Which generation will be the biggest owners of Slates?

[brian10x]

I'm 65 and one of my first cars was a 1975 Datsun truck. I like basic.

 

[Doctors Do Little]

I'm 65 and one of my first cars was a 1975 Datsun truck. I like basic.

This one might ride better than the old Datsun or my old Hardbody, Brian!

 

[atx_ev]

I think Gen X, work from home people are the greatest market for this vehicle.

We're not stuck in our vehicles for hours like we used to be, having to commute to an office and back. My kids are growing up and driving on their own now, so having a big cab or even the SUV version doesn't interest me. I can drive this thing to the two places I frequent the most: home depot and the grocery store. And this thing actually fits in my driveway, unlike other trucks sold by other people.

It's a utilitarian vehicle for people who need a utilitarian vehicle and nothing more.

gen x here,

My kids are 17, 12 and 10. My 17 year old took lots of friends in her car when she wasnt supposed to so the two younger ones will get a slate where they can only take one passenger.

I work from home and I mainly drive by myself, though I have to pick the two youngest kids up sometimes so I would love a bench to seat 3. 90% of the time Im just driving to jiu jitsu, lowes, kitesurfing, or mountain biking. If we take the whole family we drive my wifes SUV. The oldest will be going to college in a year so we even just downsized from a minivan to the SUV.

I have a crewmax tundra which fits in my garage with about 2 inches to spare. Id love to be able to leave my hitch 1up bike rack on the truck full time and fit in the garage. Also I have to back the tundra out to access one of my garage work benches.

There are narrow roads in town that are annoying to drive in the tundra and I even got a flat a few months ago when I made too tight a turn and hit the curb.

I just came back from a month vacation and my pool turned green. Im going to need to put about 15-20 gallons of bleach in my truck. Because of the height it is hard to get the jugs out. I look forward to a smaller truck that can still hold that much stuff but where the bed is easier to access.

 

[Doctors Do Little]

gen x here,

My kids are 17, 12 and 10. My 17 year old took lots of friends in her car when she wasnt supposed to so the two younger ones will get a slate where they can only take one passenger.

I work from home and I mainly drive by myself, though I have to pick the two youngest kids up sometimes so I would love a bench to seat 3. 90% of the time Im just driving to jiu jitsu, lowes, kitesurfing, or mountain biking. If we take the whole family we drive my wifes SUV. The oldest will be going to college in a year so we even just downsized from a minivan to the SUV.

I have a crewmax tundra which fits in my garage with about 2 inches to spare. Id love to be able to leave my hitch 1up bike rack on the truck full time and fit in the garage. Also I have to back the tundra out to access one of my garage work benches.

There are narrow roads in town that are annoying to drive in the tundra and I even got a flat a few months ago when I made too tight a turn and hit the curb.

I just came back from a month vacation and my pool turned green. Im going to need to put about 15-20 gallons of bleach in my truck. Because of the height it is hard to get the jugs out. I look forward to a smaller truck that can still hold that much stuff but where the bed is easier to access.

Get a shorter pool?

 

[sodamo]

gen x here,

My kids are 17, 12 and 10. My 17 year old took lots of friends in her car when she wasnt supposed to so the two younger ones will get a slate where they can only take one passenger.

I work from home and I mainly drive by myself, though I have to pick the two youngest kids up sometimes so I would love a bench to seat 3. 90% of the time Im just driving to jiu jitsu, lowes, kitesurfing, or mountain biking. If we take the whole family we drive my wifes SUV. The oldest will be going to college in a year so we even just downsized from a minivan to the SUV.

I have a crewmax tundra which fits in my garage with about 2 inches to spare. Id love to be able to leave my hitch 1up bike rack on the truck full time and fit in the garage. Also I have to back the tundra out to access one of my garage work benches.

There are narrow roads in town that are annoying to drive in the tundra and I even got a flat a few months ago when I made too tight a turn and hit the curb.

I just came back from a month vacation and my pool turned green. Im going to need to put about 15-20 gallons of bleach in my truck. Because of the height it is hard to get the jugs out. I look forward to a smaller truck that can still hold that much stuff but where the bed is easier to access.

I added a step to my Tundra

 

[Luxrage]

Millennials are curious but skeptical of the low tech. “You mean I have to take my key out of my pocket and put it in the car?”

I'll counter that one with the takes I hear from a lot of my millennial friends. We started driving late 80s/90s simple (by modern standards), somewhat reliable cars in highschool. Fuel injection was mostly figured out by then and most cars had the basics nailed down. The lucky ones had the GM cars with the [ABS] emblems on the wheels and some sort of traction control. But a lot of my friends had preludes, civics, 2-door Blazers, Mustangs, and tons and tons of Jeep XJ's. There were SO MANY XJs in our parking lot. We got to watch the, for lack of a better term, enshittification of cars in real time, just as we had a taste of how nice things could be. The horrible teething years of infotainment/nav systems, the loss of buttons, and the rise of the crossover, and stuff like Nissans' adoption of Jatco CVTs.

I will say it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, shoutouts to Jeremy and his absolutely miserable base model '95 Cavalier. Or the guy who had the Eagle Summit with the automatic seatbelts. Or the girl whos parents gave her a massive, brown, late 80s RAM van. I thought that thing was amazing but nobody else did.

 

[Trace26]

I will say it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, shoutouts to Jeremy and his absolutely miserable base model '95 Cavalier. Or the guy who had the Eagle Summit with the automatic seatbelts. Or the girl whos parents gave her a massive, brown, late 80s RAM van. I thought that thing was amazing but nobody else did.

The cavalier with the 4 speed instead of the 3, or better yet the manual, is actually a pretty decent car. Even with poor service they won't die. Ran ours without a working radiator fan for 6 months with no problems. Just had to keep it moving, but we don't have traffic.
Sadly their not particularly safe cars with all the huge SUVs running around.

 

[Frogg3074]

My take:
The Slate was designed by a bunch of Gen X auto industry rebels.

Some Boomers think these crazy kids came up with a nifty idea.

Millennials are curious but skeptical of the low tech. “You mean I have to take my key out of my pocket and put it in the car?”

Gen Z is hopeful but it still might be out of their price range. Also, learning what a crank window is.

My Alpha is excited to borrow mine when he is old enough but still believes most of what I say and has been hearing nothing but hype from me.

Full disclosure, I am a confused Gen X/Millennial born in the between years.

Let’s keep it civil with some fun generational discussion and not bashing. 😊

Gen X here. My first vehicle was a 1980 Chevy LUV pickup truck. Basically the first S10. Single Cab, very small and everything manual. I want a Slate so bad!!

 

[Trace26]

Gen X here. My first vehicle was a 1980 Chevy LUV pickup truck. Basically the first S10. Single Cab, very small and everything manual. I want a Slate so bad!!

The Chevy Luv is so cool, always wanted one but the only ones I've seen for sale are way to beat up, to expensive, or both.

 

[ScooterAsheville]

The newer the generation, the more likely it is that large numbers of them will never get a driver's license. This is already a phenomenon in major urban areas. I know this is a provocative thing to say, and I offer no evidence to support it - but I strongly suspect that today's young children will never learn to drive a car.

I don't mean to provoke an argument over self-driving. It'll arrive when it arrives. Well, it's here now in some carefully mapped urban areas. But it'll arrive in force whenever. If you are a youngster, and you have a choice of spending $10,000 a year in insurance, depreciation, maintenance and operating costs - or you can spend $5,000 a year or less in self-driving fleet cars that pick you up and drop you off... I think the young will mostly pick the fleet. That frees them to surf the web to and from destination. Why drive when you can play games or surf social media?

That's just one person's opinion. I fully acknowledge it's no better than any other person's opinion. I do follow self-driving closely. So I'm kind of familiar with both progress and obstacles. In 2025, it's really easy to argue for or against convincingly. I think we'll have a better dataset come 2030 or so.

Disagreements are most welcome. Your take for or against is as valid as mine.

 

[slateya]

The newer the generation, the more likely it is that large numbers of them will never get a driver's license. This is already a phenomenon in major urban areas. I know this is a provocative thing to say, and I offer no evidence to support it - but I strongly suspect that today's young children will never learn to drive a car.

I don't mean to provoke an argument over self-driving. It'll arrive when it arrives. Well, it's here now in some carefully mapped urban areas. But it'll arrive in force whenever. If you are a youngster, and you have a choice of spending $10,000 a year in insurance, depreciation, maintenance and operating costs - or you can spend $5,000 a year or less in self-driving fleet cars that pick you up and drop you off... I think the young will mostly pick the fleet. That frees them to surf the web to and from destination. Why drive when you can play games or surf social media?

That's just one person's opinion. I fully acknowledge it's no better than any other person's opinion. I do follow self-driving closely. So I'm kind of familiar with both progress and obstacles. In 2025, it's really easy to argue for or against convincingly. I think we'll have a better dataset come 2030 or so.

Disagreements are most welcome. Your take for or against is as valid as mine.

The road wars are coming. Wait until a significant amount of cars are autonomous operated by big tech corps. They will be programmed for very defensive cautious driving. The meathead aggressive road raging drivers will figure this out quickly and also have a philosophical hatred for self driving and their occupants. The self driving cars will be completely camera up and start reporting all of the harassment. Pretty soon the big tech will lobby for criminal actions based on all of their cameras.

Us and our Slate will be stuck in the middle.

 

[sodamo]

Self driving. Yes. And I can see that as a real boon to the elderly or disabled. Don’t take my keys away, the car knows how to get there - safely.
as for ownership, I think that urban vs rural will be a factor

 

[KevinRS]

The newer the generation, the more likely it is that large numbers of them will never get a driver's license. This is already a phenomenon in major urban areas. I know this is a provocative thing to say, and I offer no evidence to support it - but I strongly suspect that today's young children will never learn to drive a car.

I don't mean to provoke an argument over self-driving. It'll arrive when it arrives. Well, it's here now in some carefully mapped urban areas. But it'll arrive in force whenever. If you are a youngster, and you have a choice of spending $10,000 a year in insurance, depreciation, maintenance and operating costs - or you can spend $5,000 a year or less in self-driving fleet cars that pick you up and drop you off... I think the young will mostly pick the fleet. That frees them to surf the web to and from destination. Why drive when you can play games or surf social media?

That's just one person's opinion. I fully acknowledge it's no better than any other person's opinion. I do follow self-driving closely. So I'm kind of familiar with both progress and obstacles. In 2025, it's really easy to argue for or against convincingly. I think we'll have a better dataset come 2030 or so.

Disagreements are most welcome. Your take for or against is as valid as mine.

Self driving just isn't there yet. In some urban areas, public transportation options have made not driving possible, but much of the country has cities and suburbs that are not planned for that. It's basically a requirement to have a car for 90%+ of people.

 

[Doctors Do Little]

Self driving. Yes. And I can see that as a real boon to the elderly or disabled. Don’t take my keys away, the car knows how to get there - safely.
as for ownership, I think that urban vs rural will be a factor

Yes!!! I would pay handsomely for this for my very elderly parents.