What if you just kept your car for its intended lifespan?
Want to keep your present car on the road? Keep on top of your maintenance and keep your vehicle running well
The Wall Street Journal recently published a story that addresses something that could — and should — become more common: people choosing to drive their cars until the car is done. They called it “The New Math of Driving Your Car Till the Wheels Fall Off”, and it was in the finance section, not the auto section. Fed up with escalating car costs? Start loving the one you’re with.
In 1990, the average age of a car on Canadian roads was 7.25 years. By 2016, that had risen to 9.6 years. While Canadian statistics always need to be updated, Car and Driver reported that in 2021 cars on American roads had an average age of just over 12 years. Pandemic shortages impacted that number, but it has been trending higher even outside of those shortages. On a different front, JD Power is reporting reliability ratings are beginning to take a hit. Manufacturers should stop rushing out buggy features in a race to market. Consumers will push back, and more people will opt to hold onto their existing vehicles. Add in the increasing complexity of new systems and be reminded by Psychology Today that monkeys are more able to change than humans. Bet some of them are better drivers, too.
The pandemic produced unprecedented spikes in the costs of vehicles, and while they are settling a little, they will never return to earth. Interest rates leaned in hard, and consumers continued to believe they needed bigger and bigger rides as manufacturers slashed their more economical cars from their model lineups. We are seeing some early noise in the EV market as the push to huge electrified pickups has been paused by many makers as consumers demand smaller, more right-sized vehicles they can actually afford. All that range everybody was demanding? It meant bigger, heavier batteries — and far higher price tags. And it turns out very few of us are doing 500 km daily commutes.
