As a child all I thought about were cars and finally being able to drive one, I couldn’t wait to get my learners permit when I was finally able to do so. Today’s teenagers couldn’t care less about driving and don’t care about cars, what changed?

49 comments

  3. It is probably more expensive with less excitment in it; I mean, alot of regulations, then its bad for the enviorment and not everybody has the space to fix stuff on his own anymore – Plus the whole thing that pretty much every car nowadays has all sorts of stuff which prevents you to fix stuff “for cheap” on your own.

    Sure, in the US are probably less regulation than in Europe – But in general, many Cars you’ve always to replace whole “groups of parts” or go into the “Board Computer” and so on.

    I personally also enjoy only rather old Motorcycles for an example.

    Yet that’s not something for everybody.

  4. I haven’t noticed that as a broad trend but the couple times I have seen it:

    The internet exposed them to places where a car is not necessary for personal freedom of movement and now they’re more pissed at the giant, expensive thing they’re going to be saddled with for life than excited about it.

  5. We used to go places and hang out with friends in real life. That’s not the way the world works anymore.

  6. What’s there to drive to? You can FaceTime, text, or call anybody at a moments notice and they’ve got the immediate ability to respond.

  7. Ride sharing apps, public transportation, walking, are a lot cheaper than owning a car. I’m 34 and I’ve never driven a car or owned a license.

  8. They don’t need a car to get laid anymore swipe on there phone and another swipe to get there in an uber

  10. Cousin has 3 daughters. 18/20/22. None of them have ever driven a car. It is shocking. None of them wanted licenses. They use uber/ride share if they need to get somewhere, and otherwise friends or other people pick them up. One is now looking at it as she is close to graduating college and may need a car to get to a job/career, but otherwise living on campus or by it has never needed a car. It is so strange to me.

  11. My boy cares about driving but you’re right. Gives zero fucks about cars. It’s completely different than when I grew up in the 80’s.

    But then again I didn’t have computer games and the only way to socialize back then was via a vehicle.

    Damn you Discord!!!

  12. Well every generation says that about the next

    My father said that to me and I earn. Well into the 6 figures. His father before him and I remember my great grand father. Thought my grand father was lazy

    66 year old man

  13. I’m a teenager, and, though I don’t have my license yet, I do know why. What is there to see? Look, bank, office building, shady warehouse, house, house, house, dime-a-dozen fast-food chain. Thirty minutes later you’re in the quieter parts of town where you can maybe see some relaxing scenery if you don’t run into large swathes of farmland or deforestation.

  14. The 880/580/80 interchange in California. Actually…80 in Ca.

    Sac to S.F is a death zone. And if it isnt a car accident, you’ll get shot, randomly.

    See enough car accidents and blood all over the highway growing up along with numerous close calls everytime you get in a car you start to wonder why the fuck anyone would want to drive at all.

    Dont get me wrong, Ive communted for 15 years and never been in an accident, but I have *nearly* been in one every. fucking. day.

    Plus, those god damn LED headlamps on those big ass trucks with off road tires. Assholes weaving in and out of traffic, optometry prices so high that people are driving with 5 year old prescription lenses. I mean I could go on and on but driving in California is not fun anymore.

  15. My theory is that they gave up on cars due to cost. Back in the 80’s, with minimum wage being $3.35/hour ,working weekends, school vacations, and full time in summer, I was easily able to make payments and upkeep on *just about* any 5 year old used car out there. That included paying my own insurance. Right now, with a career, I wouldn’t even attempt to buy, say, a 5 year old Mustang as I once had. I can’t imagine a 16 year old working part time and trying to afford a car today. Given the increased costs of everything from gas to parts and labor on repair, it’s just become untenable, likely causing many of the younger generations to give up on driving.

  17. You’ve spoke to every single one of todays teenagers?
    Putting the sweeping generalization aside, who cares? It’s not like we need more people driving.

  18. For us growing up, driving was freedom. Now, driving is irrelevant because of the constant contact of the internet. You can DO nothing and do everything at the same time.

  21. Every generation ever: “this generation of teens has no desire and drive!!! Why????”

    When I was a teen I heard the older generation say to me all the damn time “you kids today are lazy. All you do is play outside and don’t do an ounce of work. When I was your age I did 2 hours of chores in the barn before breakfast!!! You kids are lazy. I weep for our future!!!”

    Now today it’s “these teens today are lazy. All they do is sit on the internet and stare at their screens. When I was their age, I was outside playing. Kids today are lazy!!!”

    It’s a phrase as old as time.

  22. Im in my 40s and I never got the desire to have a car. Being able to get rid of my car is a big reason I moved to a city. Commuting in a car used to be the worst part of every day for me. So much wasted time.

    Edit: driving is kind of like owning a boat. It’s great to know someone who can drive and has a car but doing it yourself is terrible.

  24. I couldn’t wait. I got my “beginner’s license” on my 16th birthday and took (and passed) my full driver’s license test one day less than a month later. That’s not possible today since my area introduced “graduated” licensing since then, but I was stoked to drive and did it in the shortest time I could manage. Bought my first used car a few months later.

    My 23yo daughter is similarly excited about driving and likewise bought a used car as soon as she could after turning 17, but so many other young family members are approaching their 30s with no interest in getting a license. I wouldn’t care, except many of them expect the drivers around them to help them out when they need transportation.

  25. Cars are fucking expensive and lots of teenagers couldn’t afford to drive even if they had the desire.

  26. Maybe they’re learning earlier that driving sucks and isn’t worth the gas and insurance money.

  27. Teens are aware of all the lunatics driving, there are more transportation options that don’t include them being injured or involved in a lawsuit, it’s expensive to drive. Many of my 2 teen kids friends have zero interest.

  28. I grew up in a European city with very good public transport. Event when traveli abroad I did not need to drive. Just buy a ticket that would be cheaper than gas and chill in a bus or train reading books or watching something on my phone.

    I’ve moved abroad to US, Canada, Australia and getting around it a major pain in the ass. I hate the smell of petrol filled streets, getting stuck in traffic for hours and public transport is neither convenient nor cheaper.

    That’s not to say that I am not interested in cars. I work in a company that sells aftermarket parts for car enthusiasts and it’s good fun going to car shows and going on track. Jist everyday driving is boring and often even stressful.

    Plus I’d rather spend my free time working out, hanging out with mates, cooking for my family, etc…

  29. More traffic because more people in dense cities making traffic worse. Traffic happened in the 90s too but it seems to get slightly worse each year.

  30. I drove for over 10 years and then moved somewhere with better public transportation and now driving definitely feels like a chore anytime I have to. I do feel like it’s good to know how, but driving where I am is not very exciting and it’s a lot of sitting in traffic.

  33. Why aren’t they excited by cars? Lol. I think my grandfather wondered why his kid weren’t into horse carts. It’s dated tech that used to be cutting edge and now it’s ubiquitous and replaced by Uber and car share. why aren’t u excited about tiktok and the iPhone 13?

  34. Because driving is absolutely wasteful and youth knows they have been handed a trashed planet and want to make it a better place.
    Thanks all generations born in 20th century! You did us a good one! /s

  35. I drove the first day I was allowed to. I was so excited to actually start driving so I counted down the days like a year in advance and now I am working on becoming a truck driver

  37. Hopefully because the newer generations realize everything surrounding the car industry is straight up marketing, lobbying, and brainwashing… r/fuckcars

  38. If i heard a gen z say “i worked my shitty minimum wage job all summer and i still have a will to live and money for a car, insurance, maintenance and gas! and even tuition money for next year and enough to live comfortably” i’d think they were joking

  39. no offense good sirs, but the previous generation fucked up the economy so bad that owning a car, or enjoying any form of leisure is less desired due to the fact that cost of living is thru the roof, maintenance is out of this world, with complex electronics that cost a shit ton of money if you want to replace. better grab an uber, so that i wouldnt have to worry about gas prices and maintenance and insurance

  40. Cost vs earning
    There are too many cars, the roads are too croudy to enjoy driving anymore while you stay more stuck than actually driving
    Insurance cost
    Fuel cost
    Over expensive repairs while cars aren’t that reliable anymore like it used to be
    Again, cost vs earning

    I’m a driver since 2010 and I barely drive anymore now. However I overenjoyed driving during the pandemic lock down. The streets where so empty that I could enjoy it and fuel where cheaper. Too bad it didn’t last long.

  41. I’m not claiming to speak for general populations, just my two cents.

    There’s nothing exciting to see anymore; I’m going to see a muted sedan, an even more muted SUV, a lifted truck with fuck-you headlights, or 18-wheelers.

    I didn’t, and still don’t, have any friends to visit or meet up with (and I’m introverted, so I’m not just looking to go out anyway).

    Lastly, I’ve used my car for school and work since the day I got it, and my current college commute is an easy 2 hours. Driving is as much of a chore as entering data into a spreadsheet or filming a production. Why would I want to then drive around when I’m already mentally exhausted from driving—not to mention burning extra gas, when I know I’ll have to fill up again after four one-way trips?

  42. It’s more expensive than it was 40 or even 20 years ago, young people have less money and less opportunities to earn it, peripheral costs like gas and insurance have ballooned, frankly it’s just vastly more logistically difficult to pull of as a young person unless their parents are footing the bill. Even then, the parents of teens today are what, thirty-something? Huge swathes of *that* generation don’t have the kind of money that can upkeep an extra car on top of the two that both parents need for work.

    To top it off, where are today’s teens going to drive *to*? The malls are all dying, half-empty husks, the arcades are already dead, the parks have been paved over for strip malls and office space or are full of needles and the unhoused, the beaches are being washed out to sea, the libraries are under siege by reactionaries, and the nearest actual wilderness is hours away and probably choked with trash anyway. There is no Commons, that is, there’s next to nowhere left in public space where you’re allowed to exist without spending money. If the only thing driving really enabled you to do was get to your miserable part-time job easier so you can get yelled at by a middle aged woman with the manners of a toddler and get paid a wage that would take decades to make a dent in the cost of a year of college tuition, how excited would you be?

    I can’t speak to the rest of the world, but the US has become pretty inhospitable to people looking to go out somewhere. Wherever you look it’s either dilapidated to the point of being unsafe or gentrified to the point that kids can’t afford to breathe the air there. Everything near where people actually live is either crumbling or hideously over-monetized, and all of it is 90% concrete. Kids these days aren’t excited to go out and take part in the world because the world seems mostly grey and devoid of the kind of freedom and promise that enticed previous generations. Those previous generations loved it so much that they used it up and then sold off the things that made it possible when they were too old to participate anymore. The young largely moved to the online world because the places they might’ve gone before are extinct, bar a few living fossils that feel more like horrible grey reminders of a mythical, more colorful world now past. That of course brings its own issues in that the online world is basically ungoverned because no one in government has the first clue how any of it works, but that’s a separate rant.

    I don’t know if you’ll bother reading this, but the short version is, driving is an expensive, recurring entry fee to the joyless industrial park of the modern world. Also, it’s bad for the environment, there’s guilt involved too.

  47. You mean why people don’t want to get into a metal box, stay in traffic for few quarters, then try to find parking for another few minutes, while passing an oversized SUV or pickup that’s taking up two spots just to get to work and then repeat that same process after work, sometimes with having to carry groceries few hundred meters home?

    On top of that add car payments, gas prices, winter (where everything’s slower and you need to remove snow and ice), insurance, services and probably a ton of other things that goes into having and maintaining the damn thing and you see how massive choir it become.

    On the other side, there are quite a few alternatives that are frankly much better. Like bicycles – you don’t need to actively keep yourself focused on them, are dirt cheap, don’t get struck in traffic, you can park then anywhere, carry groceries directly from it to your fridge and no need for snow removal.

    Or walking and public transport. I’ve noticed that they plus some hand wagon is THE easiest way to deal with shopping and moving around in general.

    With all that it’s no wonder why places like r/fuckcars or Not Just Bikes got so popular recently

  48. 1- having a car is way more expensive than before, so not everyone is excited about spending for a car

    2- you can’t park anywhere because there are so many cars that you will spend a load of money for a parking lot or expose yourself to a ticket.

    3- Uber is cheaper than gas + parking and you can use your phone while you are riding

    4- public transportation is more efficient than before

    5- while driving you expose yourself to getting sued or involved in an accident, given that the insurance companies are significantly more expensive than before, having an insured car is not accessible for most drivers.

    6- young people struggle with rent, they can’t afford a credit for a car.

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