are young people interested in cars?

[TVC]

With so many going to Uni from middle class areas, is it such a priority. Years ago it may be, but I passed my test at 17 but I didn't own a car until I was 25. Being at University I didn't have the funds or need, and it was only when I changed jobs and couldn't commute by bus that I finally gave in and got one.

I don't know the costs of hiring cars for under 23s these days, but I found in my youth that it was cost effective to hire a small car for the times I really needed one - weekends away etc, as opposed to owning one.

 

[Holdsworth]

I am 19 and passed my test last year but I have so far never owned a car, mainly due to the insurance premiums on even old bangers. The quotes seem to be coming in around he £2,500-3000 mark although I did once get quoted £3800 from a 1.0l K Reg Citroen AX!!!

TBH I never had any desire to take lessons as they weren't really necessary for me but my dad paid for all of them plus the test fees and now I have a licence for life, even though if I got in a car now I'd probably not have a clue

I suppose it is useful to have a licence just in case, but I can't see me getting anything any time soon as the cost is too prohibitive and not worth it for the amount of miles I do where a car would be required. When I turn 21 I can hire a car for short periods if I wish which will come in handy for going away and moving stuff about but until then it is the bike all the way, and scrounging lifts from friends and family.

 

[david1701]

guys looking for first cars start looking at more expensive/newer cars. Insurance premiums are based on the probability of an accident applied to the likely cost of that accident.

So if you think about the cost of crashing an ax into next doors merc. You have legal fees, 'neck injury' compensation, the money spent fixing the car ect then the shitty 1k run around is the smallest part.

Then consider the relative likelyhood of a 21 year old crashing a battered rustbucket vs something worth a few grand or even better something spanking new (see bran new cars on finance) Especially as newer cars have better brakes ect. (also dude coming up 80mtb on something new and shiny

I may have done a lot of research over the last few days............

 

[vernon]

Two of my three offspring have shown no interest in taking up paid for driving lessons. They are perfectly happy using public transport and ligging lifts of pals with the occasional use of the parental taxi service.

 

[Jezston]

I was offered driving lessons when I turned 17. I got the form for a provisional license and got confused by all the HGV stuff.

I saw friends getting their licenses and being turned into unhappy tee-total taxi services.

Then I moved to Canterbury, 10 minutes walk to the town centre.

Then I moved to Leeds, 5 minute bus or £2.50 taxi to the town centre, and if you owned a car it would get nicked.

Then I moved back to London, in Wapping, 10 mins in the tube to the city, 15 to the west end. Congestion charge if you drove out the end of the road.

Then I moved to Nottingham, 5 minutes walk to the town centre, 30 mins bus or 20 mins carshare to work.

I turned 27 shortly before I moved to Nottingham and asked my mum if the offer for driving lessons still stood. They didn't!

Also the Renault 5, Vauxhall Astra and Saab somethingorother that had passed through my mother and sisters hands through those years and that were offered to me were long gone.

Then, a couple of years ago, I got into cycling again.

Maybe I'll get a car when I have kids some day!

Still, 32 now and single so I've got my freedom yet

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Car use in UK cities is in decline, and young people do not aspire to car ownership.

I don't know about that - both my brother and sister driver EVERYWHERE, as do my parents, despite the fact that there is perfectly good public transport in the area

Oh yes, they buy all the energy saving lightbulbs et al and think of themselves as 'green', but really, the reality is too depressing for me to tell them.

'Oh, I AM green, this is a low emission car'

WRONG!!

You are an idiot.

Services are often unreliable and infrequent and take an age as they wind their way down every side road and byway. A regular 10/15 minute journey I make by car takes 1.5 hours by bus.

Here is the ironic thing, when my folks DO use public transport, they hate trains and go everywhere by bus, even though buses are the most evil things ever devised and take about 3 times as long just to get to their destination to boot!

Trains are, and I quote

'Smelly'

Ironic, eh??

Seriously, do petrol fumes addle your mind or something?, because as far as I can tell, the only two smelly things are CARS and BUSES!!

All they're all pretty ecologically savvy too so quite willing to do without a car to 'off-set' the air travel.

More evidence for my Petrol fume theory:

My parents were going on holiday earlier this year, and were all worried about their 'Carbon Footprint' left when they flew.

....Despite the fact they drive EVERYWHERE

Seriously, you couldn't make it up!

 

[XmisterIS]

Of course kids are still interested in cars!

One need only take a walk round the Campus car park where I am at Uni.

There are plenty of young male students in pimped saxos with DIY sound systems that make the car shake ...

There is one 15-year-old VW Polo (a right old knacker) with 18" alloys, lowered suspension to the point where the tyres almost rub on the wheel arches, blue strip lights (DIY job, so they're wonky, a hand-stenciled (i.e. very badly) "DG" symbol on the bonnet and a bucket exhaust that makes it sound like a lawnmower, because its engine is so small. I think the kid who owns it thinks it's incredibly cool - the time I saw him actually driving it, he was wearing shades, window wound down, super-serious expression on his face, and he turned the volume on the music up and slowed down as he went past a group of girls ... I could have been cruel and started doing some big-fish-little-fish-cardboard-box beside his car just to embarrass him, but I was in a hurry!

 

[al78]

I have been using my car less and less over the years, and have decided that if I get through another winter with minimal car use I will sell it before the VED is due. With the saving on VED, insurance, MOT and servicing it will have the same effect as a moderate pay rise . The only possible stumbling block is that recently I have been having prolonged tiredness again just when I thought I had got over it which, when it gets bad, makes cycling the 19 mile round trip to work quite unpleasant. Annoying really as this year I have only been driving to work once every 2-4 weeks on average.

 

[brokenflipflop]

Here's a simple analogy..
Mid to late 1970s, my insurance cost roughly 1 weeks wages for a banger.

If the average 18 year old is now being charged IRO £2000, working for £5 an hour, that equates to 10 weeks wages. 10 times the cost of 1975

Even if it were £1000 for the year, its still 5 times the cost.

I've got two daughters in their early 20's and they're not interested and I was prepared to sort it all out.

Like you say. My first car was a bangor and 3rd party F&T was about £65 for the year. In addition we didn't have mobiles, laptops, i-phones and designer clothes etc.

That's the trouble, kids now want it all like yesterday. I know some of my daughters friends wont have a car at all unless it's a souped up, nearly new thing that's a head turner. They are just self-obsessed posers and as shallow as owt.

I've got a 20 year old apprentice (girl !!) who wants everything now. She actually says "it's not fair you've got a new car and your always buying sh1t off Wiggle and you've got a house......." I say "hang on love, I've been working for 27 years and I had nowt for the first 20 years"

KIDS !!

 

[srw]

My first car was a bangor

And your second was a cardiff?