Topic: Toyota To Show Off Camatte57s Concept, A Car Kids Can Drive

[Autos_Editor]

Toyota rolls out the ultimate kit car you can build and drive with your kids.

Read More...

[redman]

"The vehicle aims to convey the joy and dreams of motor vehicles to current and future drivers, by providing an opportunity for parents and children to together experience the fun of driving, car customization and car enthusiasm."

Come on now, this vehicle aims to market Toyota to a younger demographic and little else.

Toyota has one of the oldest aged customer demographics.

[Snowman]

"The vehicle aims to convey the joy and dreams of motor vehicles to current and future drivers, by providing an opportunity for parents and children to together experience the fun of driving, car customization and car enthusiasm."

Come on now, this vehicle aims to market Toyota to a younger demographic and little else.

Toyota has one of the oldest aged customer demographics.

My daughter is a 24 year old university student and drives a 2003 Toyota Echo. She told me that her first new car will be one as well as the Echo has given her 6 years of trouble free driving and now has 200k on the clock.

[johngenx]

With growing urban congestion, high insurance rates, high gas prices and the rapidly rising cost of service, many young people today view automobiles very differently than we did when we were young.  They either don't consider car ownership, or they look at them as a conveyance appliance and seek the lowest cost alternative possible.

Even in our wealthy burb, a surprisingly small number of teens are excited by cars.

[mixmanmash]

With growing urban congestion, high insurance rates, high gas prices and the rapidly rising cost of service, many young people today view automobiles very differently than we did when we were young.  They either don't consider car ownership, or they look at them as a conveyance appliance and seek the lowest cost alternative possible.

Even in our wealthy burb, a surprisingly small number of teens are excited by cars.

We can thank Facebook and Social Media for that.  Teens don't have to leave the house to see their friends or keep in touch.  All they need is internet access and the modern day smart phone and tablet has made that more convenient.  There was somewhere a study done where they found less teens are getting their drivers license than 20 years ago.  They attribute the cause to many different factors, biggest being Social Media.

[rrocket]

I'd slap a 2JZ in that baby....

[Black Hatch]

What a novel concept to bring the average age of Toyota owners down.

You know you have a few teens here and they will counter-balance all the older folk.

[X-Traction]

With growing urban congestion, high insurance rates, high gas prices and the rapidly rising cost of service, many young people today view automobiles very differently than we did when we were young.  They either don't consider car ownership, or they look at them as a conveyance appliance and seek the lowest cost alternative possible.

Even in our wealthy burb, a surprisingly small number of teens are excited by cars.

We can thank Facebook and Social Media for that.  Teens don't have to leave the house to see their friends or keep in touch.  All they need is internet access and the modern day smart phone and tablet has made that more convenient.  There was somewhere a study done where they found less teens are getting their drivers license than 20 years ago.  They attribute the cause to many different factors, biggest being Social Media.

Probably there are other reasons less welcome on a car fan website.  It has been decades since some people realized our car-centric culture has some very undesirable and unsustainable aspects.  It can be expected that young people who do not drive until allowed to, are in a better position to structure their lives to lower reliance on private cars.  They don't buy the car culture's rationalization that you can't live in today's society without driving.  They are educated about environmental matters, whereas that word never even came up during my formal education.

This is not limited to young people either.  There are plenty of people, perhaps a majority by now, who try to minimize their driving.  As opposed to the car culture where driving is seen as an end in itself and is maximized.

I'm not sure what to make of Toyota's kit car.  On one hand, it will help youngsters see small electric cars as "normal", but on the other hand it will condition them to view car driving as the normal state of affairs.