Is car ownership dying out among the younger generations?

[Brandane]

Was just thinking, when I was in my late teens/early 20s, it was the done thing to pass your test and get a car, even if it was a cheap banger. Among my peers and numerous cousins, by the time we were in our mid 20s it was almost 100% of us were car owners.

Looking around me now, among my nephews and nieces who are all in their late 20s/early 30s, it is about 40% car ownership. All have passed their test, but for whatever reason have not bothered to buy a car. I don't blame them! Any fun they used to be has long gone, and owning a car is now a dull, stressful, and expensive experience.

Have the youth seen sense and decided there are better ways to move around? And most certainly better ways to spend their cash?

 

[Gunk]

I have a 19 and a 21 year old, neither have any interest in driving.

 

[I like Skol]

Any fun they used to be has long gone, and owning a car is now a dull, stressful, and expensive experience.

There's still fun to be found with motor vehicles, it's just not the same as it used to be 'back in the day'!

Simply 'going for a drive' isn't a thing anymore because road conditions just don't equate to pleasure, despite the car manufacturers best efforts to sell that dream.

I'm not surprised younger people are turning their backs on motorised entertainment. It's probably not a bad thing really?

 

[vickster]

Plenty of boy and girl racers around here still.
Then there’s the yoofs on their mopeds, presumably because much cheaper and they think it’s cool buzzing around with a nest of angry wasps between their legs
And then the other yoofs on their modded e bikes and e scooters.
Not many seem to walk or use public transport around here, they just use other 2 wheeled motorised transport

 

[I like Skol]

This is mine.

This is my oldest son's, age 21.

And this will be my 18yo youngest son's car when he finishes his A level exams in a few weeks......

 

[Slick]

I think we must have been dragged up Dukes of Hazard style as I was driving from when I could sit on my dads knee and steer. We used to buy old bangers almost weekly for around a fiver or a tenner then get a weekend or two of fun out them before we wrecked them and buried them in an old banger track next to an airfield. I was also on the road from the age of 14 not regularly but often enough to be stopped by the cops one night driving a Rover 3.5 and they just warned me about some obstacle or other before waving me on.

As for now, I think geography will play a part, as the country boys and girls will still have to be able to drive if they don't want to be crofters, and I had to drop 12k into my niece's bank account recently so she could get the car she wanted after wrecking the one her dad bought her.

Thinking back to my own experiences, I am starting to remember the number of young people that were killed on the roads back then. Whilst I still hear of some, its nowhere near what it was, but I still get sleepless nights worrying about that niece of mine.

 

[All uphill]

Our son passed his driving test when he was eighteen; that was the last time he drove a car, and he is now in his thirties.

He showed me that I could have a better quality of life using bicycle and train, so I no longer have a car.

Thanks son!

 

[Cycleops]

The buzz word amoungst many young people here is Uber. Cars are ridiculously expensive due to high import duty on used, none on new.

 

[markemark]

Even amongst my peers care ownership is dropping. I know people who have given up cars and either Uber or Zip car when needed. Tbf these are entirely people in cities with infrastructure to use.

 

[si_c]

Cars are generally more expensive and this has led to much higher costs for driving compared to when I was 17 (late 90s). It's harder to get a banger that you can keep going inexpensively and with a tightening of insurance rules and massively higher insurance costs (in part related to more expensive vehicles on the road) has made it prohibitively expensive to own a car for most youth.

Add to that the lack of significant increases in wages for young people and is it surprising?

I used to work 16 hours a week when I was 17 and at college - at around current minimum wage that's £150 a week, probably not even enough to cover insurance for someone at that age.

I know a few people who work full time aged 18-21 and have a car, but they are all financed using PCP or gifts from parents and they all live at home.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Yes I've noticed it too. Most young people I know either haven't had lessons (too expensive) or just don't need a car. That said, quite a few of them have mopeds which still seem a popular mode. You can get a good one for a grand and insure it for £400ish. CBT £100 and that's it.

 

[Time Waster]

My neice just passed at 17 but uses the bus or mates with cars. Her older brother has no interest in learning. He's 20 and has always managed with local buses. He's on outskirts of Leeds with decent buses or he's at uni in a big city without any use for cars. Walks everywhere then gets regular trains home.

I think they're just being sensible in the way we weren't. No need for a car so don't get one. If only we'd done that and our parents too there would be less cars on the roads and less car related deaths from accidents or pollution too. Seriously, how many deaths can be attributed to car driving and pollution from our massive increase in car use from the 60s onwards?

Then again, it could be than affording a car is possibly impossibly expensive for kids these days with used car prices, insurance prices and pollution / congestion charging. It's probably a similar effect to the cost of housing, who can really afford to buy and run cars if you're a very young driver?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

We can but hope. But judging by the amount of driving going on, particularly for short journeys, any reduction has yet to materialise.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Depends on what is classed as 'younger'.

In my late teens very few of my peer group at the time owned cars - it was virtually an impossible dream back then.

A lucky few had motorbikes though.

Has anything really changed today? Maybe not for the equivalent of the old council estates where I grew up but certainly among our current friendship group who are relatively affluent; there are a decent number of young, just post-university, people who have decent cars either funded by the bank of mum & dad or on PCP's.

My guess is that car uptake for younger folk will increase once salaries start to roll in/increase, household responsibilities rise eg shopping needs doing, flatpacks need getting etc and family tasks become part of life eg visiting parents, carting kids to school and clubs etc.

 

[Time Waster]

We can but hope. But judging by the amount of driving going on, particularly for short journeys, any reduction has yet to materialise.

Us older buggers need to die off with our car dependency then. Baby boomers and gen xers that is.