Why America stopped driving
Tweaking the discussion title; this one was originally called "New Car? I'd Rather have an iPad".
"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?
"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?
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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.
" 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.
Millennials Driving Less, Citing Cost, Digital Alternatives and the Environment (Edmunds Daily)
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.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
For Millennials, It's Apps More than Acceleration (AutoObserver)
Less distracted uninvolved idiots on the road, could be good.
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After knowing what it would cost, 55% of those surveyed were interested in remote vehicle diagnostics. This compares to 52% that were interested in "non-branded premium sound systems" and 50% for "wireless connectivity systems."
Remote Diagnostics Top Car Tech Among Consumers (Straightline)
It's nice to have more up to date technologies in vehicles. I think it's a bit far fetched if people believe that is the main issue keeping us from buying vehicles unlike the older generations though. Surveys give a general idea but not a proper explanation, especially concerning a buying trend examined by older generations that observes younger generations. Parents play a big role in the things we all want in this world when we're not old enough to legally work (in the U.S.). After all, they're the ones who buy that shiny toy for the well-off kid we all see in elementary school playing with his shiny new toy. When it intrigues and piques our interest, our parents have to decide whether or not to buy it for us.
Heads-up Display (HUD) is a great example of a safety feature taking away the added danger of distracted driving towards giving your peripheral vision all it needs to drive a vehicle. Not only is it a "new" technology but it's a safety feature. Airbags might not be able to tweet to your followers when they deploy (YET) but they help increase your chance to be able to keep tweeting after an accident. No longer having to dart down or quickly glance at your vehicle speed as much as you would have to with a HUD compared to the standard speedometer is a nice safety feature that I believe should show up more on vehicles. It'd most definitely keep certain people entertained rather than distracted too.
At the same time, adaptive cruise control, collision warning/crash avoidance, blind-spot warning, pedestrian detection, self-parking and similar technologies need to be carefully implemented. It's a great safety feature for those who don't depend on it IN ORDER TO avert their attention elsewhere. Just like how a certain group of drivers are fully aware less vehicles are being offered with a manual transmission (or that standards have lowered somehow in that field of driving), I just worry that some people, eventually younger people than me, expect the car to drive itself, sooner or later, with all of these technologies. Then they can go back to what they were doing without being as alert as we were without those technologies.
That's great if an autopilot is advanced to the point where we no longer need to drive on specific types of roads or to wherever the GPS has mapped that road. Car manufacturers have done well with giving the appropriate disclaimers for these new technologies but I only hope that trickles down into an eventual moral belief, common sense, etc. rather than a law/rule.
Creating an unhealthy dependence that decreases your ability to drive a fully functioning vehicle meant for citizens is definitely a way to increase how civilization declines if we're still dependent on automotive vehicles.
I'm not even in my mid 20's and I can already see the trend. It's nice to see younger generations and my peers so much more informed than my parents and elders were when it comes to just information overall. However it's nerve-racking thinking about civilization declining because everyone just becomes so lazy and unprepared when someTHING else does the work for you. It gives "driving to your death" a whole new meaning.
My 2000 Park Ave has the HUD, and I have my doubts about any safety improvement. One of my friends drove it, and said he didn't like it because he said seeing the number on the windshield made him want to aim the car towards it! Not that that makes a whole lot of sense, as the number is stationary on the windshield, so it's going to go where you aim the car...it's not just going to lead you off into the wild blue yonder or something!
I have found it to be a bit of a distraction, though. Even though you might be more likely to look out the windshield than down at the speedometer, it gives you something to focus on, when you should be focusing on the road ahead! Oh, and when it gets low on fuel, the HUD also displays the message "check gages", and then that distracts me because of the spelling error! :P
Head up is cool though, esp how BMW does it with also putting navigation directions on the display, and in Europe anyway, even the speed limit.
As for the latest electronic aids, I just don't care for some of them, or the way they function on some models. For example, a buzzer bothers me more than a vibration of the steering wheel. I understand that Infiniti uses a buzzer for its lane drifting device (don't remember the proper name for this safety feature at the moment), while BMW employs vibration. I suppose that's an individual preference.
"gauge". Another GM idiosyncrasy I get a kick out of is the idiot light with the lightning bolt that says "GEN" under it. My '76 LeMans has that, although I don't think GM cars had generators since what? 1961 or 62?
"The spelling variants gauge and gage have existed since the first recorded uses in Middle English, though in American English gage is found exclusively in technical uses" (Dictionary.com).
Yeah, a buzzer for lane departure would bug me too. When I drove BMWs with that feature, I turned it off, even the vibrating was annoying.
Our new CX-7 is equipped with a blind spot indicator - a little warning light built into the side mirror illuminates when there is a vehicle in your blind spot.
After driving the car for several months, there are a couple of issues that I don't like about it, both related to the fact that there is a warning chime when you use the turn signals while there is something that triggers BLIS:
1) If there is a retaining wall or hedgerow on your right, using your right turn signal will trigger the warning chime.
2) When passing slower traffic on the interstate, I have a habit of flicking on my turn signal just as I finish passing the car or truck. On our recent road trip, apparently I do this a bit too soon for BLIS and trigger the warning chime. Irritates my wife to no end, as she thinks I'm going to change lanes right there and then. I'm having to relearn the timing of the use of my turn signals until the BLIS light is out.
My sister is worse, she'll start signaling to change lanes back to the right about as soon as she gets into the passing lane to pass someone. Drives me crazy.
Definitely going to recommend she look at a CX-7 when she goes car shopping again.
There was a precursor to this in the late 50's called "Rescue 8" that also took place in LA and featured a much better looking (IMHO) period Chevy Suburban.
But, I can understand the sentiment. With inflation and price creep, and all the features on cars these days, some of these prices do seem extreme. Kinda reminds me of a time back in 1993 though, when I went into a Dodge dealer and they had this new Intrepid ES on the showroom floor, pretty much fully-loaded, and my first thought was good lord, $25K for a DODGE?!
I had the same thought back in 1983 when I was at a BMW dealer in Phoenix - at the time 3-series were going for something like $15K and I thought that was all the money in the world for a starving college student like myself.
eia.gov
But the ultimate irony is the so called "environmental" element of electronics, I.E. IPOD's, etc. How "environmental can it be when EVERY piece of consumer electronics" is literally obsolute as soon as the transaction clears the credit card approval/debit!!??
On the consumer electronic and car payment issue, I ordered a new iMac tonight to replace the one I've had for about 2 years. That one will go to my office and the one from my office will be sold to someone who will get several more years of use out of it. I've been a computer nut since I was a kid, and am still involved in the field, so I can justify keeping current equipment.
One thing that I do differently from many people is that I don't hoard. What comes in also goes out. I have one cell phone, one GPS, one portable computer, one desktop at home, one at work, etc... If I replace my cell phone, I sell, donate, or recycle the old one.
Maybe if I offer to replace my mother-in-law's dog of an eMachine with this one, my wife will go for the idea. She used to sign up for university classes just so I could use her internet account back in the day (so far back, the browser was text only Lynx), so she's usually pretty tolerant when I start jonesing. My last fix was three months ago getting her an iPad.
Funny I keep cars forever. But near the top of the must have list when I finally go shop for a new one is going to be a USB port on the dash. Two or more power ports up front would be nice; one for the Garmin and one for the mp3 player. And having all the digital readouts on the dash is fun too; the dash in a Buick rental a couple of years ago got a workout, going from miles to empty to miles traveled to average mph to average mpg, etc. Fun stuff.
My Altima has a power port in the bin under the radio that is switched with the ignition, and a power port in the center console that is always on. I nearly killed the battery on a road trip because I had a portable cooler plugged in and didn't realize that the one in the console wasn't switched! :sick: I wish it had a USB port or at least would play MP3 CDs (as the 2010 model will).
Probably is cheaper to buy 'em built these days, but I just like futzing around with them.
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I never had a birthday party like that. :sick:
Disruptions: For Teenagers, a Car or a Smartphone? (NY Times)
As Young Lose Interest in Cars, G.M. Turns to MTV for Help (NY Times)
Seriously, it's about the cost of running a vehicle, which for many young people in this dumbed down new world economic reality, just isn't feasible when jobs are hard to find, rides are easy enough to get, and lots of gadgets compete for any pocket money. And even those who can afford it don't particularly care, hence the sales of Corollas.