Cars and people are lasting longer.
In 1977, half the cars on the road survived until they were 10.5 years old and you could expect to put about 107,000 miles on a car during its useful life, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data. By 1990, half the cars put into service stayed on the road for 12.5 years and owners could expect to get 127,000 miles out of their vehicles.
The government's latest survey, using 2001 data, found that 50% of cars lasted 13 years, and drivers could expect to roll up 152,000 miles over the life of a new vehicle. According to a more recent study by automotive consulting firm R.L. Polk & Co., the median age of cars on U.S. roads was 9.2 years in 2007; 41.3 percent of all cars were 11 years or older, compared to 40.9 percent the year before.
It should be noted that purchases of new cars fell 3 percent in the U.S. in 2007 as a combination of factors, including high gas prices and the housing crisis, weighed on consumers and led many to put off buying new cars.
2004 was a pretty good year for new vehicle sales with 17.4 million registered while only 11.9 million vehicles were sent to the junkyard. The vehicles scrapped in 2004 were equivalent to a 5.4% of total vehicles registered. A decade earlier, the number of vehicles scrapped was 6.6% of total registered vehicles.
"Each model year the technology continues to get better and there are fewer components that fail, so we expect to see these trends continue," Dave Goebel, a consultant for Polk's aftermarket team, said.
The median age of passenger cars, excluding light trucks, has moved up over the past decade to 8.9 years from about 7.5 years in 1994. This suggests a lot of consumers put a high value on brands that have a track record of delivering cars that last. The brands that had the biggest marketshare gains during the 2000-to-2005 period--BMW, Toyota, Nissan and Honda--also had relatively strong records for functional reliability, according to an analysis by Walden Consultants.
Personally, I am way above average in owning twin 1989 Merkur Scorpio's (they were only imported to the U.S. in 1988 and 1989 by Ford who makes them in Germany). The winter-driven Scorpio has 179,000 miles and the in-better-body-condition summer Scorpio has 134,000 miles. Since I drove a 1988 model Scorpio for over 235,000 miles before transitioning it to a "parts car," these automobiles have plenty of life left in them.
Sources: Eyes on the Road, The Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2006 and The Associated Press, February 22, 2008.