Gen Z are having an absolute shocker, and the worst thing is they don’t even know it. The relentless march of automotive progress is denying them a rite of passage preceding generations enjoyed for decades. And with it, the path to crucial driving skills, mechanical sympathy and perhaps, ultimately, true enthusiast status.
Because that gift bestowed upon their elders, usually on or around their 17th birthdays, was a truly diabolical first car.
Many would say, ‘But modern cars are safer, and therefore better’. Au contraire, say I. My counter-hypothesis is that the inherent awfulness of late 20th century bangers saved previous generations from really big offs by demonstrating their limits at preposterously low speeds, teaching us essential driving lessons in the process.
