Are you one of those people that looks back at your childhood and fondly remembers watching your Father work on the garage until very late at night, and almost every Saturday and Sunday? Those certainly were the days, and definitely not something very common today, in 2016, as many young people are deeply lacking the skills their parents honed.

Think back to your high school years, did you have a group of boys that were well known across the school as “gear heads”? The ones that loved racing fast cars, and fixing them up every free second they had? It’s as if those cliques hardly exist any longer, and with a new generation raised on iPads and self-driving cars, it’s no surprise that millions of teens and young adults have little to no experience repairing cars.

Back in the 1980’s male and females alike were well versed on how to change a tire, almost as if it was unheard of to not know these basic life skills. Fast forward to 2016, and a recent survey reveals that a whopping 40% of Americans do not know how to change a tire. It gets worse. An astounding 17% have no clue if there is a spare tire in their car, and if they did have one, they also have no knowledge of where that spare may be located inside their vehicle. Scary stuff, no?

What exactly do people do that have a flat tire along the highway without any AAA memberships, or knowledge on how to repair it on the side of the road? Certainly leaves lots of room for crimes in the middle of the night if you’re stuck with a flat tire in the middle of the night.

Some ways to combat this epidemic are to purchase some form of roadside assistance plan to avoid ever being stuck without any help available. KTDY reports that the other alternative is to learn how to perform this simple repair, and you can do that through a family member/friend, or by practicing while watching You Tube.