cool, what does that tell you?
Automotive styling greatness permanently died in the 80's and 90's except for a few makes and models. Once the bubbly and egg shape modern Aero design took ahold in those decades, cars were never as attractive as cars that came before them and this goes for a lot of brands. I stand by this fact firmly on why the majority of young people today aren't really into cars anymore.
The excitement, the flamboyancy, the lavishly cool chrome and wonderfully attractive interiors and the variety of colors one had to choose from, high horsepower and big block engines, low slung bodies, and styling that was distinct from each brand all ended by the late 60's into the early 70's. So it's been a very long time since the last of the great American cars were built.
I will always favor the classics and prefer to drive them over anything new. Sure I would gladly take a Cadillac CT6 as a daily driver, but does it look better than a 60's one? Hell no, is it as cool? Nope. Will ever be? NOOooo...WAY...not even close.
This is the most sought after classic car by the millennial generation.
It will be considered a Classic car in a few more years since many of them are made in 1989-91 and will be available without DOT restriction.
Unlike other classic cars, this one has won multiple international racing champs.
Problem in places like California the restrictions start at year model 1976 and go forward... I have a BMW 2002 and Triumph Spitfire... both are always a problem with smog so I went non-op
Problem in places like California the restrictions start at year model 1976 and go forward... I have a BMW 2002 and Triumph Spitfire... both are always a problem with smog so I went non-op
There's a bill under review that would move the year to 1981.
There's a bill under review that would move the year to 1981.
I sure hope so. It is irritating having my '76 limousine go through a smog check every 2 years when it is only driven about 500 miles/year.
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Just money pits on my eyes.
