Is the love affair over ???

[donsrods]

I was listening the other day while driving to a program on PBS about teens these days not getting their drivers licenses. It seems that a large percentage of kids today are not getting them even though they are 18 years old or even older. They cited several reasons for it, such as the high cost of cars and insurance, or their friends drive so they don't need to, or they simply use public transportation or a bike. They just had no interest in driving at all.

It started me thinking that maybe America's (and the world's) love of the automobile is over, or at least starting to end. When we were all young we couldn't wait to get our licenses..........I remember going to the mailbox every day to see if mine had come yet. We also loved cars themselves for just the mechanical creations they are.

But we had cool cars to stimulate that love affair, they had power and style. If you look at the cars kids today have to drive they are like boxes on wheels, or they look like every other car on the road. So could it be that the next generation or the one after that will not see a car as anything but a way to get from point a to point b ? How boring would that be ???

Don

 

[Neverdone]

I don't really think so but........

I was talking about that with my wife just the other day!!! I don't understand it, I couldn't wait to get my license and don't get it how the neighbor girl is 19 and doesn't even have a permit.... the kicker is.... she doesn't live at home and her PARENTS still go and pick her up everyday and take her to work or where ever else she wants to go!!!!! So I ask what is the real problem here? I think that a lot of it goes back to the parents. I tell her dad all the time I think he is a fool for doing that. If you move out you are responsible for yourself. Not saying that is the case everywhere by any means, but at least this one it is. But it makes me wonder. Sometimes I think it is that people don't put enough push on. Another example would be my cousin. He is 27 years old, lives at home, keeps going to college because he doesn't want to get a job. I see all this crap all the time about him debating and arguing all these political topics that he has no business arguing. If you aren't out there working and paying taxes like the rest of us poor slobs then I don't see where you can argue anything. Go out and live it once before you start talking about it. On top of that, yup you guessed it, no car, no license. Guess you do don't need that when mom and dad and your friends will take you anywhere. Another case is my friend that is 30, heart of gold, one of my best friends, but......... him and his wife were married one month after my wife and I. He and his wife live with his MOM AND DAD right acrossed the hall. He has never moved out, never had a place of his own. Has had some real nice toys though! For example last week he just signed papers to finance a 41' camper!!! Or how about the Polaris Ranger that he had until a month ago!!! They live in the middle of town, what the @#$^ do you need that for!!! Or th Can Am outlander fourwheeler he had before that!!! One day when I have kids there will be some push because a story like his or all these kids leaning on there parents to do everything for them and support them for ever...... thats for the birds.

Sorry kind of scewed off topic a bit but I think a lot of this goes hand in hand........

 

[Neto]

We built (or at least modified) cars. A lot of kids now-a-days would rather build a computer than a car. (That's where they spend all their time, anyway.)

 

[hotrod preacher]

We built (or at least modified) cars. A lot of kids now-a-days would rather build a computer than a car. (That's where they spend all their time, anyway.)

I agree with that! I too wonder about these kids with no desire to drive- but it isn't a lack of wanting to GO! ya'll have it pegged with the comments of parents causing a problem here, baby their kids too much, haul them everywhere they want (think they MUST) to go, and pamper them to the point of making them virtually useless in the "real world"

meet the next "entitled" generation =you owe it to them!

 

[Tripper]

This is krazy to me but I have several nephews over 16 that still don't have their license. This is KRAZY to me... I was down at the DPS the very day I was eligible. I couldn't wait to get my license & head out on my own in the parents car & pick some girl up & cruise the hood! I used any excuse to get behind the wheel!

BoB

 

[gold03]

We have two post university graduates living at home. One has a car. One does not. The one with the car does not use it "recreationally".

I used to work to buy gas for going no where[S

This generation has always been mobile. I was stuck on the farm until I got my licence and my car. They have not faced that isolation.

I still go for a "drive" every weekend. They stay home and watch TV

I can't find anything to watch on TV!

 

[EnglishBob]

Both my kids had their learners at 14 and drive regularly.

 

[billy]

i am for sure the odd man out in this case.
i didnt get a license until I WAS 40!
i lived in a tiny mountain town of 400 and didnt need one.
and i was a hard core alky anyway so i figured i better not drive.
then i sobered up and restored my 1st project 63 willys jeep.
then the 27 chevy
now i am always looking for something else.
but i know lots of young folks that just dont drive because they want someone else to pay for eveything.
hell i know grown men like that
but most of those are drunks...

 

[maverickmk]

I think some of the concerns regarding the environment play a small part in this as well. Today's generation is more in tune with that kind of stuff, which isn't really a bad thing.
But I'm with you guys, I couldn't wait to get my license. I applied for it the day I turned 16. I have always been wrenching on something and both of my girls have said they can't wait to get their license. I'm pretty sure they see the love I have for cars and some of that has rubbed off.

 

[21willys]

I'm in my early 30s and I can see a huge difference in today's youth then when I was a teen. At 14 or 15 I got my first full time job as a tool fetcher at a hvac company. My friends shoveled hog and horse crap and we all made around $6 a hour and was tickled to death. We all had cars even tho we wasn't old enough for a license and we all cruised the back roads responsibly. Half the time we was on our way to work a odd job.

A lot of it IMO is the parents faults. No one makes the kids be responsible and work/earn what they want. It's all just handed to them. I had to buy my first car with my money. Now I see all kinds if high school kids driving $40,000 diesel trucks to school. No high school kid needs to drive a $40k vehicle! That IMO is also why kids have the Entitlement mentality that they do.

 

[mikec4193]

Hi everyone

I gotta add my 2 cents...I am 52 years old...been driving 4 wheels since I was 12 years old...you know field cars and such and then the real stuff...I dont really enjoy driving....never really have...the money that I have wasted on driving is almost mind boggling...I did race roundy rounds for years...loved racing cars (adrenaline junky here) but as far as the street stuff goes...not really...I was 18 years old before I could afford to actually drive on the street...

I would be a rich man if it wasnt for cars and driving....I do the rat rod stuff now because I need something to do at night when I "drive" home from work...

The act of "driving" is way over rated....I think at least...but hey you gotta spend your money on something....right???

MikeC

 

[drivewaycustoms]

I didn't get my license until I was 18, only because I had taken my mom's car out and wrecked it when I was 15( luckily I was on a back road and no other vehicles were involved ). All I wanted to do was drive, I had been driving in the fields since I was 11, I would volunteer to move the cars whenever needed . My buddie's son just turned 16 and has zero interest in driving, it baffles he and I both.

 

[Sam_Fear]

They can connect on the internet and cell phone, not that much need to go anywhere. Even if they do meet up, they are all on their gadgets. My daughter used to invite friends over sometimes - I'd walk in the house and they'd all be nose deep in their laptops, phones, or gameboys.

 

[kkadams123]

All 3 of my kids started driving as soon as legal. My oldest, now 28, was into trucks. In high school he put together a 1966 Ford F100. Had the engine built, but rebuilt parts when they broke due to poor workmanship on the engine builders part. I am glad he had the interest and still does. My youngest 18, did not have as much love of building vehicles. He did help me on my rat rod some, but didnt have the drive that I did. All kids are different.

 

[donsrods]

The news program I mention as the source of my post said that the car manufacturers are troubled by this new lack of interest in cars by today's teens and is trying to do things to get them interested in them again. Since kids today are into technology the car makers are putting "gadgets" in the cars that kids might see as cool. They said one company is putting a vacuum cleaner feature on cars so that the kids can brag about that to their friends ! Brag about a vacuum cleaner ?????? What have we become ??

Whenever I see one of those "cube" type cars that look like a box on wheels it makes me understand why kids today do not see cars as anything but a means to get somewhere. For those of us who are older it meant a lot more.......it meant freedom, the ability to take girls out, and the driving experience was exciting.........especially if some horsepower was involved.

All I can say is I am glad I wasn't born 60 years later than I was.

Don

 

[Tripper]

They said one company is putting a vacuum cleaner feature on cars so that the kids can brag about that to their friends ! Brag about a vacuum cleaner ?????? What have we become ??

Just when I was starting to think the car companies had pull their heads out & now this! This is definitely one of the stupidest things i think I heard as far as a car feature!?! And they think this would entice kids to get into cars!?! OMG!!! [S[S[S

BoB

 

[sgtpontiac]

I agree that there is a huge change in the priority

of the young people today.....I think that there are a number of reason.....expense of driving, fuel, insurance, and cost of the vehicle...when I was a kid it was 25.9 cents a gallon, insurance you didn't even need and I bought my first car for 35 bucks....
Yes the social media has certainly effected it as well....you can text, call or email anyone anywhere without moving more than a foot in any direction...there is / are more and more large malls and shopping centers in the areas that used to have nothing more than miles of farmland...easy to get to.....work is the only thing that might inhibit not having a license but even there car pooling and mass transit in larger cites has become Vogue.....is there a love loss, I don't think so...is there a reality / practicality check....absolutely.....of course this is jmho..... I don't think that it's lost...I think it has evolved into more than simply driving and having a car....might be wrong..

 

[offroadrolls]

When I was 13

driving was the biggest deal going. We use to sneak our parents cars out in the middle of the night. I'll never forget the night I took my Moms 68 Datsun 510 wagon out and had never driven a clutch more than back and forth in the driveway......what a trip, but I learned. My son was never very interested in driving. I pushed him like heck to get his permit, I pushed and pushed, and he got his permit a year late and finally he got his license around 17 years old. Today @ 19 he's still not into cars so much, and probably would not have one if he had to buy it and the insurance on his own. So I helped him get his car and I buy the insurance while he buys the gas. Today he's grateful that I've helped him because he values the freedom that comes with having a car and it's given me freedom too. I heard the story Don referred to on the radio and I gotta say I can't imagine being 19 making 2k a month take home and having to pay rent, buy food and pay the cost of owning car. To put it into perspective, I wonder how many of us would have cars if we lived in the UK?

 

[earthman]

I could find enough change in the couch or save my lunch money to buy gas.
Now you can't find enough loose change to buy even one gallon. If we were kids today how much excitement would there be in driving one of these plastic blobs.

 

[UncleDonnie]

Read 1984

Back to a little OT, what's going to happen when these kids that sponge off their parents have kids that want to do the same thing?

I traded a Schwinn Varsity for a 49 Chevy truck when I was 12. Drove ruts in the 300 ft. Drive way at my house. I would walk to the Enco station a mile and a half to get clean used oil the owner would save for me. There was more wrong with that motor than was right but it beat the hell outta playing Hot Wheels.

I don't like tuner cars but those guys are doing something.

Don