Answer to the OP is as simple as this:

Think that's about it really, people in their late teens/early 20's can't afford to get a licence and run a car, let alone to modify it.

The days of filling your tank cheaply and taxing your car for pennies are long gone.

fuel, tax and insurance wasn't that cheap when i started driving in 2008, i was paying over 1k for insurance back then and petrol was about £1.20-1.30 a litre.

obviously it's not as expensive then as it is now but it wasn't exactly cheap, yet the amount of modified cars going around was about 4-5 times what it is now, surely the amount of young drivers on the road hasn't dropped by that much.

fuel, tax and insurance wasn't that cheap when i started driving in 2008, i was paying over 1k for insurance back then and petrol was about £1.20-1.30 a litre.

obviously it's not as expensive then as it is now but it wasn't exactly cheap, yet the amount of modified cars going around was about 4-5 times what it is now, surely the amount of young drivers on the road hasn't dropped by that much.

The modified scene was already rotten by that point, at least compared to when I learned to drive back in 2000. Show attendances were falling rapidly, companies were folding left right and centre, ad revenues were shrinking and magazine sales were ebbing away uncontrollably with no signs of recovery. Trust me, I was watching it happen from the inside at the time (I could go on about this at great length but I'll spare you the boredom and me the sore fingers )

Then think about everything that's happened since. The arse has fallen out of the economy, the cost of living has gone up but salaries haven't altered to match and we've got record unemployment among young people. When it's more expensive to live in the first place, running a car doesn't have to increase in price that much to make it an unaffordable luxury.

Plus people buying fewer new cars = less used cars further down the line = demand outstripping supply = higher prices for the few that are about = less affordable used cars. Add in the scrappage cull a few years ago, and buying a banger to muck about with isn't so easy, not to mention it's a fucktonne more complicated than it was.

Since you've learned to drive, the newest non-carbon taxed cars have aged another five years. Have you seen how much it costs to tax, say, a Subaru Impreza these days? The days of it being the same as a 1.6-litre cooking-spec Golf are gone, and then you've got to put fuel in it. Extreme example, but you get the idea.

Perhaps it's a little limited to say it's purely because of the cost of running a car, but I'd be amazed if that wasn't the root cause of a large part of the decline. The rest you can put down to changing fashions. Ten years ago modifying was fashionable and mainstream. Ten years forward it's gone back to being a niche, the mags have gone, most of the big shows have ceased to be and people think it's chavvy. That doesn't help either.

(I'll be brief with this as a closing point, just in case it's brought up as a counter argument. There's been a big hoo-haa about how healthy the UK new car market is at the moment, it grew 5.3% last year. Does that make any sense to you? The UK economy shrank in the fourth quarter, unemployment is hovering around 2.5m people, pan-European car sales dropped by over a million units, or 7.9% on average... yet the UK was the only one of the five biggest markets to record an increase in new car sales. Not a small one either, the biggest increase in 12 years! A good year for volume, but at what cost?)

where i live thier is no decline at all! well it all depends on what side of wolverhampton you live..my side there is quite a few..the other side its nothing of the sort!

Where the fuck are these cars you talk of? you live like down the road from me aha!!

depends what you would class as modified i guess.

I think there are less, and i pay more attention now than i used to.

We live in a generation where 'if its broke replace it' rather than fix it. People are also lazy as fuck, cant be doing with modifying.

Probably a good thing though, before it was dickheads in modded nova's causing grief on the streets, now its idiots in standard corsa's.... Looks better for us

Answer to the OP is as simple as this:

Think that's about it really, people in their late teens/early 20's can't afford to get a licence and run a car, let alone to modify it.

The days of filling your tank cheaply and taxing your car for pennies are long gone.

I remember putting £5 in my first Polo and it lasted a few days!

Those were the days...

I remember putting £5 in my first Polo and it lasted a few days!

Those were the days...

try putting a fiver in the M3 and see if it will get you out of the petrol station

I voted no, but that's only in my area, and i know half of those people

Being someone who has recently started driving i think i have a fair idea as to why there are less in general, and i would say that it's mainly down to money reasons, and the fact that everyone who leaves school at 17/18 seems to have this idea that you HAVE to go to uni or you're going to fail in life (guilty i am going to uni) so very few people even bother getting a car or even lessons as they see it as being a waste of money cause they wont use it when they're at uni, and the ones who do get a car don't have enough to modify it due to the silly increase in running costs of cars, mainly insurance.

Years ago, even when my older brother started driving, you could more or less pick the best car you could afford and insure it no bother, where as now it's a case of finding the cheapest insurance quote for a bunch of cars and making your decision from that, and hope that the price doesn't go up once you get one.

i blame most of it on insurance, i mean my insurance is £700 more than my car is worth! and then once you declare mods it goes up £££'s!

rant over.

I remember having an interview at a uni once, and I wasn't massively sold on moving somewhere rural anyway, but they told everyone it wasn't a car friendly town and that people tend to sell their cars after moving there.

My face was like this:

I have'nt seen what I would class as a nice modded car on the road for years.

When I used to have a night out in Leamington I sware every other car driving around was modded, some quite nice. As somebody else said, I reckon alot of people now just have a brand new , boring looking standard car on finance or lease one. One of my mate's does, every six months he gets a new car.

Alex, you just love that cat don't you

Definite decline, however in london you would be lucky to see a modified car at all! I feel it's anywhere but here you'll see one. Don't know of anyone in my area at all with a modified car and my mates don't like it, constantly under pressure from the parents to get rid of mine, but I won't lol The cost of living is a big factor, especially for London as by 2016 your car has to be relatively new to even drive through London! wtf!

It's true. I remember seeing so much more when I was a kid, but now, it's only me and a few mates that have done stuff.

I work one day during the week, and up at 5am on the weekends, and that pays for my fuel into uni, and insurance. That's it.

I have no money whatsoever (89p to last me till Thursday). I'm broke, and it's the governments fault.

I'm having to fix peoples cars/quads on the side to make enough money to fix my own car, it's so shite.

Alex, you just love that cat don't you

Grumpy Cat rules.

Definite decline, however in london you would be lucky to see a modified car at all! I feel it's anywhere but here you'll see one. Don't know of anyone in my area at all with a modified car and my mates don't like it, constantly under pressure from the parents to get rid of mine, but I won't lol The cost of living is a big factor, especially for London as by 2016 your car has to be relatively new to even drive through London! wtf!

I have never understood why anyone would want to live in London, or even stay there. If i was born there i'd have tried to leave as soon as i could walk. Its a horrible over crowded place, where everything is ridiculously over priced. You could buy a family home round by me for the price of a tiny 1 bed flat in london. I've only been once, and have no desire to return at any point soon, and never, ever, in a car

Alex, you just love that cat don't you

Grumpy Cat rules.

Grumpy Cat is Awesome. How can you not like him?

Definite decline, however in london you would be lucky to see a modified car at all! I feel it's anywhere but here you'll see one. Don't know of anyone in my area at all with a modified car and my mates don't like it, constantly under pressure from the parents to get rid of mine, but I won't lol The cost of living is a big factor, especially for London as by 2016 your car has to be relatively new to even drive through London! wtf!

I have never understood why anyone would want to live in London, or even stay there. If i was born there i'd have tried to leave as soon as i could walk. Its a horrible over crowded place, where everything is ridiculously over priced. You could buy a family home round by me for the price of a tiny 1 bed flat in london. I've only been once, and have no desire to return at any point soon, and never, ever, in a car

You should try driving through london with an "up to date" sat nav. Took me 8 attempts to find the correct route to Liverpool St. Station. At some points it was trying to make me drive THROUGH buildings which must have been hundreds of years old and don't get me started on the amount or random road works

But yes, London is the kind of place which makes my skin crawl. Such a dark depressing concrete jungle

Personally I think it's just the costs of keeping a car these days. As people grow older and have families they move on from modding, and most of people my age (21) don't have the money to spend on cars. I worked with a guy (18 at the time) who paid 3k in insurance for a 1.2 fiesta. Along with petrol consistently being above £1.38 a litre no wonder people are going for the +70mpg brand new cars.

I don't do reading but Its definitely shit now compared to how it was. None about

Things have stayed pretty much the same in my area, still see a lot of modded cars, some shitty little Clio's every now and again but mostly some good rides, dubbed Bora's, Polo's, Golfs of all MK's, LOADS of Lupo's, they seem mad on Lupo's them around my area for some reason lol.

Still don't see many classics though, the odd Beetle and MK3 Polo but that's it .

Living costs too much these days. Trying to balance rent, a girlfriend, food, bills, cigs, caffeine and running a half decent vehicle is difficult. As much as i want a snazzy set of wheels and a respray, i cant justify spending approximately 5 weeks wages on it. Well i can, but my landlord wouldnt be happy. As for modified vehicles in general, all i seem to see is top end german barges and ranges round here. C63 replicas and khans.

Edited 25 March, 201313 yr by Effel

A lot of my mates are into modified cars but just don't have the money to be able to have their own. A lot of them are doing part time jobs along side college or 6th form meaning they're never going to be able to raise the 2-3k you pay for insurance in the first year. I definitely think there would be a lot more modified cars around if it was cheaper for younger people to drive.

I voted no as everyday you will see someone in a corsa with an overly loud exhaust and music blaring but you won't see a car that has had time spent on it to get it to look nice. However after a trip to Santa pod a few weeks back when hundreds of people turned out despite the weather and also the stance works meet and a few local meets there is a fair few modified cars around but people don't drive them as much around here anyway. I don't know if that's down to fuel cost or other cost that go along with it. I don't drive my polo everyday maybe once a week and that because I have a small diesel van the get nearly double the fuel economy then the polo.

had a similar conversation with my mate when we were down in Barnsley the other day, noticed how many more cars had been modified, not to what we're into but there seemed to be so many more out on the roads down there. although I do tend to see a good few about in Middlesbrough, I can't say I've noticed a decrease.

There's quite a few more by me at the moment! and not crap ones, the main ones i see are the cleanest mk2 bready in the world and a red 6n2. But i think it's increased because every one in my area seems to of just turned 17/18

On the other hand i've seen a rapid decline in chavy cars by my girlfriend selling their kitted up corsa's for mg zrs

Living costs too much these days. Trying to balance rent, a girlfriend, food, bills, cigs, caffeine and running a half decent vehicle is difficult. As much as i want a snazzy set of wheels and a respray, i cant justify spending approximately 5 weeks wages on it. Well i can, but my landlord wouldnt be happy. As for modified vehicles in general, all i seem to see is top end german barges and ranges round here. C63 replicas and khans.

Ditch the girlfriend and quit smoking. You might be surprised by how much more money you will then have

Round where I live there loads modfied cars

Something I've seemed to have noticed, might just be around Dartford/Gravesend area, but a lot of bmxers/ skateboarders seem to make up the scene.

I go down the skatepark and the carparks full of cars, from Minis, Starlets, Golfs, Lupos, Polos, even an Evo. But then I'll be out driving and I'll barely notice any. But everyone seems to be wanting new cars to mod, I've always liked the older car and the lads I drive with are all pre '92.