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Having lived most of my life carless, and even now, writing about and driving cars for a living, still not being keen on it or seeing the necessity of it.
Of course, that's because I live in a country built around a lack of car ownership. Where the teeming mass of blue collar and many low-to-middle-level white collar workers commute via public transport. (Said public transport being nearly fully privatized in this country)
If it's available, there's nothing wrong with public transport. Nothing wrong with not wanting to spend either money (cost of purchase, registration, insurance, gasoline, repair) or time (which is also worth money) on a motor vehicle. Not unless you absolutely need it to deliver goods or equipment for business.
I realize Amierca is a little different. Mostly in the fact that public transport outside major cities absolutely sucks. But given a youth that has little money, fewer available jobs, and an electronic means of satisfying their social obligations (no need to drive out to the bar to meet up for beers or to drive up to see your family more than once a year) or sometimes even work (telecommuting and meeting online... rocks), the actual need to own a car and to learn its inner workings is becoming as outdated a skill as knowing how to field-strip a rifle. Well... both are useful skills to maintain, if ever civilization were to fail tomorrow... but they grant no survival benefit in the here and now.
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