Recently, the USA today released a new study that showed the age of people’s car are getting older and older. In fact, the average age of a car on the road today it 11.4 years (up from last year’s 11.2), and that makes them older than ever before. It’s a trend that’s not all too surprising for a couple of different reasons.
First and foremost, many people’s personal finances haven’t been as strong or stable over the last couple of years as we waited out the recession. This has caused people to hold on to their cars for a little longer. Combine that with the fact that young people, the under 30 crowd, aren’t buying cars at very high rates.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. While some may be restraining from new cars for financial purposes, it also stands to reason that better manufactured cars are able to last longer than the previous generation of cars. Hitting 100,000 miles, once the gold standard for car reliability and durability, it now just an expected milestone. People don’t even start bragging until they hit 200,000 now.
However, we might be on the precipice of a turnaround. After bottoming out in 2009 with only 10 million sold, 16 million new cars were sold last year, which should be a bright spot for car manufacturers.
Better manufacturing can only get you so far, so if you want your car to live to see 200,000 miles, make sure to stay on top of things like regular oil changes and standard maintenance. Come by German Performance in Atascadero, CA. We’re a full service auto shop that can help with just about any repair you could need!