Jack Price joined the marines in fall 2021 knowing he would need a car to get around base and that he couldn\u2019t afford a new one. A joyless, month-long search through dealer classifieds and Facebook Marketplace listings ended when his mother spotted a 2010 Volkswagen Jetta posted on her office listserv by a co-worker moving abroad. With just 60,000 miles (96,560km) on the meter, the car (a manual!) was mechanically sound, and the air conditioning, sunroof and Bluetooth radio worked too. At $6,000, it was a steal. Price paid in cash.<\/p>\n
Five years on, the Jetta, which he called the Pewter Pebble, is still carting him from A to B in unassuming style. \u201cI\u2019ve completely driven it into the ground,\u201d says the 30-year-old, who lives in Los Angeles. \u201cAll over bases, cross-country a couple times, not really lovingly. I get so much crap from people, but not people my age.\u201d<\/p>\n
double quotation markPeople just want something that\u2019s not going to fail themCharlie Spears<\/p>\n
For generations, buying a first new car has been a rite of passage in the US, the clearest sign of a young person responsibly striking out on their own. But younger millennials and gen Z are increasingly finding that path blocked. The average new vehicle costs more than $50,000, an alarming figure that reflects Americans\u2019 insatiable appetite for progressively larger SUVs and pickups. Meanwhile, adults under 35 are disappearing from showroom floors, accounting for less than 10%<\/a> of new vehicle registrations in 2024 \u2013 a new low.<\/p>\n Trey Kemp looks through the rain-covered window of his 1989 Ford F-150 during the Caffeine and Octane car show.<\/p>\n According to the credit reporting agency Experian, the average monthly car payment in the US is $765 for a new car<\/a> and $542 for a used one, with the loan terms now stretching to six, even seven, years. A record 21% of new-car buyers pay $1,000 or more a month<\/a>, according to the autos research group Edmunds. And that\u2019s before factoring in maintenance, fluctuating gas prices and the eye-watering insurance premiums often charged to drivers under 35.<\/p>\n For many young Americans already under the strain of student loans, high housing costs and an unforgiving labor market, buying a new car or even a newer used one is out of the question. Enter the Y2K car \u2013 the retro ride that has become a trendy romantic choice for some younger Americans. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely a golden era of cars from the late 90s and early 2000s that people just really want all of a sudden,\u201d says Charlie Spears, a service adviser at an independently owned repair shop in Atlanta who conducts prepurchase inspections of used cars on demand. \u201cA lot of people just want something that\u2019s not going to fail them.\u201d<\/p>\n Y2K cars don\u2019t encompass everything produced in that era. They are the ones that simply won\u2019t die. Think wedge-shaped Honda Accords and slab-sided Toyota Camrys: dependable, hand-me-down transport that can last 150,000 miles or more with routine maintenance. (Price\u2019s Jetta, which was built at the end of a model production run that began in 2005, just makes the cut.) They\u2019re economical to run and relatively inexpensive to insure, owing to their drastically lower worth. Best of all, the purchase price is low enough to pay in cash. Even when buyers need a loan \u2013 at steep interest rates as modern cars have in effect become mortgage payments on wheels<\/a> \u2013 they can pay it off in a fraction of the time it takes to finance a newer car.<\/p>\n a man standing by his car and the headlights of a car <\/a>Christian Handy poses with his 1995 Volvo 850 T-5R. He says the small wipers, designed to keep the headlights clean, no longer work.<\/p>\n The supply of these bargains is dwindling: used vehicles priced under $15,000, the sweet spot for Y2K cars, have shrunk from 21% of inventory a year ago to 15%<\/a>, according to industry analysis from Cox Automotive \u2013 numbers that speak to the demand for affordable cars. \u201cPart of the draw is the nostalgia factor \u2013 people wanting cars they grew up with,\u201d says Consumer Reports\u2019 autos expert Keith Barry. \u201cAn old car with the right music on is kind of the closest thing to a time machine.\u201d<\/p>\n On social media, the Y2K car has emerged as an ironic status symbol \u2013 a marker of maturity, grit and lack of pretense. Defects \u2013 busted aircon, glitchy windows, bits and bobs that have failed, fallen off or been held on with gaffer tape \u2013 are simply treated as part of a Y2K car\u2019s personality. \u201cI don\u2019t know what kind of disease that is in the brain,\u201d says one TikTok creator, who has to pry open the fuel door of her 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander with a screwdriver<\/a>. \u201cBut I don\u2019t get frustrated. I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, this is fun.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n In a Y2K car that takes a lickin\u2019 and keeps on tickin\u2019, creature comforts are beside the point. For many, part of the appeal is the absence of dashboard infotainment displays and other screens that have replaced basic switches and knobs in newer cars, often in the name of cost-cutting. Automakers\u2019 zeal to monetize in-car technology, sometimes charging extra to activate physically installed features such as heated seats and remote start, only reinforces young buyers\u2019 doubts about the value of a new car.<\/p>\n At the same time, do-it-yourself repairs have become harder as cars grow more digitally complex and auto manufacturers cut off access to owners and even independent mechanics<\/a>. Oftentimes, they require investing in specialty digital readers or computer software to diagnose problems, and bespoke tools for wrenching. Most car owners would sooner punt, take the car to the dealership and pay whatever the maintenance and repair costs \u2013 which, of course, is exactly the vertical integration that shareholder-bound manufacturers are after.<\/p>\n A 1990s-era Honda Civic sits in front of a row of newer sports cars as car show attenders wait out the rain. The event draws a mix of older enthusiast cars, daily drivers and newer performance vehicles.<\/p>\n Hence the romance with Y2K cars: you can fix \u2019em yourself, their old-school controls fall easily to hand, they\u2019re tried and tested, seemingly built to last. They just have an aura of invincibility \u2013 never mind that their age makes them fundamentally more dangerous and susceptible to frequent repairs. \u201cI\u2019ve used my Jetta as if it were a truck,\u201d Price says. \u201cTransported trees in it, put my surfboard through the sunroof. I\u2019ve done every single thing possible to thrash it beyond its abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Price\u2019s passengers, however, don\u2019t have much appreciation for Pewter Pebble\u2019s quirks. Often while carpooling to US military installations, senior officers compelled to hold up the sagging headliner would ask him when he was trading in his beater for a new truck or SUV. It was a similar story when Price left the military last year and started chauffeuring Alex Vindman, the Iraq war veteran turned US Senate hopeful, on the campaign trail during Florida\u2019s special election. \u201cI drove him around a couple times in it, and he was like, \u2018What is going on?\u2019\u201d Price says. Generally speaking, he says, \u201cthe fact that we expect folks who are getting paid, like, a grand a month to have a new car is nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n Twenty-five miles north-west of downtown Atlanta, a half hour\u2019s drive in optimistic traffic, sits Town Center at Cobb, a typical suburban mall in recession. But on the first Sunday of every month, the mall parking comes alive for Caffeine and Octane, a sprawling car show that\u2019s open to the public, free to attend and also has long lines for coffee and donut trucks. And even though the usual turnout of 2,000-plus cars was winnowed down to a few hundred on the gray, showery morning of October\u2019s show, it was still an impressive array of vintage American muscle, Japanese domestic market (or JDM) unicorns and multimillion-dollar exotics. The Y2K cars stood out, too.<\/p>\n Sitting right at the entrance of the show was Anthony DeNaples\u2019s 2000 Buick Regal GS, a sleeper sedan that has become a cult classic. He bought it four months ago for $18,000 on Facebook Marketplace, a price he considered a bargain for such a rare commuter. \u201cPerson didn\u2019t really know what they had,\u201d says the 37-year-old custom car builder, who uses the car to ferry his two young daughters. His oldest is constantly goading him to do burnouts, which she calls \u201cmaking stripes\u201d. Modern cars, he reasons, have become so laden with safety systems \u2013 for keeping the car in lane, or slamming on the brakes<\/a> when sensors detect an obstacle \u2013 that they\u2019re less fun to drive hard. \u201cA lot of newer cars, if you want to drive it how it\u2019s meant to be driven, you\u2019ve gotta shut off all these things, and a lot of times it doesn\u2019t completely shut off.\u201d<\/p>\n a man in a car and a tongue in the front of a car <\/a>Stevie Dombrowski sits inside his 2007 Ford Mustang during Caffeine and Octane. A tongue protrudes from the front bumper of another car at the show.<\/p>\n A few rows down from the Buick were Mike and Kate Landaverde in his-and-hers Honda Civics from the 90s: a barebones CRX coupe called Dirty Gertrude and a slightly less spartan wagon called Tatiana. The couple bought them cheap, in keeping with the Y2K ethos. Mike, 34, treats having to bump-start the CRX and his sweat-soaked commutes in summer traffic as part of the thrill ride. \u201cI\u2019m smiling the whole time,\u201d says Mike, who manages a local Wendy\u2019s. They keep a 2021 Toyota Corolla hatchback in the garage as a backstop. That car\u2019s got AC.<\/p>\n When young Wendy\u2019s customers pull up to the drive-through in newer barges he assumes carry huge monthly payments, Mike can\u2019t help feeling a bit smug. The couple\u2019s Hondas, however, haven\u2019t necessarily come cheap. Kate, 39, reckons the money she has put into modifications on Tatiana alone could buy a new car. But the occasional outlays \u2013 on an engine swap, most recently \u2013 can be done at a self-directed pace. \u201cYou can do the mods at your own wallet bracket,\u201d says Kate, a software specialist who does her own wrenching. \u201cYou can go eBay parts. But all my friends call me bougie because I\u2019m not gonna do anything cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, making a case for best in show was Alex Jimenez in a 2001 Volkswagen Eurovan tricked out to look like the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine. \u201cMy family is growing,\u201d said Jimenez, a 32-year-old facilities manager, as his 14-year-old daughter Izel sat shotgun scrolling through her phone while a Scooby-Doo cartoon played on the aftermarket infotainment display. Beyond the extra space, he says, \u201cwe love it because I can literally fix everything at home. I don\u2019t need special equipment or tools or a computer to diagnose what\u2019s wrong with it. And it puts smiles on people\u2019s faces everywhere we drive. I mean, everybody\u2019s taking pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n A Scooby-Doo plush hangs from the window of a Volkswagen customized as the Mystery Machine.<\/p>\n Y2K cars have their charms, sure. Barry, of Consumer Reports calls it \u201csurvivorship bias\u201d \u2013 seeing the most durable makes and models still on the road contributes to assumptions that all from the era must be rock solid. But there\u2019s a reason the automotive industry moved on. \u201cIf you go back to cars in the 1990s, our road-test data and reliability surveys were showing problems that were unheard of on modern vehicles: defective paint, parts falling off; the steering wheel would be on crooked,\u201d Barry says. Rust is another scourge of Y2K cars, though it\u2019s less of a concern in the Sun belt. Newer models are far better protected against corrosion. \u201cThe technology that allows a car\u2019s body and frame to survive longer is just so much more advanced,\u201d says Barry, adding that a modern car from a manufacturer that prioritizes reliability can reasonably be expected to last 200,000 miles or more with proper maintenance. To his point: the average car on American roads is now 13 years old<\/a>.<\/p>\n double quotation markCar companies are banks nowChe Bidal<\/p>\n Still, some young Y2K-car owners welcome the opportunity to get their hands dirty. Che Bidal, a 19-year-old Pit operator who also belongs to the furry community, was idling inside his 2004 Mazda6 as the rain poured on Caffeine and Octane. He takes immense pride in having bought the broken sedan for $900 and getting it running again with another $1,500 in parts and help from AI chatbots and YouTube tutorials. Having Frankensteined a Y2K car back to life, the prospect of taking on a new car payment \u2013 in this economy \u2013 only to be discouraged by the manufacturer from making his own repairs seems ridiculous. \u201cCar companies are banks now,\u201d says Bidal, who was further emboldened by his positive experience under the hood to start a wrenching group for furries. \u201cComing from fandom into the [auto enthusiast] community is a whole different thing \u2013 pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevertheless, there\u2019s a critical difference between a car that\u2019s gratifying to restore and one that can protect you when something goes terribly wrong. Modern cars are subject to increasingly demanding safety standards, and the differences in structural reinforcements and accident-avoidance features between models just three years apart can be dramatic. Consumer Reports has long recommended that drivers prioritize safety as much as their budget allows \u2013 advice that its largely Boomer readership can more easily take onboard, naturally.<\/p>\n Chase Che wears his furry mask in his 2004 Mazda6. He bought the V6-powered car for $900 and used it to learn how to perform his own repairs and maintenance, with help from a car-focused group within the furry community.<\/p>\n Barry went through an old-car phase too. \u201cWhen I was driving around in my 1988 Renault Medallion, I\u2019d see someone come across the center line as they\u2019re looking on their phone and think, \u2018I would not stand a chance in an overlap collision,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cYou might think that the older car you\u2019re driving is a tank. Well, the car might be fine. It\u2019s the things inside the car, the new safety features, that help you survive.\u201d Features like blind-spot monitoring, driver attention monitoring and electric stability control, which intervenes to maintain traction in a skid.<\/p>\n The US auto industry has made some effort to address young consumers\u2019 affordability concerns. In 2021, Ford introduced the Maverick, a four-door compact pickup with an available hybrid powertrain and a starting price below $30,000. A startup called Slate, which offers an infinitely customizable electric truck with a starting price of about $25,000, hopes to begin fulfilling orders at the end of this year.<\/p>\n In China, buyers can get new cars with features that would seem extravagant at the same price point in the US \u2013 the payoff from decades of Chinese investment in innovation<\/a> and American offshoring of manufacturing. An affordable, widely available Chinese car<\/a> with modern features would give young US car buyers something truly tantalizing to consider. But Chinese automakers are in effect shut out of the US market. Even if they weren\u2019t, Barry cautions: \u201cWe\u2019re still not getting one for $8,000. Think closer to $20,000. You\u2019re still going to have a car payment. And even if the interior is simple, it\u2019s a different kind of simplicity than someone driving a 99 Camry is looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n From left, Ayden Blake, Evan Barclay, Riley Bennett and Stevie Dombrowski stand with their vehicles. The friends said the ability to perform their own maintenance and make modifications draws them to older cars.<\/p>\n Ultimately, young consumers just want cars that deliver on the industry\u2019s fabled promise of independence \u2013 and right now, Y2K cars are meeting the brief. These days, Price\u2019s Pewter Pebble struggles with a leaky sunroof, and the headliner is still drooping. \u201cIt\u2019s a Volkswagen so it\u2019s coming back to bite me in the butt,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve probably had to put three grand into it this year.\u201d But with more than 150,000 miles on the clock, it\u2019s taken him further than even he could have imagined.<\/p>\n The absence of a car note helped him become a homeowner in his 20s. It softened the blow of Alex Vindman\u2019s upset loss to Democratic socialist Angie Nixon in Florida\u2019s August Senate primary. Rather than scramble for another job, Price took a European vacation to decompress and plot his next move. As it happens, he spoke to the Guardian from the Spanish Pyrenees. \u201cIf I had a car payment and I lost my job,\u201d he says, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have the flexibility to hike a mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n