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Auto manufacturers today are scratching their heads, trying to figure out why the millennial generation has little-to-no interest in owning a car. What car makers are failing to see is that this generation's interests and priorities have been redefined in the last two decades, pushing cars to the side while must-have personal technology products take up the fast lane.
It's no secret the percentage of new vehicles sold to 18- to 34-year-olds has significantly dropped over the past few years. Many argue this is the result of a weak economy, that the idea of making a large car investment and getting into more debt on top of college loans is too daunting for them. But that's not the "driving" factor, especially considering that owning a smartphone or other mobile device, with its monthly fees of network access, data plan, insurance, and app services, is almost comparable to the monthly payments required when leasing a Honda Civic.
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With recent studies showing a huge decline in auto sales among the millennial marketplace, it's no wonder auto manufacturers are in a mild state of panic, realizing they're missing out on a generation that wields $200 billion in purchasing power. Numbers don't lie, and over the last few years statistics have shown a significant drop in young people who own cars, as well as those with driver's licenses—and that decline continues among the youngest millennials, meaning this is not a trend that's going away anytime soon. From 2007 to 2011, the number of cars purchased by people aged 18 to 34, fell almost 30%, and according to a study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, only 44% of teens obtain a driver's license within the first year of becoming eligible and just half, 54% are licensed before turning 18. This is a major break with the past, considering how most teens of the two previous generations would race to the DMV for their license or permit on the day of their 16th birthday.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 14 2016, @01:47PM
Indeed, I wonder who this AC could be and where he might work, and how old he could be to still be drinking that KoolAid. Certainly he could not work in tech, because anyone who has worked in tech longer than 6 months knows how true to life Dilbert is. Or he could be a millenial who won the job lottery and got something working in finance, and is fresh off all the summer parties in the Hamptons that banks throw for their new analysts, and he's thinking boy this is great I sure am the best-and-brightest that EVAR WAZ, but has not yet felt the knives of his colleagues in his back (an occupational hazard in finance) nor truly plumbed how deeply stupid his superiors are.
But it is a vanishingly rare animal in 21st century America who yet spouts the Pollyanna platitudes this one has.
Washington DC delenda est.