Dad, I need the password not the keys

Teens aren't into driving so much anymore. It takes away from the time for texting.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/01/vehicle-miles-driven-decline-possible.html

The same was said about the British car market recently and maybe the factors are not identical here. However when they argue (as they did here) that this is "because of the rising cost of driving and the fact that they are living their lives online" I wonder if they are putting cause and effect back to front? Petrol is dear, insurance is prohibitive up to 25, the driving test is getting harder, but the second hand car market is so cheap that may compensate more than a little.

What has not been argued in the British commentary like that one for America is that young people are getting a pretty poor deal these days compared with their parents' generation. More are being tricked into going to so called university and "higher" education, paying vastly more for the privilige of getting a devalued sheet of embossed paper. Far fewer are offered training let alone work, apprenticeships are dead, even graduates are being sucked into the McDonaldised low pay job market, and a growing proportion stay with their parents up to and even beyond 30. The unemployed are being required to do unpaid work for companies like Tesco allegedly to get work experience, actually to get screwed.

Young people are just not getting a foot on the economic ladder. Of course they can't buy cars. Of course they end up living on the internet, vicariously.

Originally posted by finnegan
The same was said about the British car market recently and maybe the factors are not identical here. However when they argue (as they did here) that this is "because of the rising cost of driving and the fact that they are living their lives online" I wonder if they are putting cause and effect back to front? Petrol is dear, insurance is prohibitiv Of course they can't buy cars. Of course they end up living on the internet, vicariously.

Here in the US we're so smart that we actually paid for the destruction of many used cars that teens might have been able to afford.

Originally posted by Sleepyguy
Here in the US we're so smart that we actually paid for the destruction of many used cars that teens might have been able to afford.

Car prices are down. It's the gasoline and insurance prices which are killing them.

Originally posted by finnegan
The same was said about the British car market recently and maybe the factors are not identical here. However when they argue (as they did here) that this is "because of the rising cost of driving and the fact that they are living their lives online" I wonder if they are putting cause and effect back to front? Petrol is dear, insurance is prohibitiv ...[text shortened]... Of course they can't buy cars. Of course they end up living on the internet, vicariously.

It doesn't account for the older drivers, but the fact that teens don't look forward to getting a license the way they used to suggests something other than money at play. I got my license as soon after my 16th birthday as I could. It was almost a rite of passage. Today it's "meh."