Millennial Car Ownership

After years of articles claiming that millennials weren’t interested in vehicle ownership, it turns out the press had it all wrong. No surprise. Ridesharing may have changed how people commute, but it looks like most people across all demographics prefer vehicle ownership.

A March 2018 NADA article stated, “The survey’s findings run contrary to a number of recent reports predicting that the convergence of electric vehicles (EVs), autonomous vehicles (AVs) and ride-hailing services will dramatically cut the number of personally owned vehicles.”

In fact, 9 out of 10 consumers surveyed said they prefer personal vehicle ownership over using ride-hailing services as their primary form of transportation. People want to own cars.

So why are millennials so late to the party? Two words: student loans. The generation will have an estimated $1 trillion in student loan debt by the time the youngest of them complete school. Millennials’ student debt rate is 18.7 percent higher than Generation X.

As this debt is paid off, millennials are more apt to purchase vehicles, especially SUVS, and homes. Makes sense to pay off some debt before acquiring more. Instead hearing how millennials are “lazy” and wondering why they aren’t buying cars, the press should look at root of the problem. Why have education costs more than doubled in the last 30 years

That’s a conversation for another day. The point is that millennials are interested in vehicle (and home) ownership. They’re just on a different timeline, holding on and hoping not to get closed out of two big American dreams.