What's that again about Millenials not driving?

[peteski]

2 hours ago, Richard Bartrop said:

5 hours ago, bbowser said:

I agree with this, as well as the fact that today's offerings just don't drive the passion the way cars have in the past.  For the most part today's cars are appliances, generating as much excitement as a dishwasher.

I'd take this one a little more seriously if people hadn't been repeating it pretty much verbatim since before I was born.

I believe bbowser is correct (and all the people saying the same thing for years were also correct).  Remember, that you are not "most people: you are an automotive enthusiast. You like cars (either model or 1:1 cars). In the greater scheme of things, you are in minority of the population.  Car enthusiasts have always been just a small proportion of the general population for many decades.

For majority of car owners, the car is (and has always been) an appliance to get you from one place to another, in relative comfort.  This goes for people in 1950s who bought bare-bones cars,  people in the '60s who bought Ford Falcons and similar cars, people who bought Pintos, Vegas, and low-end Toyotas in the '70s, K-cars in the '80, Toyota Corollas in the '90s, and so on . . .   Great majority of those folks have no great passion for driving.  They probably would be just a happy for someone else (or a coomputer) to do the driving.  Catch my drift?  You are the special one (along with a very small chunk of the general population) who finds great passion in car ownership, driving, and building scale models.

[Richard Bartrop]

Yes, for most people, cars are just a tool, and it's been that way for a good, long time, but to suggest that this is somehow unique to today is factually wrong.

[Cpt Tuttle]

With rose tinted glasses, we tend to forget the uninteresting vehicles of the past. Lately, 80s cars have grown in popularity, and sure, there is lots of cool cars from the 80s that have been underrated for a while. But it's not like everyone was driving a Testarossa, Audi ur-quattro, 560 SEC or even a C4 Vette in the 80s. A typical car by then almost anywhere in the world was a GM J-body (since it was produced by almost all their divisions worldwide) in some horrible shade of tan. They weren't anything else than appliances either, they are almost gone from the roads now and nobody is missing them. Despite being rare, you can forget that someone is willing to pay any money for one.

[DonW]

In response to the talk about transmissions, automatics terrify me. I'd rather have full control. Good bit of exercise too, changing gear manually..

Edited January 18, 2020 by DonW

[Fabrux]

Automatic for work, manual for pleasure. 'Cause shifting this in traffic and hilly terrain is painful.