I think the housing crisis for younger folks contributes. When I think about my 68 cougar, the cost in parts and tools over they years hasn’t been too bad, but I’ve often had to store it at relatives or try to find storage when working around the country. That had a much bigger impact on my wrench time.
This is a big contributor.
I got into the car scene in the early 2000's. Everybody's living situation was different, most of us were in our early 20's or 30's, and that really dictated where everybody was in respect to housing. I was renting, paying like $575/month for a 2-bedroom apartment. A buddy of mine was my roommate and we were both computer and car enthusiasts.
Cars were pretty cheap, I bought an '87 Mustang GT for a few thousand. It was healthy, though the body wasn't great, particularly the door posts (T-top car). Did the subframe connectors and reinforced the torque boxes. Dumped lots of money into that car, but it was a cheap foundation to start with and you could do lots with a 302HO due to the massive amount of aftermarket support. Engine bay was accessible, I did heads/cam/intake in the car port of my buddy's place over a weekend.
Some of the guys that were a bit older already had houses and their own garages, which made things easier. Those of us who were renting, we'd be doing stuff in the yards or garages of the parents of other friends. Everybody would eventually buy a house though, for the most part.
When we bought our place, it had a carriage house for a garage (century home) which worked for my 2nd project, which I effectively abandoned when I bought my M5. Most of us had kids at that point and life got in the way, so we stopped meeting up and the car scene for us pretty much petered out for the most part. I think I have one friend left that is still into the foxbody scene?
My eldest is coming into the same age bracket I was in when I got into cars. If he moves out (he lives in our attic) rent is now at minimum, triple what I was paying. Housing prices have quadrupled since we bought our place, making that a significant barrier to entry. Gasoline is also very expensive, so it is not possible to just get in and drive for a few hours "just because" like we used to. I remember one night a friend of mine and a couple of girls drove to Ottawa for no reason other than we were bored.
He has already cut his teeth on his ATV, wrenching on that, and is learning as he goes on the early 2000's Ranger he picked up. So, he's learning the basics. But there's no real car scene for him to get into. People his age aren't doing heads/cam/intake swaps or adding nitrous/superchargers/turbos to early 2000's Mustangs. They are a PITA to work on, more expensive, and the young adults just don't have the disposable income we did at that age, because life is so much more expensive and the living situation that much more precarious in terms of both access (finding a place to rent or buy) and cost (pricing for an apartment the size of my kitchen is like $2K/month in the GTA and you are looking at 500-600K for a tiny house in a crappy neighbourhood).
So, young adults are staying at home with their parents longer. The car scene is also less attractive due to:
- Cars being more difficult to work on
- Gains in output are more difficult to achieve on cars that are reasonably affordable
- Gasoline is considerably more expensive
- Aftermarket support has dwindled
- Fewer people have access to places where they can perform the modifications
So, IMHO, it's a combination of factors. On top of that, these kids are being told in school that they are killing the planet by driving and none of them can afford EV's, let alone performance-oriented ones.