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I look at the distance I had to go, 6 1/3 mile one way, just to mow lawns (The owners of the lawns had to movers, they just wanted labor). I did such all jobs all through High School, I did save a couple of Hundred Dollars, but it all went for a down payment on my parent's home they purchased in 1974 (and still live in). They needed money for the Settlement costs and everyone who had money contributed to get out of the rat hole we had been living in.
Anyway, there was no way I was going to buy a car, furthermore when my family did move to their new house it was on the last Street car line in Pittsburgh. I even had to take the Streetcar in my new High School (The School District gave me a pass to use the Streetcar, a bus I abused, who needed a car?).
Now as you notice I was a teen in the early to mid 1970s. I did use a car for some jobs in Collage, but then I had access to my father's car, he took the streetcar to work. Even then you had to go to suburbia to find a summer job, which in most people's eyes means transportation by car. You can bike to most such places, but it is a long ride. Most teens can do such a bike ride. I had friend who had to walk to their jobs, so having a bike was good (And I even walked when I did not have a bike). Most of suburbia has no or terrible mass transit (if transit exists, does NOT run late enough for most teens work schedule). Thus most teens need a car to get to and from work. Some do not have to, like I did not have to, but those jobs are hard to find and getting harder.
My brother works for Toy R US as a manager and has had some problem with retaining employees do to high gasoline prices. Most retailers want to employ most of their employees on a part time basis (i.e. four hours a day). At that rate, most teens, who tend to have older cars, can NOT even fill their gas tanks, let alone anything else. If the only job you can get is part time and at minimum wage, (and that is what most teens get) it is hard to break even let alone save some money. This will get worse as the price of oil goes up.
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