How Do You Market To A Generation That Really Doesn't Think They Need A Car?

Since so many of todays youth are not interested in vehicles and are more interested in their cell phones, offer them the following. A bare bones compact with a sub 2.0L engine with ~100hp, manual windows, basic heat/ac and cloth seats. Overstylize the interior, and make sure you have a touch screen infotainment feature either standard or as an add on for very little. Ditch trying to come up with a whole new operating system for the vehicles entertainment system, and instead go with an existing cellphone os. An android or apple powered vehicle will go very far in terms of appealing to todays youth.

Great article, my daughter and her friends are the perfect example of this generation. We purchased her a MINI which she basically uses for high school and her tennis academy only. She admits that she does not like driving and that she prefers for us to drive her to places.
When my wife and I were her age, we where out on the road all day long but we didn't have cell phones or home computers.

<rant>This is the downfall of free society. Every new generation is more spoiled that their parents. Rotten spoiled. How many kids got a tablet or a smart phone for Christmas and why do they need these (I'm guilty of this too, btw)? They prefer someone to chauffeur them around, cook them dinner, clean their room, do their homework, entertain them as they are perpetually bored, and give them obscene allowances for them to drink Starbucks caramel macchiatos. I thought my parents were pretty liberal raising me up, being a second child and such, but there was none of that.</rant>

Good rant, but we have nobody to blame but ourselves as parents. Parents don't have to give these kids any of these things and parents can make kids work to earn these "toys". I don't "give" my 7 year old son an iPad, he is earning it by recycling about $5 worth a weekend - yep, it's going to take a while and he can do odd jobs for $2 here and $5 there, but he will learn what it means to "earn" $500, and then realize whether it's worth spending on after he's worked so hard to save.

vdiv totally agree with you, we are extremely guilty of this behavior. It's getting worse in my house since my girl, which is our only child will be heading overseas this Summer for a year as part of the RYE Program. Since she will always be my little girl regardless of age and as long as I have the means, I guess I will continue to spoil her <rant>.

Hardly any parents buy their kids brand new cars anyway, so why do automakers think that will change? When I was in high school, I only knew of two kids who had their parents buy them a new car. And not surprisingly, both of them were known as the "rich kids". All the rest of us peons had used cars or borrowed a parents'.

Once they need to work, they will need some wheels unless they live in an urban area.
My kids grew up with us driving on long road trips.
They have no problem driving.
One of my kids chose to drive the NJ Turnpike and cross the GWB on their way home from Philly.
'I figured if I could do that, I'm good to driving just about anywhere'.
Driving a v8 suv just goes with 'road trip'.
I'm a proud papa.

Go with the flow. The world changes and you cannot compare the next generation with the previous one. This was never true btw.

I'm going to blame Honda on this. Back in the day there were tons of young people who bought cheap and reliable cars who ended up becoming car nuts just because they happened to be a blast to drive.

Nowadays I see some young people driving bloated Camrys and I'd rather ride my bike too.