• by Karl Greenberg , Staff Writer, June 1, 2013

It's aphoristic that younger people’s appetite for cars is sagging. Facts detailed in numerous reports bear that out. I got on the phone with Sheryl Connelly, who leads global trends and futuring at Ford Motor, to talk about it. Ford Motor held a conference this week in New York all about cars and hipsters: How do you get younger people interested in a product when they aren't interested in owning big things with wheels because they prefer little things with touchscreens?

Connelly mentioned some stats: the U.S. Department of Transportation reports that in 1978, five out of ten teens drove. In 2008, it was three out of ten (I think I'm getting these numbers right). Distance driven by 17-year-olds dropped 24% between those two periods; it dropped by 18 percentage points for 18-year-olds and 15 percentage points for those at 19. Miles driven by 21- to-30-year-olds are down eight percentage points. 

And despite of the saccharine predictions about Gen Y and its optimism that one sometimes hears at marketing conferences, we have all seen stories and reports detailing the generally grim outlook of younger people vis à vis job prospects and opportunities for upward mobility. 

Connelly mentions some other economic issues arguing against a 20-something-driven boom in showroom traffic: it's more expensive to get a driver’s license, and it takes a lot more time to do so now. "It used to be a free summer course in high school," she notes, adding that the insurance bill alone is huge, costing parents a couple of grand. "The other issue is that while mass transit is far from robust, the alternatives are much stronger now." 

And there's wallet distraction. "As a young person, you used to be saving up for car. Now, you are saving up for a lot of things. And while a car used to be a rite of passage, that's been displaced by cell phones, the new iconic symbol of independence," she says. 

Also batted around at the Ford conference (which I missed, by the way, as -- digital immigrant that I am -- I put the wrong time in my Google calendar) was the assertion that the stigma associated with renting or borrowing has been reversed. Because of digital platforms based entirely on borrowing bytes, ownership for a lot of categories has lost its appeal. What matters is access. "That comes from music industry; in my day, you'd buy CDs. Today, music is borrowed, and nothing touches your hand. Ownership has become fluid,” notes Connelly. 

The examples of this, as well as the another trend, modern bartering, are just too numerous to mention, and they transcend such world-to-Web migrators as Netflix. There's house-swapping, Zipcar, and -- especially relevant in New York City just now -- bike shares. 

What about cars, by the way? For Ford and everyone else, talking to 20-somethings means talking telematics. While people have bristled when I've asserted that telematics and connectivity are the new "horsepower," Connelly agrees with me, to some extent, anyway -- younger folk are a lot more interested in apps than engine displacement. So, says Connelly, automakers need to think of telematics in terms of "online oxygen": the connectivity you have at home should be everywhere, including the car. "The car is where a lot of us spend a lot of time. From a generational standpoint, Boomers and Gen Xers use the car for productivity. For younger people, it's more about the social connection."