Hmmm, it was a few years ago now.... I wanna say 2017 (but I could be wrong) and it was the first year in Canada that the number of new Drivers finally went DOWN.
A car doesn't offer the same thing to a teenager these days. Most kids that age don't see a car as any sort of status symbol; they simply see it as a tool. Not only that, cars are pretty boring today. Long gone are the days of buying a 10-year old luxury car like an older Oldsmobile, Lincoln or Cadillac. That sort of thing either doesn't exist, or is priced well above the means of the average teenager.
Long gone are the days of buying something for a few hundo and fixing it up. Not only are used clunkers not that cheap anymore, neither are the parts nor the expertise to repair such a vehicle. Even look at the "Sport Compact" segment. It's been handed over to Honda; lock, stock and fishing tackle. Neon? Ancient. Dart/200? Meh. Cavalier? Cobalt?? Antiques. Tiburon? RSX? Integra? "Dude, are you even speaking English?"
Anything "Cool" costs a fortune to purchase, maintain or even feed.
Almost like this has been programmed into them in some sort of clandestine plan to limit our ability to move.
The world has changed - and not for the better. I always quote my 1968 statistics.... when minimum wage was .75 an hour.... if a person saved up every penny they earned for a year, maybe mowed some lawns on the side and won a few hands of poker, they could take home a brand-new Road Runner. Or that same person could have their pick of any number of lesser priced NEW cars like a Rambler or one of them foreign jobs or even a VW. But they could purchase something NEW if they wanted and pay for it in cash.
Can the average minimum wage slob do that today? Not without difficulty. Cheapest car on the market ( I just Googled ) is the Chevy Spark (whatever that is) MSRP $16,690. A Hyundai Elantra now stickers for over $20k. (Remember when Hyundai BRAGGED about the $9,999.99 Accent?? And those are almost NEAT little cars!) Average minimum wage worker definitely ain't taking anything like that home by paying cash and ain't nobody gonna finance a 17 year old workin' at Mickey D's.
It's the last day's of Rome, folks. And Nero is in the White House.
But one thing I will point out is that driving is kinda boring. 50-60 years ago, a car handled poorly at best, but the roads followed the lay of the land and were FUN to drive. Narrow road, blind corners, one-lane bridges.... heck, finding an OLD stretch of road in a modern car gives me a chubby!!
Today, the most pedestrian car can do the Kessle run in less than 12 parsecs but 99% of roads are flat, straight or "engineered for safety". F*** that, noise you fat Penguin!! I want a narrow, two-lane built into the side of a mountain with nothing more than an old bicycle chain protecting me from a 1,000-ft chasm. That'll put hair on your giblets.
