Article

2022-05-24 Economy

Average Age Of Vehicles On US Highways Keeps Getting Older

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Posted by Besoeker 2022-05-24 02:24|| || Front Page|| [6 views ] Top

#1 Globally, most people do not own an automobile. You are no better than most people. Use public transportation or your carbon neutral Chinese Cadillacs.

Posted by Besoeker 2022-05-24 02:36|| 2022-05-24 02:36|| Front Page Top

#2 The emergence of high quality used car merchants in the US began about 15 years ago.

It was enabled by the fact that cars were better than they were 20 or 30 years ago.

This is one reason, maybe the most important reason for the phenomenon cited.

Posted by Lord Garth 2022-05-24 07:22|| 2022-05-24 07:22|| Front Page Top

#3 If it wasn't for the Gas Crisis of the 70s, American's by and large would never have had the experience of Japanese cars which strangely enough were build right to begin with, engineered well to last an owner, and came without a piece of MSRP paper dangling half way down the door from the window with all the $$ extras. In order to survive, American manufactures had to make a half way decent effort (beyond lobbying for import quotas) to make their products survive more than a model year or two down the road.

Posted by Procopius2k 2022-05-24 08:32|| 2022-05-24 08:32|| Front Page Top

#4 Because there was a huge kill-off of older cars, called "cash for clunkers" that artificially reduced the average age of cars. Now things are returning towards normal.

Posted by Rob Crawford 2022-05-24 11:19|| 2022-05-24 11:19|| Front Page Top

#5 The "Car Allowance Rebate System" was a federal program active in 2009. About 700k cars were turned in.

It was part of the "help car companies' effort that year.

A lot of States had their own version of this.

Posted by Lord Garth 2022-05-24 12:50|| 2022-05-24 12:50|| Front Page Top

#6 Last year, when I traded in my '04 F-150 (Drink up!) for a new one, I didn't get squat in trade-in value. Probably because it had 240K miles on it. Still running great and in good shape.

Posted by Frank G 2022-05-24 13:32|| 2022-05-24 13:32|| Front Page Top

#7 carbon neutral Chinese Cadillacs

Carbon neutral except for when they burn or explode your face off.

Hyundai recalls 239K vehicles due to exploding seat belt component

Posted by Skidmark 2022-05-24 16:18|| 2022-05-24 16:18|| Front Page Top

#8 Frank, you should have called me. I just scrapped my '89 Ranger.

Vehicles are getting better. It's the rust here in New England that finally gets them. My last car had 250K and the engine and drive train were fine, but the body was badly rusted and finally the gas tank needed replacing, which was a big deal, along with about $3K of "deferred maintenance". If I'd done all that, I'd still have a 15 year old rusty car.

Posted by KBK 2022-05-24 19:39|| 2022-05-24 19:39|| Front Page Top

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