On roads filled with touchscreens and driver-assist systems, older motorists are discovering that many young drivers are confident behind the wheel but shaky on the basics that used to be non‑negotiable. From changing a tire to checking oil, the skills gap is big enough that it is starting to reshape how cars are serviced, insured, and even designed. I see a genuine generational divide emerging, not just in what people know, but in what they expect a car to do for them.
That tension is showing up in surveys, in repair shops, and in the way new vehicles are engineered to automate tasks that used to be part of every teenager’s informal education. The result is a culture clash: boomers who grew up learning to wrench on carburetors are baffled by Gen Z drivers who are fluent in apps but stumped by a dipstick, while younger motorists wonder why anyone would memorize skills a dashboard notification can handle.
From “common sense” to “optional extra”
For many boomers, basic car care was framed as survival, not a hobby. If you drove an older sedan across a long stretch of highway, you were expected to know how to swap a flat, jump a dead battery, and top up fluids without calling for help. That expectation still shapes how older drivers talk about responsibility on the road, which is why they are so startled when younger motorists treat those same tasks as specialist work. The viral conversations captured in pieces like Boomers Are Shocked show older adults rattling off a list of “Common Skills” they assumed every new driver still picked up in high school parking lots.
Those expectations collide with a generation that has grown up with roadside assistance baked into insurance apps and cars that warn you long before something goes wrong. When a young driver can tap a screen and summon help in minutes, it is not surprising that some of them never learn to jack up a car or read a coolant reservoir. The frustration on the boomer side is real, but so is the logic on the Gen Z side, and that tension is the backdrop for the specific gaps that keep surfacing.
Maintenance skills: the sharpest divide
The clearest evidence of the gap shows up in maintenance surveys. One study found that According to the study, 58% of 18–34-year-olds could not complete a list of simple car maintenance tasks provided, compared to 43% of those 45 or older. That is a stark difference, and it tracks with what I hear from older drivers who say they routinely meet younger colleagues who have never changed a tire or checked brake fluid. The numbers do not mean boomers are all shade‑tree mechanics, but they do show that younger adults are significantly more likely to be missing at least one basic skill.
Other research backs up the idea that the knowledge gap is widespread, not just anecdotal. A survey of drivers conducted in the context of Auto Repair and Service, Consumer trends found that many motorists struggle with even the most common car maintenance tasks, with the problem especially pronounced among younger adults and with figures like 51 per cent among Millennials cited as a warning sign. Another Generations Most Likely Change Their Own Oil The survey asked respondents which maintenance and repair services they would handle themselves, and younger drivers were far less likely to say they would change oil, replace filters, or change a tire. For boomers, those are table stakes; for many Gen Z drivers, they are outsourced tasks.
Why boomers learned under the hood
To understand why older drivers are so incredulous, it helps to remember the cars they grew up with. Vehicles built in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s were simpler and less reliable, which meant more breakdowns and more opportunities to learn by necessity. If you drove a high‑mileage pickup or a carbureted compact, you were likely to be shown how to gap spark plugs, read an Oil Dipsticks reading, or swap out a fan belt on the shoulder of the road. Believe it or not, that kind of hands‑on familiarity is still part of how many boomers define competence behind the wheel.
Those habits were reinforced by culture and economics. Driver’s education often included basic maintenance, and many families could not afford frequent trips to the shop, so teenagers were expected to pitch in. That legacy shows up in today’s data, where older drivers are still more likely to say they would change their own oil or filters and less likely to rely on quick‑lube chains for every minor issue. When boomers see younger drivers who have never opened a hood, they are not just seeing a skills gap, they are seeing a break with a lifetime of norms.
Gen Z’s comfort with outsourcing the basics
Younger drivers, by contrast, have grown up in a service economy where outsourcing is the default. If you can get groceries delivered and furniture assembled, why not treat tire rotations and oil changes the same way. In the MarketWatch found clear survey on service and maintenance habits, younger generations were more likely to say they learned about car care from online videos and social media, while older drivers cited parents or in‑person mentors. That shift in where knowledge comes from helps explain why some Gen Z drivers know how to reset a tire‑pressure warning but not how to physically inspect the tire.
There is also a broader workplace pattern at play. According to the State of People, which surveyed over 1,000 HR professionals globally, managing generational differences in technology adoption is now a strategic challenge for employers. The same mindset shows up on the road: younger drivers are quicker to lean on apps, automation, and professional services, while older drivers are more inclined to treat basic maintenance as a personal responsibility. I see that as a rational response to a world where time is scarce and specialized help is a tap away, even if it leaves some boomers shaking their heads.
Distracted driving and “The Art of Multi‑Tasking”
Beyond maintenance, older drivers are unnerved by how casually some young motorists juggle screens and steering wheels. A widely shared list of habits that unsettle older motorists singles out Art of Multi Tasking as a defining Gen Z trait, describing drivers who treat the car as an extension of their digital life. Gen You can be found scrolling playlists, checking notifications, and chatting on multiple platforms while cruising at highway speeds, a behavior that older drivers often interpret as recklessness rather than efficiency.
Safety data backs up the concern. Among teen drivers, the most common distractions are Among the riskiest behaviors, including Texting or emailing while driving and Talking on a cell phone or using apps instead of focusing on the road. When I talk to boomers about what scares them most, it is rarely that a young driver cannot change a tire; it is that the same driver might be composing a message at 70 miles per hour. The maintenance gap may be inconvenient, but the attention gap can be deadly.
Tech‑heavy cars that hide the basics
Part of the story is that the cars themselves are changing in ways that make old‑school skills feel less relevant. Modern vehicles are packed with sensors and software that monitor everything from oil life to tire pressure, and they increasingly handle tasks that used to require driver judgment. Here is a look at how features like AI‑Assisted Parking and advanced collision warnings are shaping the road ahead, with systems that can steer into tight spaces or alert drivers to hazards before they even see them. When a car can park itself, it is easy to see why parallel parking practice falls down the priority list for new drivers.
At the same time, some of the physical touchpoints that taught earlier generations about car health are disappearing. Oil Dipsticks are a prime example. Believe it or not, as vehicles become more advanced, the traditional dipstick is becoming more of an artifact, with some newer models, including certain 2025 GMC Sierra 1500 trucks, relying on electronic oil‑level sensors instead. If you never have to pull a dipstick and wipe it on a rag, you lose one of the simplest, most tactile lessons in how engines work. That design shift nudges drivers of all ages toward trusting dashboards over their own eyes.
Connectivity, EVs, and a new skills gap
The move toward electric and hyper‑connected cars is widening the gap between what drivers can do and what their vehicles require. In 2026, Brands like Volvo are using deeper Google integration to create voice‑first, AI‑assisted environments that reduce friction and make connectivity the core of the driving experience. When navigation, climate control, and even some diagnostics are handled through conversational commands, the driver’s role shifts from operator to manager of a rolling computer. That is a natural fit for younger motorists who grew up with smartphones, but it also means that the “basic tasks” boomers value are not the same ones carmakers are optimizing for.
On the mechanical side, the rise of electric vehicles is creating a different kind of knowledge gap. However whilst the automotive sector is working hard to retrain and upskill, the accelerated adoption of EV technology is pushing the profession toward a point at which the skills gap will materialise. Many of the tasks boomers learned, from changing spark plugs to diagnosing exhaust issues, simply do not exist on an EV, while new competencies around high‑voltage systems and software updates are needed instead. I find that older drivers sometimes underestimate how different these cars are, while younger drivers may overestimate how much the car can safely handle on its own.
When drivers and technicians both lack basics
The skills gap is not limited to drivers. Repair shops are also struggling to keep up with the complexity of modern vehicles, which compounds the problem when motorists lack basic knowledge. Finding skilled automotive technicians has become a real challenge, with Shops struggling to keep up with demand and being urged to invest in most of their existing team. When both the person behind the wheel and the person behind the service counter are racing to catch up with new technology, small oversights can turn into big repair bills.
That is why some industry voices argue for a renewed focus on driver education that blends old and new. A Auto Repair and Service, Consumer trends survey that highlighted widespread maintenance gaps is often cited as a reason to reintroduce practical car‑care modules in schools and community programs. If technicians are in short supply and cars are more complex, it becomes even more important for drivers to handle the simple things correctly and to recognize when something is wrong before it becomes dangerous.
Bridging the generational driving divide
So where does that leave the boomers who are stunned by what younger drivers cannot do, and the Gen Z motorists who see little point in mastering skills their cars automate. I think the most productive path is to treat the divide as complementary strengths rather than a zero‑sum contest. Older drivers bring a deep, tactile understanding of mechanical systems and a cautious attitude toward distraction. Younger drivers bring fluency with connectivity, comfort with software updates, and a willingness to adopt tools like Assisted Parking that can genuinely improve safety when used well.
There is room for both sides to learn. Boomers can benefit from younger drivers’ instinct to use navigation apps, real‑time traffic data, and voice controls that reduce the need to fiddle with knobs. Gen Z drivers, in turn, can pick up a handful of core skills that pay off in emergencies: how to safely change a tire, how to jump‑start a battery, how to read an Change Their Own indicator, and when to pull over instead of trusting a glitchy sensor. If both generations meet in the middle, the road ahead looks less like a battleground of habits and more like a shared project in keeping increasingly complex machines safe, reliable, and under human control.
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