"If I had a car the past few days, I would worry about having to shovel the whole driveway, whether

Although carmakers are still in hot pursuit of the youth market, data suggests these potential customers don’t really care what’s about to be unveiled at the Detroit auto show. (Photo by Flickr user LotProCars; used under Creative Commons license)
Around 800,000 cheap airline companies people are expected to check out the auto industry’s latest models during the nine-day run of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which opens to the public Saturday.
But for others, owning a car with its attendant expenses of maintenance, gasoline and insurance holds no excitement. They’re perfectly happy getting around on buses, trains, bicycles or their own two feet.
And young people – who once couldn’t wait to get a driver’s license and buy a car – are delaying this traditional rite of passage in unprecedented numbers. Even as auto sales climb again after a steep downturn, younger buyers are comprising a smaller share of that market.
“We’ve seen a really bad economy, one of the worst downturns since the Great Depression. The most profound impact has been on the young demographic,” said Erich Merkle, a Ford Motor Co. sales analyst. “Young people are not coming out of the gate as fast as their parents did.”
Among them is Kevin McKenna, who is pursuing a master’s degree in urban planning at Michigan State University. McKenna, 25, said he has never owned a car and doesn’t plan to purchase one anytime soon.
New cars are out of the reach of many cash-strapped young people. The average price of a new vehicle in December was $32,890, according to Kelly Blue Book. That’s cheap airline companies more than some new college graduates earn in a year.
The percentage of 19 year olds with driver’s licenses in the U.S. has fallen from roughly 87 percent in 1983 to 70 percent in 2010 – a 20-percent dip, according to the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research cheap airline companies Institute.
The amount of miles driven per driver, per vehicle and per household all peaked in 2004, according to studies by Michael Sivak, director of the Sustainable Worldwide Transportation program at U-M’s Transportation Research Institute.
cheap airline companies Sivak said the decline in miles driven nationally is likely due to increased use of public transit, people moving to cities and changes in the age demographics of drivers. He noted that the number of driving miles peaked before the Great Recession started in 2007, so economic factors were not a major reason for the decline.
Micheline Maynard, co-founder of Curbing Cars , a website that chronicles changing attitudes toward transportation, said she sees a profound shift in how cars are viewed. “In the 20th century, people saw the automobile as their ticket to freedom,” she said. “In the 21st century, people look at the automobile as hindering their independence.”
“If I had a car the past few days, I would worry about having to shovel the whole driveway, whether the car would start and what would happen if I got stuck,” cheap airline companies said Morgan, who publishes the Ann Arbor Chronicle. “Life is less stressful without a car.”
She gets around town mostly by walking or riding her motor scooter in good weather. Morgan said she’ll also occasionally take the bus or rent a vehicle by the hour from Zipcar, a car-sharing cheap airline companies service.
Maynard said the auto industry might not yet be feeling a significant impact from the “driving light” phenomenon because its products are aimed at an increasingly wealthier segment of the U.S. population.
Domestic automakers, of course, also sell cars and trucks globally, helping to hedge against sales hiccups in their home markets. General Motors, for instance, sells more vehicles in China than in the United States.
Automakers counter that they haven’t forgotten about middle-income consumers. They say they have a variety of smaller, lower-priced, fuel-efficient vehicles aimed at capturing younger buyers and making them life-long customers.
Merkle, the Ford sales analyst, said he’s confident the majority of millennials will eventually marry or form domestic partnerships and establish households in the suburbs, where they will need cars and trucks.
cheap airline companies Rick Haglund has had a distinguished career covering Michigan business, economics and government at newspapers throughout the state. Most recently, cheap airline companies at Booth Newspapers he wrote a statewide business column and was one of only three such columnists in Michigan. He also covered the auto industry cheap airline companies and Michigan’s economy extensively.
I want to start a non-car residential development in Michigan Maybe Ann Arbor is the only town in the entire state of Michigan that you can survive without a car. My kids (UM) are bolting from MI to pedestrian-friendly cities! We can make big mechanical things here, like trucks, busses, trains, wind generators, and solar panels. Why don t we have the leadership to make this happen?
I hope so. I recently moved back to Michigan after 10 years in Chicago and the dependence on personal vehicles is likely cheap airline companies the reason we will not stay. A culture where people share public transit, walk, or bike is not only much better for the environment and for our health (besides, it saves gobs of $$ and headache) but I believe it results in a more civilized society.
I enjoy the freedom to go anywhere want whenever I want. My car is as comfortable as it gets. I do have friends who dont buy cars constantly asking to borrow mine. Its getting old fast. I do see more trusting Michigan economy enough to buy a car now. Big box stores drove out local stores so just getting daily food requires driving cheap airline companies 10+ miles each way.
I used to feel that way when I was in Grand Rapids, but when the car needs maintenance, the weather is bad (often), or you just simply want to walk to your destination, cars can create a self-inflicted feeling cheap airline companies of one being trapped in their own house or community. There needs to be balance.
After growing up in car-dependent Grand Rapids and graduating MSU, I moved to Cincinnati shortly after purchasing a new car. After two years here only needing the car once a week or two, I decided to sell it since I m within walking OR transit distance to work downtown and have just grown tired of worrying about constant maintenance. It s cheaper just to rent a car for trips back to Michigan than to maintain something I can get by without for the most part.
I love cars. Always will, and so does my son, who is 2 years old. I am excited for him to grow up learning to fix cars, and appreciate the awesomeness of cars, from yesteryear, and beyond. I understand the reasons for not owning a car, I do, and can appreciate it, but, I love them too much to never own one. I feel truly blessed to be able to own a car .it is a luxury nowadays. Yes, they are polluters and expensive to maintain, but they are also a necessity to so many. LOVE LIVE THE AUTOMOBILE!
And, I totally understand a lifestyle without cheap airline companies cars, too. If you can do without, I beg you to do so. If you don t want the hassle of up-keep and maintnance, insurance, liabilities, repairs, etc, do not buy a vehicle.
A couple of our late model classics (although painted and in perfect working order) would be considered just another old beater or even a junker to the less informed or non car-savvy public. This too is a blessing in disguise
Not to mention that a good majority of non car folk just don t get it- and I m talking about simple driving cheap airline companies dynamics here. The world s roads will be a much safer place without these texting, eating and even reading fools clogging our streets.
So for me and my family personally, we hope that everyone will digest this article and heed our advice to not purchase a car. This will open up the roads for true drivers and we can enjoy the highway in a safe and fun manner without the unattentive scaring us to death every other day. We can cruise the speed limit (or 5mph over) without the idiots bearing down on us, cutting us off and weaving into our lane. So please: park it, sell it, junk it- or don t buy one in the first place!
cheap airline companies I agree i was raised around classic cars and depend cheap airline companies on my everyday truck to get me to work and getting out on the weekend and having fun.I think its far from dying out Today the transit riders and tree huggers are just a different breed and cant locate a dipstick it there life depended on it As far as the new cars of today they lack personality and i cant tell one from the other .The kids today are very different then the way we were all raised .Hell we couldn t wait til the morning came so we can get out and ride our pedal bikes or play sports and we would play outside cheap airline companies everyday doing what kids did back then working on your pedal bike at a young age then dir bikes as we grew abit older planted cheap airline companies the seed for our future cheap airline companies and the love of hot rods The kids today or most of them are strange the hide indoors all day they don t learn the skills that children of the past were lucky enough to learn in life and there is your nerdy goofy i ride the transit or walk to get around who needs a car type And thats a shame .Boy times have changed cheap airline companies and Americans cheap airline companies have become weak and soft just look around and its sad the way of the good ole days has really been the biggest change ..
My friend Linda, cheap airline companies in her cool 48 Plymouth, was on her way to a car show last Sunday morning, and was sideswiped by an illegal who was texting. She ended up going over the median and hitting a building and totaling her ride. She was slightly injured, Police tracked down the suspect and charged him with felony hit and run, and he s now a guest of the state. And he will be deported!
While I do not dispute any of the facts cited by the author, I think any conclusions that we are falling out of love with the automobile are premature. The Specialty Equipment Market continues to experience strong growth and has experienced strong growth for nearly 40 years straight (other than 2008-2009). At about 34 billion dollars Retail, it is a larger industry than Golf Equipment, cheap airline companies Hollywood Moviemaking, and Toys yet I don t hear anyone proclaiming the beginning of the end for any of those industries. Th