I can relate pretty well to this post age wise. Growing up my family was better off than most my parents and my step parents made very decent incomes and didn't spend every waking hour at work so for that I'm lucky! My dad tried for years to get me into sports and Boy Scouts all of which I had very little interest in. I think a lot of which was caused by the pressure from him making me do it versus me wanting to do it. I grew up in the video game era and I spent a lot of my child hood and in the winter months still spend a lot of time gaming. Gaming is a very a competitive sport for lack of a better word. I am into first person shooters and in order to win and be competitive it takes a lot of collaboration between you and your team mates its a very social experience. I blame gaming for my love of cars I started playing grand tourismo and NASCAR games when I was 7 and I have been hooked ever since. In the 5th grade I couldn't spell the word orange but I knew that a McLaren f1 did 0-60 in 3.2 seconds and had 618hp with a top speed of 243mph. I have had a subscription to road and track since I was 9! Some where in my parents attic lies a collection of plastic, die cast and matchbox cars that would rival jay Leno's collection. I don't feel like cars today are cool like they used to be; I blame that on the cost associated with them, and the fact that mpg is more appealing than HP and torque. Can one of you older gents tell me what a home say 1500sqft cost in 1970 and what a mid grade car cost. Today a new car is a third the price of house and carries an equal payment. Another factor is warranties you can hardly touch a new vehicle with a wrench without voiding the warranty on it and voiding the warranty on vehicle costing 30 grand is a pretty stupid thing to do IMHO.

I found some numbers accurate or not I'm not sure
Average price of a median home in 1970 was 23000 a new vehicle was 3700
Average price of a median home in 2010 was 184000 a new vehicle was 29000
Median income 1970 $9600
Median income 2010 $26000
Now I would have to say for the median income of 2010 it should be double because in most cases your spouse is also working.

Another factor not considered might be student loans I still owe 36000 of the original 68000 so that alone cost me 600 a month.