I’ve been pondering something subliminally for a long time
and I am coming to some conclusions that are thought-provoking for people in
our business. Young people are not as interested or obsessed with buying
or owning cars like past generations, us. They don’t really care about
cars like we did. Life was over if you waited one day beyond the
sixteenth birthday to get your license and simply not possible to continue on
if you didn’t have a chubby ride. Why many of us actually re-enlisted in
the Marines in order to get the extra doe to buy an Austin Healy 3000 Mark II
or a GTO. Have you heard or seen that happen lately?
I live in Delray Beach Florida where there are more Lambo’s, Rolls,
Ferraris, and generally whacky cars than anyplace I’ve ever seen and that
includes Monte Carlo and La Jolla, OK, not Dubai. But there are more Bentleys in a row on
Atlantic Ave in an evening than you see in Washington DC in two months.
Some generalizations here, but they do fit. When you watch to see
who is looking at what and look at the demographic it is not young people that
are flabbergasted by wild cars. Its older people, north of forty, that
rubber neck a fat car. It’s not app using young people.
Now for my official, unofficial conclusion; Student
debt, and Uber have changed their attention, buying patterns, attainable wants, and
possibilities by a giant divisor. They proclaim not to like grapes
because they can’t reach them. The burden of student debt for the average
person is totally normal at this point and it is a monster. It cuts
a big chunk of what used to be the potentially emotional buyers out of the market. That combined with
Uber, which is an undeniable spectacular substitute for a personal ride,
that is a fact that isn’t going away. It more or less eliminates the
need for a car especially for the age group that live on apps.
Every time I get a chance to ask people in the younger age group
what’s up with the car thing it’s the same answer. They really are not
into cars. I also survey every Uber, taxi, and limo driver I can.
Same response. Who uses Uber? Primarily younger people.
How’s business in the taxi and limo world, “it sucks, Uber is killing us”.
Well when I am looking at our merch on the block and look at
the action, compare it to what used to be, it simply ain’t the same. It’s
been an incremental change over the years, but it is undeniable heartbreaking
as it is. The red hot desirable screaming fat sports cars and the triple
fat anything else, simply does not have the action it used to, period, on the
floor and on simulcast. No crowds, no emotion, just mud. Oh, it
sells. But not with the action that a real rip roaring auction can
generate that used to get your juggler veins banging. Just ain’t
there.
Where does that leave us today and tomorrow in the car
business? Conclusion on top of the conclusion; Student debt is an
institution that a lot of people make a fortune on, so it ain’t going
away. Uber is the next Facebook that will be delivering you your
groceries soon. There is not a minimal doubt that it is going
to grow for a long time and become a part of the way we move around.
It will relegate us all to stay home or go out and come back
incognito. The car that was the extension of your personality (to put it
nicely) is a thing that is going to the sunset. I don’t know how to get
excited about selling mud but I think that’s the way I see this evolving.