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New Car? I'd Rather have an iPad - READ ONLY

68 messages,  Last post on Aug 13, 2012 at 10:36 AM

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Messages Page 1 of 7

#1 of 68 New Car? Rather have an iPod by Stever@Edmunds HOST

Nov 04, 2010 (6:42 am)

“There’s kind of almost every force working against the young driver right now,” said Karl Brauer, senior analyst and editor-at-large at Edmunds.com, an automotive research website.
 
 That could be a problem for automakers, which are still reeling from the Great Recession that sorely damaged their industry. Now, they may find that their youngest generation of potential customers will either purchase fewer cars, put off buying cars until later in life — or they won’t end up buying cars at all."
 
Carmakers' next problem: Generation Y (MSNBC)
 
Got near grown kids? Do they want a car? Do they even want a driver's license?

#2 of 68 Re: New Car? Rather have an iPod [steve_] by hpmctorque

Nov 04, 2010 (2:08 pm)

Replying to: Stever@Edmunds (Nov 04, 2010 6:42 am)
What you say applies to the U.S. and Japan, from what I've also read. I wouldn't be surprised of a similar trend were true for Western Europe. Taking a global view, however, slowing or stagnant sales in mature markets are more than offset by growing auto sales in China, India, Latin America and other emerging markets. Auto companies, including the Detroit three, are thinking globally more than ever.

#3 of 68 Re: New Car? Rather have an iPod [hpmctorque] by fintail

Nov 04, 2010 (2:20 pm)

Replying to: hpmctorque (Nov 04, 2010 2:08 pm)
And will it even make up for population increases in general...I suspect we'll have no less cars on the road. Not to mention, being car-less only works in more built up areas. Much of the continent has threadbare if nonexistent public transportation - as that ideal is evil and socialist, of course

#4 of 68 Strange... by lemko

Nov 05, 2010 (6:41 am)

...when I came of driving age almost 30 years ago, I couldn't wait to get a car. If you live in the city and are intimately familiar with the public transit system, you can almost get away without having a car, though grocery shopping would be very burdensome. I have a store withing walking distance of my house, but I can only carry so much - even with a grocery cart. I'd have to make several trips. For other items, I'd have to take a bus or train downtown or to the suburbs.

#5 of 68 Re: Strange... [lemko] by hpmctorque

Nov 05, 2010 (12:11 pm)

Replying to: lemko (Nov 05, 2010 6:41 am)
Another alternative that some younger people, especially, for whom car ownership doesn't mean as much as it does to us, are services like Zipcar.
 
The main point of this discussion really comes down to competing wants and needs. There's more competition for peoples' discretionary money than there used to be. Also, cars are less of a status symbol in increasingly crowded cities, where people are more transient and annonomous than in the past.

#6 of 68 Re: Strange... [hpmctorque] by boaz47

Nov 06, 2010 (7:47 pm)

Replying to: hpmctorque (Nov 05, 2010 12:11 pm)
Good insight.
" Also, cars are less of a status symbol in increasingly crowded cities, where people are more transient and anonymous than in the past."
 
According to the 2008 government report I was reading 82 percent of the US is now urban living. That gives people other options in their transportation needs. And from everything we read about gen Y they are not interested is the traditional status symbols of the boomers or even gen X.
Add that to the crashing of the economy and the falling of the housing market and you have the possibility that cars simply are not as important as they once were, at least in the US. Also with the release of cars like the Leaf and the demonizing of gas powered vehicles or even lawn equipment and you have a society that will begin to move in a direction that we or our parents would never have imagined.
I think that the movement to “Green” vehicles is going to take a lot of the charm out of cars in general and we just might see fewer and fewer Gen Ys giving up their Iphones, Ipads, Ipods and social networking. You might also see fewer and fewer people getting cars.

#7 of 68 driving less, or would if they could by Stever@Edmunds HOST

Nov 23, 2010 (8:06 pm)

"Advertising Age recently reported that the share of automobile miles driven by people 21 to 30 fell to 13.7 percent in 2009, down from nearly 21 percent in 1995. In that same period, the proportion of people 21 to 30 increased in the population from 13.3 percent to 13.9 percent. The recession could be blamed for some of the decline, but younger Americans clearly aren't as keen on cars as their parents were."
 
Millennials Driving Less, Citing Cost, Digital Alternatives and the Environment (Edmunds Daily)

#8 of 68 Re: Strange... [boaz47] by andys120

Feb 02, 2011 (4:46 pm)

Replying to: boaz47 (Nov 06, 2010 7:47 pm)
82 percent of the US is now urban living. That gives people other options in their transportation needs.
 
Yes and no, I'm not sure what their definition of "Urban" is but I'm sure it includes many areas that are what most of us would consider suburban or exurban that do not have a comprehensive public transportation network.
 
That said, I think it's great if young people and others use cabs buses and light rail in lieu of private cars. That means less traffic and easier parking;
I'll believe it when I see it.
 
BTW-I lived in Manhattan for nine years ('67-'76) and kept my own car on the street the whole time. I don't know if I'd care to repeat the experience nowadays but people where always borrowing my car or bumming rides to out-of-town destinations.

#9 of 68 born between 1977 and 1998? by Stever@Edmunds HOST

Feb 23, 2011 (6:23 pm)

"Millennials demonstrate less raw enthusiasm for driving than any generation since the popularization of the automobile. The notion of camping out in the parking lot of their local Department of Motor Vehicles office on the eve of their sixteenth birthday, as many of their parents did, is alien to most in the new generation. Several tendencies of Millennials feed this trend. For one, “teens are able to connect in so many other ways” than physically, through their smartphones, Honda’s Marie noted. "
 
For Millennials, It's Apps More than Acceleration (AutoObserver)
 

#10 of 68 Re: Strange... [andys120] by hpmctorque

Feb 23, 2011 (7:30 pm)

Replying to: andys120 (Feb 02, 2011 4:46 pm)
I wonder how many Millenials participate in Edmunds discussions, and whether the participation rate is lower than for other age groups. They probably choose different topics, proportionately, than older participants.

Messages Page 1 of 7

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