Wall Street Journal- The Average Age of Vehicles on U.S. Roadways Hits a Record 12.2 Years
Drivers are holding on to cars and trucks longer to avoid high prices on replacements and an inventory shortage at dealerships. This was the fifth straight year the average vehicle age in the U.S. has increased, according to new data released Monday by research firm S&P Global Mobility. Vehicles on average have been getting older in the U.S. for the past two decades as quality has improved and cars generally are lasting longer, analysts say.
In 2020 I bought a brand new GMC 2500 HD diesel. Managed to get about 30,000 km on it before a DEF recall. Haven’t seen the truck since March and calls to the dealership end in “we have no idea when the problem will be fixed – sorry”.
So hold on to that 12 year old vehicle for now. They can’t even put the new ones together any more.
That’s an example why I’m keeping the 2005 F350 forever. The problems are known. Have repaired all but one now, at a cost, but, it’s now reliable. The systems, complex in 05, are relatively simple today, and, NO DEF.
My diesel mechanic sees all the Ford diesels, from new, thru to the late 90s Powerstroke, though less often on those. He suggested keeping mine, it’s in decent shape, rather than upgrade to a newer one at a cost of 50k. He said that I would back to see him soon enough for more repairs on the newer ones. That is unless you don’t care about high monthly payments along with the repair costs.
Stick to your older trucks if you can, unless $$$$ is no object.
Yes. $50K might get you a newer one but is only a good down payment on a new one.
Yup; my 2005 Chevy Astrovan (the last year they made them) is still going strong. I intend to keep it until either it or I croak.
How long until “Bennett Buggies” are back in use? Not sure what they will pull them with these days as horses are a much rarer commodity now.
All one needs is to locate the front halves of horses. There are enough equine back ends in just about any government office nowadays.
Good one.
Oh, horses will be too much in demand for soup to be used to pull cars.
As someone in the market for a mid-10s GT convertible, I’ve watched this market increase in value in the last few months, as 2015 and up examples have INCREASED $10k in price, especially at the stealerships.
As well, the used Shelby GT500 versions of similar vintage have gone up 40-50% since 3 years ago. Almost bought a black on black 2012 for 40k then, but declined for a different “need”, for what essentially would be a garage Queen. Now that same car goes for 55-60k, go figure. Of course, it doesn’t help that brand new models are listing for 150k, it pulled the used market UP.
That said, it speaks partially to the mindset of todays yutes with dollars, putting their money into “assets”, driving valuations up. The older classic muscle cars have reached ridiculous valuations, so they are now focusing on anything truly, muscle car.
What happens when they ration gasoline, imagine what these cars are then worth?
Meanwhile, the real inflation hedge, gold, continues to aimlessly go nowhere, in a obvious inflationary age.
Sweet ride. I’m never letting go of my 2011 BMW 335i hardtop conv. Best car I’ve ever owned … and I do pretty much ALL the maintenance … incl. the leaky Valve cover gasket (which requires a ton of shit to be removed first) … I could see myself in a sweet GT though … as I have no hesitations about REAL muscle cars
Holding on to my ’96 quarter-ton and my ’91 three quarter-ton, ideally until I die. Newest vehicle in the fleet is a 2012 motorcycle, the only one of the three with a carburetor. Look after them and they will outlast the newer stuff with all the latest framistats. If I buy another vehicle I intend it to be ’87 or older to qualify for “antique” insurance.
This is not at all surprising to me. Cars are *much* better constructed these days than they were in the 60’s and 70’s. Our little Mazda just turned over 100,000 km, and other than a few scrapes on the bumper, it still runs like it was new. I was driving it the other day, and I remarked to my GF how great the road feel was in it – that I could feel the traction of the tires, and how the car would respond if I had to yank the wheel. Those of us who drove one of the big GM boats of the 70’s, where your finger could sit on the steering wheel and move two inches to either side before a wheel turned, find that pretty amazing.
Climate control, better sound systems, better seats all make the actual ride more enjoyable. 3 point belts, air bags galore, ABS, disc brakes, better tires, etc. all make the ride more safe. And after five years, and 100k, we are still getting 10 km/l, and I drive quickly. We are making a long road trip from Toronto to NFLD and points east later this summer (never flying again in the current mask/vax/concentration camp era), and of all my worries about it, the car isn’t one of them.
Western civilization makes some pretty great stuff, if we let it.
Your Mazda is a product of Eastern civilization.
Yes cars are better now than back then, but 100,000 km is not a lot.
100,000 km is only 62,500 Miles.
In the 60s and 70s cars , American made cars, easily reached 62,000 Miles and often reached 100,000 Miles ( or 160,000 KM ) before they needed serious repairs.
My 2009 Lexus ES350 has 325,000 km and is still going strong (fingers crossed, knock on wood) so I have no plans to replace it until it becomes cost prohibitive or too expensive or it dies. Unlike many SDA’ers I lack the knowledge and ability to do my own repairs but my local shop does a good job and a reasonable price. My biggest issue is that it requires premium fuel so my wallet takes a big hit when I have to fill up, usually every 2 weeks.
Try a Costco membership for $ 60/year.
Regular gas is usually 10 cents /litre cheaper than the big guys.
Premium with no ethanol is usually 10 cents/litre more than the regular.
The lineups will be huge but if you can get to the gas bar before 6 am it is reasonable.
We traded in a Mazda3 two years ago that had 200,000 on the odometer -with only a couple of minor repairs needed. No rust either (this in Ontario) and everything worked. Whoever bought it, got a sweet car. FWIW – bought another Mazda.
Going to rebuild the suspension on my 07 Forester XT with the next milestone being 400,000 KM. What a car. Briefly owned a new one and did not like it. I’m a Cuban now.
Si.
I’m taking over my GF’s 2010 Forester this summer when her 2022(23?) version arrives. 120 kilometers. Costing me $7500.00. She only wanted $6000.00. Its a 5 speed standard with a moonroof, heated seats & mirrors.
It would cost us $65,000 – $75,000 to replace our old truck with a new truck. It would cost only a fraction of that to replace worn parts or even the engine. We used to buy new vehicles but the cost increase for new vehicles in the past decade is insane. Since we only use the truck for hunting and hauling, it has very low mileage for its age.
As a reference point, in 2005 we paid $70,000 for a completely renovated 1100 square foot bungalow with a finished basement, big yard and sold it for about $85,000 four years later in a small Saskatchewan city. We bought the 2008 truck new in 2009 for just under $40,000 and it’s worth around $6500 today. The truck rapidly depreciates instead of gaining in value.
My personal experience is that Chevy and Buick make a much more reliable vehicle than they used to.
Especially the mid-sized cars: LeSabre, Lucerne, Impala et. al. As a unrecovered farm-boy come attached-garage diy car fixer I believe that North American cars are vastly improved over what my first 1966 Fairlane 500 was. I have been buying “a few years old” Buicks and Impalas and driving them into the ground. Doing all the repairs and maintenance myself and then passing them on to children after my wife will not put up with the accessory failures that I tend to ignore. Of the last ?10? vehicles in my family (5 drivers) the 3 Fords passed to the wreckers with over 200k kms but less than 250k kms while the 2 Buicks were sold with over 225k kms — they could still be on the road; 1 Impala went 430+ kms until a neighbour backed into it with a hitch and the Ins. co. forced into the wreckers and the single Toyota van was T-boned with 300K kms. 3 Impalas are still on the road one 10 year-old with only 170k Kms, and another two older ones pushing 250k kms each. My impression is the NA cars are much better than they used to be.
I’m driving a 1999 Ford F-150, with the Canadian-made Tritan 5.4L V-8 under the hood.
Yeah, it’s been a money dump over the years, vehicles always are, but all my maintenance expenses seem trivial when compared to the cost of buying another truck.
At 260K miles she is amost a quarter century old and still going strong. ‘Just hauled the family travel trailer 1400 miles, AZ to OR. No worries!
Used cars have already dropped from 30000 on average back to 20000 on average versus last year consistent with the pre pandemic average. Old news.
But about the why more people are keeping their car longer,
it is more than just the fact cars last longer than they used to.
it is because incomes have not gone up as fast as the cost of everything else.
People have less disposable income, they are less able to afford a new car, electric or conventional.
Biden, Trudeau and all other green idiots think that making gas prices go sky high will force us to buy electric cars but the exact opposite is happening.
When gas prices go up, everything else costs more, when everything else costs more, people have less money left to buy a new car , electric or not.
So they hang on to their old car as long as they can.
Which means not many people will buy electric cars even if gas prices double in the next year.
We call leftists “leftards” for a reason.
I have a different reason for holding on to my 19 year-old car. Foremost it is because I know it has been maintained well and is reliable, but also it is an attempt to “go Galt” in my own small way, I refuse to continually upgrade and give the government their unearned share in taxes which are considerable.
BC in its desperation for yet more income has recently implemented a scheme where they tax transactions between private buyers-sellers at a rate set by government. You may wish to pass on your 20 year car to your niece or nephew for ten dollars but it will be taxed at some considerably higher rate deemed appropriate by a bureaucrat. The income will of course then be showered on the “deserving” or the communist chinese party to buy ineffective medical masks, which will then be landfilled because well NDP-NFG.
Just resto’d my old 03′ Sonoma ZR2. Replaced and repaired fenders, rockers, rad support, bed supports. Rock guarded under side of box. Rock guard from low body line down. Other assorted new pieces. $7K, looks better than new. No new overpriced iron for me, with the exception being a new service vehicle. 5 month apx. wait to be built.
Another Modest Proposal.
I have a plan to cut emissions….resolve the homeless drug issues AND save government millions of dollars in public health budgets. My plan will also instill moral fibre in todays youth which is of paramount importance to our society. Let us use Vancouver as our laboratory.
Manufacture thousands upon thousands of rickshaw type vehicles. Harness two or more drug users addicted to methedrine or cocaine and use them as draft animals. They pull with a will to the next station where drugs will be provided to maintain their will and their effort.
This will reduce inner city traffic from the burbs…..end gouging Taxis and their depredations…provide a delivery service for all manner of businesses. The drugs are confiscated from smugglers and such like criminal types. So the net cost to society is NIL .
Government has legislated so much crap onto new vehicles that they have become completely unaffordable, at least to the fiscally sane. I will be driving my 2002 Toyota Sequoia forever, and it certainly appears capable of lasting that long, with slight, reasonably priced maintenance. 17 mpg is far better than a $800 a month payment.
My 1983 F100 is now precisely 39.4 years old. Never had a significant problem with it since I bought it new. I did put $8 worth of refrigerant into the AC this Saturday, but haven’t done anything else for a couple of years or so.
I do have a newer car, a 2017 Mazda CX5 which I love. I will probably keep that a few more years. Anyway, from my perspective, 12.2 years is relatively young.
I’m about to sell my Toyota Corolla, purchased New Year’s Day in Kennesaw, Georgia, and have ordered a hard-top version of the Mazda Miata, which should arrive here very close to my seventieth birthday. The car previous to the one that I’m selling was also a Toyota Corolla, purchased March 9, 1977. I drive less than most people (the care that I’m selling now has about 159,000 miles on it, which is 255,000 kilometers or so). I would have kept the first Corolla longer, but it had been made for sale in California (which is where I bought it), and cars made for sale in California at the time (and perhaps now) had different emissions control equipment than those made for sale in the other forty-nine states. There was another reason, as well – I thought that having air condition in a car (which the 1977 Corolla didn’t have) in Georgia was a good idea, and I was right about that. I’m buying the Miata because I think that I should own a true sports car at least once in my life.
Mazda, by the way, is second in reliability in every list that I’ve seen – behind Lexus (a Toyota brand) and ahead of Toyota.