Andre1969
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
My mom's dad didn't have a car until 1959, he was 58. I bought my first at 18 when I went to commute to college/then back to work.
That got me thinking. On my Dad's side of the family, Grandmom and Granddad didn't get a car until sometime in the 1950's. It was a used 1949 Ford. Their first brand-new car was a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500. By that time, Granddad was 43, and Grandmom was 40.
Now, on my Mom's side of the family, Granddad gotten some old Model-A, 2-door sedan as his first car, but I forget how old he was. When he met Grandmom in 1946, at the age of 30, he had a 1940 Chrysler...Royal, I think. He taught Grandmom how to drive. Their first brand-new car was a 1949 Pontiac, but it was a demonstrator with some miles on it so they got a deal. At that point, he would have been around 33, and she would have only been around 25. They had a couple used cars after that...'52 Buick in 1955, '55 Pontiac in 1958, but then in 1960, they got a brand-new Chevy wagon, although Grandmom's aunt helped with that.
For comparison, my Mom's first brand-new car was a 1966 Pontiac Catalina convertible, bought when she was only 17! But, she saved up a third waiting tables at the Hot Shoppes, borrowed a third from Grandmom and Granddad, and the other third from an aunt. My Dad never did have a brand-new car, but about the closest he ever came was a 1964 Ford Galaxie, bought around 1966, when he was 20. Oh, wait, he did buy an '03 Regal, an ex-rental, at the end of the '03 model year. It had about 19,500 miles on it.
My first brand-new car was a 2000 Dodge Intrepid, bought in late 1999, when I was 29. I also bought a 2012 Dodge Ram, at the end of the '12 model year, and got a good deal on it because it was also an unpopular model...regular cab, long bed. Everybody wants extended or crew cabs nowadays.
I don't know what kind of car the typical Millenial is buying. Of the batch I know, one got a hand-me-down 2002 Malibu back in 2014, but then soon got a new Civic. He totaled it, and now has a Hyundai, but I forget it it's an Accent or Elantra. This guy's around 26, works two jobs. A few Millenials I know have never owned a car, and some are in their 30's now. One got his Dad's old Toyota Yaris as a hand me down. And one bought a brand-new Suburu Impreza, but it got repossessed when he lost his job. Since then he had a beater Durango and then an Escape that wasn't much better. Now he has nothing.