You could well be right, but the article is about a global trend, car sales in the US by contrast seem to be stable in the last few years, perhaps for these kin

You could well be right, but the article is about a global trend, car sales in the US by contrast seem to be stable in the last few years, perhaps for these kind of reasons. There are a lot of places in the developed world that have a different context from the US in terms of car culture or healthcare costs. I’m not sure what’s actually creating the 3% drop, though, the evidence in the article for a lifestyle shift seems to be relatively weak outside of the charts they give for the EU.