More on Why Kids Aren’t Buying Cars

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Millenials

In 1985, the youth of America’s  love affair with cars peaked.

That year 38 percent of the new cars sold in America went to adults between the ages of 21 and 34.  It was before the Internet and before PCs and cellphones were common. In 2010 that figure was down to 27 percent.

And as we’ve reported before, the proportion of teenagers with a driver’s  license fell by 28 percent between 1998 and 2008.

And it’s not just new cars seeing an impact.   Millenials are not behaving like typical consumers.  They are not buying houses as readily, nor used cars, according to The Atlantic.

It’s got Ford, GM and other car makers stumped.

For some kids, car sharing services like Zipcar, are an attractive alternative to car ownership.   Zipcar has seen its membership grow to 700,000  since it launched in 2000.

Reasons for the trend extend beyond the Internet serving as a place for young people to “congregate” (virtually), so the car isn’t that paradigm of independence and freedom it was in the old days.

A key reason for lack of home and car ownership is that kids are tending to move to cities where they don’t need a car and rent an apartment.

For more read The Atlantic’s story here.

 

Source: The Atlantic

Photo: Dukewii via IASCA on Facebook

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