“Choosing” is doing some heavy lifting here when gen-z ain’t got no money.
You speak of “heavy lifting” without reading the article explaining in part how the economy may be impacting these choices.
I guess you can check the median age of people getting their driving license first time. If is getting higher, is probably because younger people don’t care enough to get it, because past generations couldn’t afford cars ar 16 neither.
What do you mean? I know plenty of people who worked service jobs and bought cheap used cars in high school.
It just isn’t as feasible now.
Ok, I get you. I love in latinamerica and was using my experience as the standard, when here is a more American/European centric site where experience may vary.
Ah, that makes more sense. My bad on my part as well, the fediverse is certainly not just for US/Europe.
Because it’s expensive and sucks if you live in a city. Also, most can’t afford a house out in the suburbs anyways.
I and my brother did some math about cars.
We both work and have money for car but just insurance, technical and emissions control… is more expensive than public transport ticket (for one year in our city). And we didn’t count in petrol and parking.
In short for us it just doesn’t make economical sense to own one.
You could say Gen Z “chooses” a lot of things. Gen Z “chooses” not to buy houses (we can’t afford them) Gen Z “chooses” to be mentally ill (not even 10 years ago, “autism” was just “the weird kid”) Gen Z “chooses” to rent Gen Z “chooses” not to buy food Gen Z “chooses” to let climate change fuck the earth Gen Z “chooses” to not have kids (although here we actually don’t want them, but also couldn’t afford them) and so on.
Are you sure they can’t afford them?
Gen Zers are tracking ahead of their parents’ homeownership rate: 30% of 25-year olds owned their home in 2022, higher than the 27% rate for Gen Xers when they were the same age.
I’m right there with them. I spent 7-8 years in a larger city and enjoyed not having a car the entire time. No renting a parking spot or fighting over who gets to block in who with the upstairs or downstairs neighbors. No snow shoveling or scrambling to park on one side for street sweeping.
I’m now temporarily in a place where buses are at an hour interval and only go to 1 place so I took one of the family cars. Despite the car being “free” I’m paying more than an unlimited transit pass on insurance alone, and I have a great rate at the expense of having to let my insurance track my accelerating / braking through GPS/accelerometer (at least for a few weeks before I can uninstall the app and enjoy the lower rate). I’ve had to pay for an inspections, tags, fixing a tint that was legal at home but illegal where I am now (over $100 even if I just had them remove it), and I’m still needing to spend on extras like oil to top up in between oil changes, new wipers, coolant, and it’s looking like it’s almost due for tire rotations, brake and transmission flush, and other regular maintenance which is just another expense.
The car was free and it’s so expensive still. I miss being able to hop on a bus and zone out too.
If you’re working from home then ubering everywhere is cheaper than insurance for a new driver and once you put gas plus the cost of the car into the equation I totally understand this.
I dropped driving 20 years ago. Way too expensive if you don’t earn money with it in some fashion. I’m not a home-worker, but I live in a city. Having a car in a city… That just doesn’t feel right. They should be used to bring stuff into a city. Cites should provide their own means of getting around. The few times when I actually needed a car, I rented one. Way cheaper than owning a car.
It’s like owning a golf course to play golf once a week. Well. Something like that.
Who wants to pay 9%+ interest on a car .
My wife purchased a Subaru Legacy Premium new in 2018 with a MSRP of $23,000 and we looked at the exact same model but in 2024 because they added some safety features. The exact trim Premium for 2024 has a MSRP of $31,000k. That’s a 39% increase in 6 years. Same motor, looks nearly identical, just has collision detection and a better center console screen. We could have got those in the top trim in 2018 for $5k more.
We’re getting shafted at all industries.
You don’t really have to buy a new car though, do you? Especially not using a loan. Nearly everyone I know, young or old, poor or well-off has a second hand car.
Didn’t really have to but it was at sweet spot for trade in, $15k, was at the point it need new tires and registration. Tires $600+ and registration in Washington $300.
It was actually seeing $15k trade in that got me thinking about it since it was pretty close to our purchase price. Stupid MSRP went way up.
Good on them. I fucking love Zoomers.
I mean, I get it. I hate the damned things. I can’t deny their utility, but they’re just not worth it
The key thing here is cost. Employers don’t want to pay, and everything is so damn expensive.
I miss living in a city where I didn’t have to drive. Maybe one day I will have that chance again.
My dad in a conversation with other parents:
“When I was their age, a car meant freedom. It meant you could take yourself to a place your friends were and your parents weren’t, anytime you wanted. To them, the Internet means freedom, and they don’t really see the point.”
I don’t know how old your dad is, but when I was a teenager 25 years ago, I could pick up a car for under $500, and it ran. Now, if it runs and drives it’s automatically $2500. It’s also probably beat to hell.
I can’t really blame kids today for not being interested in that.
~ 12 years ago I got an 04 rodeo for $1k and kept it running for a decade until it died over covid. That same $1k 2004 clunker that’ll still be in the shop for something every couple of months (even more so now 12 years later) is going to be 3-4k.
No thanks 🤷my bus system sucks but it works and I can just grab an Amtrak somewhere if I wanna travel.
I really don’t agree. Young people still like to be able to move around freely and “the internet” is not the same as phisically going to bar, roadtrip, etc. In my opinion, nowadays people mostly don’t buy cars because A) they can’t afford it and B) we’re more nevorinmentally conscious.
This is the way
Is that because the costs of cars has vastly exceeded inflation while wages have mostly stagnated until mid 2021? (please note: beating inflation by a bit for 2 years in no way makes up for the prior 40+)
And car dealers (car mafia) make their money primarily through financing now. Some won’t even let you pay cash for a new car.
They can’t prevent you from purchasing with cash, that is the whole Legal Tender thing. Rather they dissuade you from not taking their financing. Very very different things.
Any business has the right to refuse to sell you something
Here in Australia, it’s because they can’t afford anything more than an apartment or to rent one, so have nowhere to park for free