The car market in the United States has really shrunk over the last few years. Historically, we've sold 17 million new cars annually. Now we're down to 10 million each year.
Last year, Clark talked about how the Japanese were losing their romance with cars and downsizing. Some families were skipping cars altogether and using the country's great transportation system. Others were downsizing from two cars to one.
The consumer champ thought this could never happen in America. After all, our public transportation system isn't robust and the open road seems to be imprinted on our national DNA.
But never say never. New stats out show that teens are waiting longer to get their licenses, according to
The Washington Post. Only one in three teens now has a license at 16. That number used to be about one in two.
Interestingly, it's not parents who are keeping teens off the roads; it's the teens themselves. Many are choosing to bum rides with friends instead. Perhaps the high cost of auto insurance has something to do with it.
This whole mindset is alien to Clark and probably to most older Americans. When Clark was a teen, he had a calendar and counted the days down until he turned 16. While it varies by state, 16 is the age at which most teens can get some kind of provisional license.
The benefit to this new trend is that the longer young motorists wait to get behind the wheel, the safer they tend to be.
