New Average Age of Cars on the Road

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cars on highway

The newly calculated average age of cars on the road is now 11.6 years, according to IHS Markit. That’s up from 11.4 years in 2015.

The vast number of older cars on the road remains good news for the aftermarket. “Increasing numbers of vehicles on the road builds a new business pipeline for the aftermarket,” IHS’ Mark Seng said. “A larger fleet means more vehicles that will need repair work and service in the future.”

Registrations for light vehicles including cars and light trucks in the US also saw the biggest hike in many years, showing 2.4 percent growth, or an increase of more than 6.2 million vehicles to a total of 264 million registered vehicles.

Driving the trend is the improved quality of new cars.

During the 2008-2009 recession, drivers held onto their cars longer, with a near 40 percent drop in new car sales at the time.  But in the last couple of years, the increase in the average age of cars on the road has slowed to more traditional year-over-year increases, IHS said.

For more facts from the IHS report click here.

Source: IHS

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