Have an old car? You're not alone. Vehicle age hits record

[left-of-center2012]

The average age of cars and trucks in the U.S. has hit a record 11.8 years, as better quality and technology allows people to keep them on the road longer. People are feeling comfortable keeping vehicles longer because they’re built better than in the past, said IHS Markit Director of Global Automotive Aftermarket Mark Seng.

“The quality is higher, lasting longer, withstanding the weather,” Seng said. Plus, original owners are keeping their vehicles longer and maintaining them better because they’re financing them for longer, six or even seven years in many cases, he said.
“That helps improve the overall life of the vehicle,” he said.

Western states have the oldest vehicles at 12.4 years, while in the Northeast the average age is only 10.9 years. That’s due largely to less stop-and-start traffic that wears on a vehicle. Weather conditions also play a part.
Montana has the oldest average age at 16.6 years, while the youngest is Vermont, with an average age of 9.9 years.

The aging vehicles should be a boon to repair shops, which may want to change strategies to cater to owners of older vehicles who may want to spend less on parts, Seng said.



https://www.apnews.com/bc5bc21edffb422290c9ca66345e0748

[LibDemAlways]

1. Husband recently sold his 12 year old Accord. It

was running good, but the driver window was stuck open and the estimates to fix it were about as much as the car was worth. The time inevitably comes when it costs more to keep the thing running than it's worth. Given the cost of a new car, it isn't hard to understand, though, why people are hanging on to the old ones.

[Midnightwalk]

6. I use the price to replace divided by 10

If anual repairs are less than that i keep it so i keep cars a long time.

What it’s worth is what many use but why should i are about what someone is willing to pay for it?

[Cosmocat]

42. I just traded my accord in

13+ years, was a friend that kept me safe in my travels, but just was springing too many leaks.

I wanted to keep it into fall, but was getting repairs pretty much every month.

[LibDemAlways]

44. My husband's had 225K miles and the

original manual transmission -which never gave him a problem. He was always easy on the clutch. The high mileage really did a number on the trade in value even though the car was clean. It was reliable transportation, but he figured any big repairs was just money down the drain. When it's time, it's time.....

[lagomorph777]

46. I've repaired a stuck window in my 22-year-old Accord: $80.

It takes an hour or two. No big deal.

[LibDemAlways]

48. Where we live in So. Cal. prices for

everything are jacked up. The estimates he got were in the $500 range, and, unfortunately, he's not a do-it-yourselfer!

[lagomorph777]

49. I live in the most expensive county in the nation.

But I am a do-it-yourselfer. Rather, that is why I'm a do-it-yourselfer.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

56. compare repairs to cost of new car loan and insurance

A $500 repair pales in comparison to monthly payments for a new car and the extra insurance required.

[exboyfil]

54. I was made fun of having a car with manual locks and windows

My 2002 Cavalier is still running strong. My 2009 HHR's door locks no longer work, and the rear windows can no longer be controlled by the driver. We leave the windows up as much as possible now knowing that day will come.

Give me simple and cheap. I do wonder how cops deal with fossils like me since many now approach vehicles from the passenger side. Will I get in trouble for not rolling down the passenger (unless I reach over which I would do very slowly).

[CountAllVotes]

2. My car was built before 9/11 happened!

It is still going strong.

It too is a Honda Accord (has only 57K on it, shows what a wild life I have going ... )

Worst problem has been the airbags being recalled X4!

[lunatica]

4. Is it a Honda?

Mine is 11 years old and I’ve had the airbag recall twice. Other than that it runs perfectly. I love my car.

[CountAllVotes]

11. Yes a Honda Accord SE

I bought it at the end of the year.

I gave them my old Civic and $9K for it.

Best car I've ever owned.

I have zero plans of getting rid of it as only one repair in the 17 years I've owned it!

I took it in for the airbags again abt. 2 weeks ago. The guy at the Honda place wanted to buy my car from me because, "This is a relic! They don't make them as good as this any more!".

It is not for sale I told him, nope.

Who would have thunk?

Not me!!

[pnwmom]

3. One of ours is a 1997. Our new one is 2006. n/t

[eleny]

12. We're about the same - a '96 and a 2006

In a western state.

[Aristus]

5. I've had my car for nine years.

Mrs. Aristus has had her car for a whopping sixteen years.

[Bayard]

7. I love my truck

Farm vehicle extraordinaire! 1997 Chevy one-ton dually. Even though its sitting in the shop right now. Power steering went out.

I bought it brand new. I can haul anything.....horse trailer, 25 bales of hay, feed/bedding, firewood, bulk mulch, rock, you name it. Pretty beat up these days, but it was a thing of beauty when new.

[Skittles]

8. mine is 14 years old

I buy new cars and keep them until they drop dead

[2naSalit]

9. Mine are

a '92 Toyota and I just got a '04 BMW which I love. Bought both used, got the Toyota in '04, had 105K on it, I've put much more than that and still love it. got the other last year (14months ago) for near to nothing with few problems so I'll fix those as I go along and have a really nice vehicle that should last me to the end of my escapades on this planet. Besides, I absolutely HATE buying a car so I hang on to mine for ten+ years every time unless they crap out on me like that damned Buick I bought before the Toyota.

I don't know very many people, even those with means, who have a car newer than five years old.

[MANative]

10. Just this month, I said goodbye to my 1999 Infiniti Q45T

It was a beauty of a car, and still running very well, but parts were increasingly difficult to find. Only put about 5000 miles a year on it and it was in pristine condition. The need for a part to fix something in the exhaust system, at $4275 not including labor, was the deciding factor to move on. I bought a new Hyundai Sonata Limited Ultimate. Just as much luxury as the Infiniti for about $35k less than the original vehicle.

[empedocles]

13. My toyota is 10, my jaguar is 17

[Trailrider1951]

14. As Indiana Jones once said, "It's not the years, it's the mileage."**

Proud owner of a 2012 Toyota Sienna, 87,000 miles. Which I drive to the park-n-ride (free parking), hop on a bus that takes me to the train station in time to catch the northbound Sounder commuter train to my station about 1.5 miles from my job. I can either transfer to a bus at that point, or walk or ride my bike if the weather is nice. Total cost for my one-way bus/train commute: $2. I cannot drive that car for so little money. So, I keep the car for short jaunts around town, and my 3 or 4 day camping trips to the mountains or the oceanside when I have the time. Unless it's totaled in an accident, this is the last car I will have (I'm 67).



**Raiders of the Lost Ark

[trackfan]

15. My "new" car is a 2000

the old car is a 1994.

[no_hypocrisy]

16. Mine's a 1998 with 137,000+ miles on it.

[FakeNoose]

17. My car is 15 years old and it's got almost 200K miles on it

It's still running great though, knock wood. It passed inspection with new tires and brake pads.

[Downtown Hound]

18. I drive an 18 year old Ford Escort

About 100,000 miles on it. Runs like a champ, plenty of after market parts available for it that are inexpensive, never spent more than $400 at the repair shop . I am a bit of a fanatic about oil changes and fluid replacements though. One of the reasons why I think it's lasted this long.

I've checked. I could do a whole engine replacement, transmission replacement, fuel injector replacement, and drive train rebop for about $8,000-$10,000 and keep it going for another 10 years. I might do that when it hits 150,000 miles instead of spending $30,000 to $40,000 on a new car. My next car after that will probably be all electric. Hopefully they'll have come down a lot in price by then. This might very well be the last gas car I ever own.

[hardluck]

19. I drive a 94 Land Cruiser

No desire to get a new car. Love my 80.

[MurrayDelph]

20. In 2004, after my father passed away

We drove his 4-year-old car from Los Angeles to Orlando to give to a buddy who was down on his luck. He's still driving it.

At the time, my wife and I had relatively-new cars, so we didn't need it.

In 2010, my 2002 Prius needed needed new hybrid batteries, and I decided that after 8 years and 176k miles it wasn't worth plowing $3500 into the car, so I bought a newer Prius (which now has 147K miles and I just put in $1000 on repairs to make sure it would get me home to Oregon. The next time it needs a pricey repair I will think about replacing it).

In 2011, after putting in $3500 on my wife's Civic, it was totaled in a slow-speed crash (skidded at 5mph against a safety rail on the right side and was then sideswiped on the left side by an AWD pickup who skidded into her at 10mph). With under 75k miles after 8 years, she has no plans to replace.

[TexasBushwhacker]

21. 13 years and still under 100K miles n/t

[keithbvadu2]

23. Drive a crappy car

Drive a crappy car

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016234267

Opinion: The road to riches is this simple: Drive a crappy car

[aikoaiko]

24. 14 year old Volvo V70 here.

Keeps on going and going and going and....

[musette_sf]

30. 17 year old Volvo V70 here

and my neighbor across the street owns the best Volvo repair shop in the county. Almost at 200K miles and still running great. I'm planning to curate it and keep it as long as possible, as it doesn't have all the latter-day narcware and nagware. I like driving, I find it to be a very enjoyable activity, and will never understand the Uber Everywhere types, or self-driving cars either.

http://humandriving.org/

[hunter]

25. I won't spend more than a $1000 on a car.

I'm a pretty good mechanic and always open to new adventures, so it's no big deal.

My wife and I drove up from Central California to Oregon to view the solar eclipse in a $900 car. Yes, I did bring a few tools, along with the camping equipment. We saw the eclipse and made it back home without any automotive mechanical problems. I'm still driving that car, which is old enough to drink and well past 200,000 miles.

Hell, I once replaced a head gasket in a K-Mart parking lot and people were stopping to watch me like it was some kind of performance art. That was the early 'eighties. I was quite mad then.

But that's nothing compared to some of the car adventures I suffered as a child. My parents are both artists, not mechanics, and we frequently had family cars that would scare me now, even as a mad mechanic.

My mom had a car she'd start by taking the lid off the air cleaner and squirting a bit of gasoline from a spray bottle down the throat of the carburetor. Wisely, the spray bottle of gasoline was kept in a cooler spot of a roomy engine compartment along with the rags, funnels, and quarts of sketchy recycled motor oil. My mom was probably pouring a quart of oil into that car every thousand miles, oil she and my dad couldn't afford.

As a kid my parent's cars broke frequently broke down in "bad" parts of the U.S.A. and Mexico, but those are among my finest childhood memories, second only to leaving Franco's Spain in the middle of the night and living as indigent U.S. Americans in France..

My wife and I inflicted a few broken down car memories of similar sorts on our own children, but not to the extent my wife and I both suffered.

[ProudLib72]

26. My car is 34 years young

I just burned the crap out of myself welding a patch on it. I don't think I want to get rid of it anytime soon. Besides, if I did sell it, I would just use the money to turn around and by another one.

[ooky]

27. Best thing about my 14 year old car

I never have to wash it.

[hunter]

45. I wash the windows of my car, that's it.

I ignore the lichen growing on my car. I ignore the spiders.

Hang on my eight legged friends, we're going for a ride!

It's nice to live in a place where salt is not a problem, not winter road salt, not ocean salt spray.

When I've lived by the ocean or in places with harsh winters, the rust was awful.

[Ohiogal]

28. My Toyota Corolla is 13 years old

and still runs great. I like a smaller car. No plans to get a newer car until this one dies.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

29. I have a car that's so old it still has a Clinton bumper sticker on it from '92.

The bumper sticker is completely faded except for the cartoon Socks, LOL.

[mnhtnbb]

31. My BMW wagon is 12 years old

and has just under 60,000 miles on it. I put new tires on it last summer because I decided to keep it and not trade it in.

[tinrobot]

32. Perhaps cars are actually getting better.

There was a time when cars would fall apart after 5 years.

Now they seem to last a lot longer. Not a bad thing, actually.

[misanthrope]

33. I think the inverse is true

The used cars I drove in my youth, cars made in the 1960s and '70s, were easier to diagnose and repair than modern cars. They seemed more user friendly.

[tinrobot]

35. I fixed my '73 Ford Pinto all the time...

Yes, it was easy to fix. But it ALWAYS needed to be fixed.

Got rid of it as soon as I could afford it. Bought a Nissan that lasted 300,000 miles with not much more than tires and oil changes.

[Cosmocat]

43. Cars are better today by wide mile, but to your point

equally harder to maintain once you get into the 100,000+ range.

[pstokely]

39. cars are getting more reliable but they have more tech

tech that will go obsolete long before the car itself stops running

[misanthrope]

34. I think it is more an indicator of economic unease

In a society where materialism and conspicuous consumption are as deeply embedded as they are here, this means people are less confident about big purchases.

[Quackers]

36. I bought my first ever new car 1 year ago. 2018 Chevy Cruze

It was after they announced they were shutting down operations at the Lordstown, Ohio plant but before they officially stopped making the cars. They were almost giving them away then. I honestly never thought I would ever get to own a new car before this.

[SoCalDem]

37. 2005 Kia Amanti w/61K miles

It's my last car & I still love it

[pstokely]

38. the tech on new cars sold today will go obsolete long before the cars themselves stop running

it's harder to upgrade a stereo on new car sold today compared one sold 20 years ago

[onethatcares]

40. 1998 chev 2500 p/u

bought in 2001 before 9/11 as a work vehicle I understand it, I think it understands me.

Bought it with 63k miles on it, now has 198,876.

[Tracer]

41. 12 Year old Ford Focus wagon

It only has 50,000 miles on it (and I bought it when it had 33,000 miles). I work at home, so there no commuter miles on it.

My only repairs have been the AC and the muffler.

I think it's a great looking car and am sorry that they don't make it anymore.

[GulfCoast66]

47. My vehicle is an 05 Toyota Tacoma. 280,000 odd miles.

My wife drives a 2015 Tundra but we traded in a 2001 Tundra with 260,000 miles so I expect her ‘new’ truck to last well past 2025.

My sister recently asked me why I don’t drive a new Audi, a car I absolutely love. Told her the reason I could afford an Audi is because I don’t spend money on things like new Audi’s!

Anyone I might impress with a new car is not someone I really care about impressing.

BTW, my boat is 14 years old and still looks like new.

[GoCubsGo]

50. Good thing they're lasting longer.

It's not like anyone can afford a new one every few years, like we used to. Twenty grand for just a compact? At those prices, people had better be able to get their money's worth out of them.

[mn9driver]

51. My new car is 7 years old.

My wife gets to drive that one. My car is 17 years old. My kids have their own beaters; the newest one is 18 years old, the oldest is 23.

Everyone in the family knows how to do brakes and change oil, belts and spark plugs. I help out with the tougher stuff. Usually by handing them a wrench and pointing.

[greatauntoftriplets]

52. Mine is a 2007 Honda Civic.

I've had it for 9 years and only had to do oil changes and buy a new battery.

[DFW]

53. Mine is just a baby at 6 years old.

But I usually only drive to the train station (7 minutes) and back or to the airport and back (18 minutes), so I'm not even sure if I have 10,000 KM on it yet.

[melm00se]

55. I have always been a

"Drive 'em 'til they blow up" kind of guy so these ages are nothing new to me.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

57. my newest is a 1991

Still waiting for a better value; still waiting for a reasonable EV.

[Niagara]

58. I drive them until they puke

I purchased Christine new in 2003 with about 20K miles on her. I had to replace her last October.

In the 14 years that I had her, I had to have the sway bar fixed/replaced three times, which tells me and that there's a design flaw in the suspension of these cars.

The worst thing about this car the entire time is that I could never see at night. It was awful. I took a Shark steamer and peeled off the front window tint, had Silver Star Ultra bulbs installed, and had the headlights adjusted and re-adjusted continuously. Nothing helped. I started to worry that there was something wrong with my eyes for night driving.

Last October the muffler started to separate from the carriage and the carriage was so rusted out that there wasn't a way to weld the muffler. In addition there was also a dangerous and noticeable gas leak. It just wasn't worth the money to fix.

I now have a 2010 Ford Escape and I'm happy to say that I can see at night while driving and it's safe to drive.

Christine's final mileage


Christine in her younger days

[SammyWinstonJack]

59. 2011 MINI COOPER with 56k. I love it! My other car is a 2006 Class A motorhome with 18k. It's

also my full time home.

[OnlinePoker]

60. '97 Accord with 136,000 km

My wife wants to upgrade to a newer model but "it can't have computers in it". She doesn't understand that even our '97 has computers in it. I, personally, like what we have and don't see a reason to spend money on another vehicle when we barely drive this one more than 4-5,000 km a year.

[justhanginon]

61. 1997 Mercury Tracer Wagon. 180,000 miles on it.

Like me, it is getting really rusty around the edges but have only had one significant repair and that was a part I had replaced and the repair shop used a knock off replacement part unbeknownst to me. No longer use them obviously. Still runs great and gets 30+ miles per gallon.

[jayfish]

62. I drive a 17 Year Old Acura With 222k Miles and

a 15 year old Infiniti with 150k miles. I do all of my own maintenance and repair work. Anything around five years old or newer is too damn expensive.