Rarely a month goes by when we’re not being told that the Gen Zers couldn’t give an expletive emoji about cars anymore.
Generation Z is made up of my kids. Not exclusively – I only have the three. It’s those born between 1996 and 2010, and there are estimated to be nearly 13 million of them living in the UK.
And the problem – or trend, if you prefer – is that the number of young people qualified to drive has fallen to the lowest level on record.
Compared with 35 years ago, half as many 17-to-20-year-olds now hold a full driving licence. Thirty-five years ago, I was one of those who couldn’t wait to hit the open road.
If you live in a city, every time you open the door, blink into the sunlight, and take delivery of a sugar-free iced vanilla latte with soy milk, you’ll glimpse some of the reasons young people aren’t driving anymore. When you can hail an Uber, or zip about on an electric scooter or bicycle and beat the traffic, why would you pay a small fortune for driving lessons, wait a lifetime for the next available test, and run the risk of flunking it, all before you’ve even considered the cost of buying a used car and getting yourself insured?
But you and I know different. We know that an electric scooter can’t get you from London to Cornwall for the Boardmasters Festival – although a YouTuber has probably tried. We know that you can’t do your best Carpool Karaoke impressions on a bike. And we know that you can’t give mates a lift home from a party, help out one of the family with an errand, haul the detritus from your doer-upper first flat to the tip, or get yourself to work when the bus/train/tube drivers decide working isn’t for them.
Or, perhaps most importantly, you can’t even just go out and have a drive for the sake of enjoying driving, leaving the stresses and strains of everyday life in your slipstream.
Recently, though, I have met young drivers and, well, reader, there is hope! Take the example of Anton Constantine. Early this month, I spotted him – rather, his car – at the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace. The special-order ‘Polychromatic Green Masons’ paint of his Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II was as mesmerising as an emerald, the only Silver Shadow II to be painted in that colour by the factory at Crewe.
Then Constantine tells me he’s just 25. You wouldn’t imagine that a ‘Shad’ and a 25-year-old are a couple, but that’s what makes the pairing so pleasing – the demographic is shifting and young drivers like Constantine are finding appeal in interesting, alternative cars. And what could be more of a talking point than a car that was once the choice of rock royalty?
After snapping up the Roller on eBay, young Constantine put 800 miles on the clock during a road trip around Britain – further than it had travelled in the previous three years. Then he set about restoring it to its former glory. Now he says it’s a keeper.
Then there’s Alfie Munkenbeck. At 28, the north Londoner just about falls into the Gen Z camp but not for him a Lime bike or bus pass. Instead, he embraces driving, and he gets his kicks from a “Blue Glacier” – a 1954 Citroën 2CV with exquisite patina. If ever the term ‘survivor’ should be applied to a car, this is it.
He’s owned it for two years, it’s the third 2CV in his life, and is accurately described by Munkenbeck as a “museum piece”, its early 425cc flat-twin engine providing a mere 12 horsepower – much of which could be quickly offset by a basket of baguettes and brie.
It barely breaks 40 miles per hour and, says Munkenbeck, requires plenty of sympathy and planning ahead. Many wouldn’t be as tolerant, but surely that’s what makes this young driver the perfect custodian.
In complete contrast, Tahmid Haque’s car of choice is unlike any I’ve ever set eyes on. A one-of-two Koenig-bodied BMW 635CSi, it is as 1980s as shoulder pads and power perms. The 26-year-old took the plunge on the outlandish creation after spotting it at auction, following the demise of the London Motor Museum.
A total head-turner – at least, it is judging by reactions at Hagerty’s RADwood celebration of 1980s and ’90s car culture – it seems a shame that it spent so many years locked away and off the road. Haque plans to refit the all-black interior with Tiffany Blue leather – something altogether more in keeping with the flared white body and vast split-rim alloys.
He’s clocked up nearly 2000 miles during this summer alone and says he enjoys showing and sharing the car and seeing how people – car enthusiasts or not – react to it. Reaction that mostly, I’d imagine, involves jaws hitting the floor.
So even if the overall trend paints a picture of declining numbers of drivers, don’t for a minute assume that the desire to embrace car culture and be different doesn’t still exist.
In different ways, the three characters here are all highly active within our hobby and doing their bit to show their peers that driving can be about so much more than commuting. And if you play your cards right, choosing to drive and picking the right car could even make you a little money in the long term, thanks to appreciation.
Hopefully, their exploits encourage others to ditch the scooter or bus pass, embrace the unusual, and cherish that driving licence and the freedoms it allows.
