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16 year old here, I've got a few thoughts on this from being in the middle of it. Background: I live in a moderately sized urban center (Austin). First, some a

16 year old here, I've got a few thoughts on this from being in the middle of it. Background: I live in a moderately sized urban center (Austin). First, some anecdotal data: roughly half my friends have no plans to even get a license before they're 18, many of the rest (including myself) regularly borrow a parent's car, a smaller sub-set have parents who bought them cars, and a couple have bought cars with earned money. > Yup, the road trip is as dead as the western This is plainly wrong. Myself, and most of my friends grew up going on road trips with parents and now we're starting to take them ourselves. > To the younger generation cars are transportation, nothing more. They take you from a to b. This is 100% on-point. They're a convenient tool, and not much more. Granted, we still appreciate a Porsche, but we don't fantasize about them in the way I think previous generations did. They still represent some freedom, because they provide a space that's not controlled by authority figures in our lives, along with mobility. But we feel no need to own that car, it can just as easily be a parent's. > So long Ferrari. So long Aston Martin. I'm not sure this is true. My friends and I occasionally talk about, and appreciate things like the Model S, McLarens, and Ferraris. I don't doubt that several of my friends would buy them as successful adults. But given the choice of a nice apartment in NYC or SF or the nice car, almost all of us would take the better living location. My job is three miles away, and my other work is all remote. Enough of my friends have cars, or access to family cars, that for any social outing someone can get access to a car. So buying a car doesn't provide much value to me. It's expensive, stressful, and any car a teenager can afford is mediocre at best. So instead of buying a car, I'm spending time in Europe with my two best friends next summer. Cars are still viewed as a nice thing to have, but to us they're not worth working for months and months to buy. Driving is still very much a thing that many teenagers are interested in.

kijin 12y ago
> Driving is still very much a thing that many teenagers are interested in. > Myself, and most of my friends grew up going on road trips with parents and now we're starting to take them ourselves. > we feel no need to own that car, it can just as easily be a parent's. > buying a car doesn't provide much value to me I must say that many adults (older than you, but younger than the boomers) feel exactly the same. Driving is fun. Traveling is fun. No amount of web browsing and online social networking can replace the actual, physical experience of traveling and seeing the country for yourself. Moreover, there are so many cool places in America that you can only get to by driving. So the road trip is definitely alive and well. And yet, many people in their 30s and 40s have chosen to forgo car ownership. Because they aren't going on road trips all time. They rent a vehicle when they need one, or maybe lease a car for a while. This is the grown-up equivalent of borrowing your parent's car, and it comes with all the same benefits, too: renting can be less expensive, less stressful, and lower maintenance than full ownership, even if you rent a car every single weekend. (A rental location near my University used to have a special where you could rent a mid-size car for three weekends for less than $200.) tl;dr: Cars are still cool. Car ownership isn't.
krrishd 12y ago
I'm also 16. To be completely honest, the only reason I haven't got my license is due to laziness, but living in Denver, my needs are served by Uber, Lyft, and public transportation (buses/lite rail). Many would say that it would be cheaper in the long run to just buy a car, but personally there isn't much of an ROI for me.
deleted 12y ago
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kijin 12y ago

> Driving is still very much a thing that many teenagers are interested in. > Myself, and most of my friends grew up going on road trips with parents and now we're starting to take them ourselves. > we feel no need to own that car, it can just as easily be a parent's. > buying a car doesn't provide much value to me I must say that many adults (older than you, but younger than the boomers) feel exactly the same. Driving is fun. Traveling is fun. No amount of web browsing and online social networking can replace the actual, physical experience of traveling and seeing the country for yourself. Moreover, there are so many cool places in America that you can only get to by driving. So the road trip is definitely alive and well. And yet, many people in their 30s and 40s have chosen to forgo car ownership. Because they aren't going on road trips all time. They rent a vehicle when they need one, or maybe lease a car for a while. This is the grown-up equivalent of borrowing your parent's car, and it comes with all the same benefits, too: renting can be less expensive, less stressful, and lower maintenance than full ownership, even if you rent a car every single weekend. (A rental location near my University used to have a special where you could rent a mid-size car for three weekends for less than $200.) tl;dr: Cars are still cool. Car ownership isn't.

krrishd 12y ago

I'm also 16. To be completely honest, the only reason I haven't got my license is due to laziness, but living in Denver, my needs are served by Uber, Lyft, and public transportation (buses/lite rail). Many would say that it would be cheaper in the long run to just buy a car, but personally there isn't much of an ROI for me.

deleted 12y ago

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