95 replies to this topic

[regfootball]

http://www.insidelin...-hate-cars.html

a great summation about where it's at...... phones are more important than cars..... and cars are not connecting with the young set, and they are too expensive, and probably not fun enough......

[vonVeezelsnider]

I was having just this same conversation with my dad maybe a month ago.

It's interesting how priorities and hobbies change with generations... It is plain to see for me as I observe my peers. Many people around my age (21-23) don't drive period, the ones that do seem to prefer appliances like the Civic or Corolla (if they have money it's the ubiquitous base model Silver 3-Series, White C-Class or Black A4) to anything interesting, be it American, German, Korean or Japanese . Then again lots of folks my age seem to me to lack the situational awareness that would make them safe drivers (perhaps this is also related in some way to phones, texting, technology replacing common sense- I could go on and on forever on this one).

I would agree that it's not connecting any more. I used to think think that I one of the things that made me an "old soul" was my taste in big american cars, but it has been becoming more and more apparent to me lately that it's maybe because I am into cars period. From where I sit my generation is, though in the presence of exceptions, becoming a subset of drones who are cripplingly beholden to societal 'norms', social trends, and blending in at all costs, lest, god forbid, someone realize you are a living breathing individual.

/rant

[regfootball]

this is a big problem for the auto industry..........

unless they want less revenue and fewer units sold......

[the_yellow_dart]

Of the roughly 15 good friends I have in my age group in Toronto, one has a car. Three have licenses. Transit is seen as the future and many of them don't understand why I drive.

[§carlet §wordfish]

In metropolitan areas I can understand why cars are becoming less relevant. But where I grew up and still live, where there is practically zero public transportation, cars are still very important to young people. My house and my friends' houses aren't in walking distance from ANYWHERE interesting. Even so, I didn't like learning to drive and put off getting my license until after I graduated high school. I was perfectly content riding in my parents' or friends' cars.

[CanadianBacon94]

Around here in northwestern Ontario people prefer trucks, People i know actually hate cars, and drive these

other than that close to the same situation as Mr. $wordfish i could see not having a vehicle in a city, but in small towns there is no public transit

Edited by CanadianBacon94, 06 February 2012 - 05:52 PM.

[Cubical-aka-Moltar]

I can't imagine living w/o a car, even in the city. I've lived downtown before in a city of 1/2 million people (Denver), but still had 2-3 cars. And in the suburbs or small towns or rural areas, public transit options are little to none. I'd hate to have to wait on a bus (though I did use the light rail often to get from the burbs to downtown and vice versa in Denver).

[Camino LS6]

Sad commentary.

[balthazar]

Just asked my son (17), he mulled it over & said 'phone'.
'I can always get a ride'...

[FAPTurbo]

Sad commentary.

No it's not.

[Cubical-aka-Moltar]

Reality, circa 2012. People are so dumbed down that in another decade or so, will there be anyone under 30 in the US that can even operate a manual transmission?

Edited by Cubical-aka-Moltar, 06 February 2012 - 09:57 PM.

[FAPTurbo]

With the financial situations you've been in, I think this article is right on the nose.

[Dodgefan]

Reality, circa 2012. People are so dumbed down that in another decade or so, will there be anyone under 30 in the US that can even operate a manual transmission?

It's not dumbed down. I don't know if anyone here has noticed lately. but the economy isn't in great shape. Especially if you don't need a car, it makes perfect sense not to take on the financial responsibility of owning one. From payments, to insurance, to maintenance. It costs a lot of money to have a car, and if you live in an era where public transit is a viable option, there's not a real need for it.

Plus, it works well for those of us to do enjoy our cars. Remember that statistics show that 16-18 year olds have the highest accident rate of any rage group. Having less of them on the road is just fine by me.

[§carlet §wordfish]

Guys, in a century, cars are going to be about as common as horse-drawn carriages are now. And they'll have the same romanticism associated with them. There will always be people who like to drive, but it's incredibly naîve to believe that the motor car is the pinnacle of personal transportation.

[Cubical-aka-Moltar]

Guys, in a century, cars are going to be about as common as horse-drawn carriages are now. And they'll have the same romanticism associated with them. There will always be people who like to drive, but it's incredibly naîve to believe that the motor car is the pinnacle of personal transportation.

In the future, maybe it will be like the Matrix...resource units just plug in and provide energy to the computers...

As far as driving less, I wouldn't mind at some point living in a nice gentrified neighborhood in a large city where I only need my cars on weekends and can enjoy driving and live and work in walking distance of lots of restaurants and bars, etc. When I lived downtown I enjoyed it, but I never worked downtown--found myself commuting to the burbs..that got old. I want more square footage in a house, though, so my next place will probably be in the burbs...

Edited by Cubical-aka-Moltar, 06 February 2012 - 11:38 PM.

[black-knight]

Guys, in a century, cars are going to be about as common as horse-drawn carriages are now. And they'll have the same romanticism associated with them. There will always be people who like to drive, but it's incredibly naîve to believe that the motor car is the pinnacle of personal transportation.

Unless I can beam myself between point A and point B (and come out completely intact when I arrive there) with a magic wrist-watch, the automobile is about as good as it's going to get. And I'm just fine with that.

For the record, a self-driving car, despite the fact it is Satan incarnate, is still a car. It still has four wheels, something that powers them, and is road-going. A bus, by technicality, is also an automobile as well.

[§carlet §wordfish]

Sorry if you misunderstood me, I was referring to manually-operated cars like we've had for six score years. Self-driving cars will probably become very common in the next century, much as everyone here will hate to admit it. I'm having a hard time caring anymore.

[§carlet §wordfish]

Well from this point on, when I refer to "cars," I mean cars as we know them today.

It just baffles me that some people here can't accept that other people have greater priorities in their lives than their mode of transportation. Cars are not a quintessential part of human existence. Americans lived without them for over a century. Humanity has lived without them for millennia. Billions of people STILL live without them, and couldn't care less about what they're missing. When the complete history of humanity is written up, the internal combustion engine powered automobile will be nothing more than a footnote, a fad that lasted 100-odd years before people found some other gadget to obsess over. THINGS CHANGE, it's a fact of the universe. Nothing lasts forever. Enjoy what you have while you still have it, don't bitch about nobody else giving a fuck someday.

[black-knight]

Well I see I've managed to offend a few of the resident clowns around here by all of the negative points on my posts. Sorry my opinion differs from yours. Sorry for being myself. Just to make ya'll happy, I've taken down most of my posts in this thread.

Also, since I'm so inclined to please everyone tonight, you can just go ahead and down rank this post into oblivion too since I know you won't agree with it and can't be bothered to respond to it as an intelligent adult. And hey! Before I forget, while you're at it you can just go find my other 11,923 posts and rank all of those down too.

I wonder why I even bother to stick around this place sometimes.

Edited by black-knight, 07 February 2012 - 12:59 AM.

[§carlet §wordfish]

Wasn't me who downvoted your posts. And my posts were aimed at everyone, not you personally. I don't have a problem with anyone who's a fervent petrolhead, I mean who else is this website for? What really annoys me though is when some fervent petrolheads get all indignant towards people who don't really give a damn about cars, acting like that makes them some sort of soulless brainless communist sheeple or whatever other ridiculous epithet they care to apply to them. Just as it annoys me when non-car lovers get indignant towards car lovers and think they're sociopaths who are single-handedly ruining the environment.

It's not "sad" that some people don't care about cars. It's perfectly normal to not care about cars. People will find other things to care about as times change. That doesn't make them wrong, nor does it make you wrong for not caring about the same things they do. Why is this so hard for some people to accept?

Edited by §carlet §wordfish, 07 February 2012 - 01:33 AM.