Raise the Hammer

Wow talk about making the numbers fit your own biases. Young drivers used to account for 17% of new car sales and that has fallen to 11% this year. What about the actual numbers of young people in society. We all know that our population is aging so of course the number of young drivers buying cars will be going down. It just cannot be any other way. Nothing to do with peak oil, living in major metropolitan areas with transit or anything else.

As far as the percentage of young people having their drivers license that is due to a variety of causes. Many youngsters know that they simply cannot afford a car so what is the sense of getting a license. Licenses are a lot harder to get then they used to be. Do their numbers take into account those who have partial licenses? My son was happy with his G2 for the longest time. The few restrictions imposed on him for not having his full license, G, were not very onerous in his eyes. Drinking is a big thing for the under 25 crowd and drinking and driving is a lot less socially acceptable today compared to when I was that age. I know several of my kids friends have put off getting their license because they know that they are going to be drinking and the 2 do not mix.

The amount of money spent on phones and laptops for most is a far cry from the cost of a car. A lot of the kids I know drool over the 2 and 3 thousand dollar laptops but none of them own one. The vast majority are $600 and down. Even my sons $1,000 low end i7 is more machine then any of his friends. Most of the machines these kids have were given to them by their parents or grandparents because they are seen as a necessity for college or university. More kids are going pursuing a post secondary education then ever before, maybe because a high school diploma has never meant less then it means today. Back in the day grade 10 was needed to start an apprenticeship. Today a course at Mohawk is pretty much a requirement. That works out to an additional 3 years of school.

There are a variety of reasons the driving and licensing numbers have declined over the years but wanting a car is still right up there for our youth, they just have resigned themselves to the fact that they just cannot get there just yet. To try and pass of these facts as young folks "...neither need nor particularly want cars the way their parents did." is just plain silly. They want them sometimes desperately they just realize that it just is not possible for them.

You may not want your own car but the vast majority of our youth sure do. It is still seen as a desirable object of independence, freedom and status.

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