News

Genz can't afford a car. Even used cars cost too damn much

Years ago when my Gen Z nephew was turning 16 (minimum driving age in USA), the conversation went like this:

• "Are you excited to start driving and do you want car?"
• "Nah, not interested"
• "Why not?"
• "Where would I go?"
• "Wherever you want!"
• "Everything I want is right here at home"

I thought about my own Gen X early driving experience with the freedom to go to the mall or the movie theater whenever I wanted and to drive to school or work.

• His school (and eventually job) were both within walking bicycling distance.
• He had streaming services I never dreamed of when I was his age piping a flood of big budget movies right to his TV whenever he wants
• malls are dead

I couldn't really argue with his logic. Years later he did get a car when he moved out and lived farther away from work. However, it was many years after the minimum driving age which was a big departure from generations prior.

Hmm

"Gen-z is choosing to be homeless."

These crazy kids are forgoing the tradition of having a roof over ones head in favor of urban camping. It definitely has nothing to do the kleptocracy that made housing unaffordable by converting it into a speculative market for Wall Street and foreign nationals to park dirty money.

Don't forget insurance, either. A new driver will pay sky-high rates for the first few years. And while one can technically have a license but not pay for insurance if they don't own a car, if they ever do get a car insurance may end up even higher, since they dont have a history of good driving under insurance while their peers do.

In the article they noted this was the same for millennials and gen x before them. I'm going to assume the standard for youths purchasing cars was with the baby boomer generation. I know my dad told me when he was young, you would purchase a cool car that didn't work for the equivalent of $100 dollars, get a friend to tow it home, then work on it for a few weeks to get it running. He told me how much he missed his MG Midget, which let's recognize as a cool ass car for a kid to have. He could fix that car with a wrench, a stick of butter, and a deck of cars*. All his friends would be doing the same.

Nowadays it would be a $1k junker, and you'd need to have a computer science degree to fix the onboard computer while having all the specific tools to get into their proprietary parts. There are older cars too, but the standard of fixing a car has increased, all the while each generation has less time and money to do it.

• This was a typo, but I love this typo. You say deck of cards, I say deck of cars, Thank you @otp@sh.itjust.works !

Is it really a choice if they fundamentally cannot afford to do so?

I'm a millennial, but I fucking hate driving and gave it up a while ago. My eyesight is really bad due to misformed corneas so I have trauma from being forced to drive at a younger age. I eventually moved to a major city and got rid of my car the first chance I could (fun fact, leases are scams!). I love being able to walk/take public transit anywhere I want now, but unfortunately leaving the city is incredibly hard.

Fuck cars.

Well how the fuck are they supposed to drive when car payment at 500+, gas is 3+ a gallon and car insurance is 1500 per premium! Not to mention potential repairs.

I make 80k a year and I can barely afford my car!

Millennial chiming in. Donated my car to the humane society a couple years ago. Thankfully I live close enough to walk to work, have plenty of amenities near by, and a bus line a block away when it runs. I've saved so much money about it. If I need a car for a couple of days I rent and it's still less than owning. Do not regret it at all.

Every now and then I think about buying a used car and the prices are absurd on top of all the maintenance, insurance, registration.

Ah, so it's not just my kids (I'm Gen X). Neither has expressed any interest in driving. One's a starving student, so I guess there's that. But the other's graduated and scored a cushy job where he could certainly afford wheels if he wanted. I asked him about it and he's like nah. I'll just take a lyft or whatever if I need it. And he's a software dev so he spends the time on his laptop. I guess if he were driving, his time would be less productive? I dunno.

We actually went to the same tech convention last fall in Denver and shared a hotel. I knee-jerk rented a car thinking Denver sounds like a driving town. But parking at the convention was exorbitant and we wound up ride-sharing there anyway, so I am beginning to see the merit in his way of thinking? The only time we got any use out of the rental was the last day when we had a little free time before the flight and drove up to Red Rocks. But seriously, for that one trip, the rental was hardly worth it.

Cars are expensive and driving really isn't that fun outside rare circumstances that are quickly disappearing. I love cars, and I love a nice drive on a mountain road, but everything else isn't nearly as nice as it used to be when there were fewer people driving, and less dependence on it.

Not to mention, cars are pretty boring these days. The vaguely cool ones are just remakes of old models, and even Ferrari is making SUVs.

Gen z earns like $15/hr.

Obligatory fuck McKinsey.

Those scooters are pretty cool though. If you told 10 year old me there would be electric scooters just sitting around on the street in the future you could just scan and ride, I'd have called you a big fibber.

Sometimes my dog gets a surprise run, while I just get to ride a scooter.

The signal of a less enthused Gen Z when it comes to driving could affect the car industry. But McKinsey analysts point out that previous generations of Americans had also appeared less interested in driving but went behind the wheel of cars eventually.

It's like a threat

Keeping people that don't like to drive off the roads is only a good thing.

I don't see a problem here.

Gen Z can't afford £3k a year on insurance.

From the UK, now in Europe.

There has been basically one time in my life that actually necessitated driving. Almost everything else can be covered by public transport or bikes/e-scooters/walking

good

Have a license, don't drive. But for me it's mostly trauma from all the times I've almost been in a crash with various drivers, myself included.
Cars are fucking dangerous and not enough drivers understand that.