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The article is correct that high prices are causing people to keep their cars longer. But it is not correct that the average US vehicle age is related. When y

The article is correct that high prices are causing people to keep their cars longer. But it is not correct that the average US vehicle age is related. When you switch from an old car to a new car, the old car doesn't disappear. Someone else buys it, and when that person switches, someone else will buy it. And on and on, until it is no longer roadworthy "enough" and either is junked or exported to a country where the standard for roadworthiness is lower. The fact that the average US vehicle age continues to climb is an indicator that the durability of vehicles continues to climb. That's it.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
Older vehicles get shipped overseas from the US. An old Toyota hybrid we owned and sold to CarMax during COVID was shipped to South America, for example.
Waterluvian 2y ago
Or people put more work into keeping vehicles roadworthy, anywhere in the vehicle re-cycle, because they're expensive to replace. That is, if vehicles are currently more expensive, the threshold where a vehicle isn't worth maintaining would go up. So this suggests that it isn't necessarily that vehicles are inherently becoming more durable.
goosedragons 2y ago
No it isn't. Because the price at which it makes sense to junk it changes when prices stay high. You're probably not going to do a $2000 repair on a 15 year old car that cost you $500 but you might if it cost $10000.
UncleEntity 2y ago
> The fact that the average US vehicle age continues to climb is an indicator that the durability of vehicles continues to climb. That's it. Aside from collision damage I can keep any old car on the road -- newer cars, not so much. Find an old car and figure out why they quit driving it plus whatever happened from it sitting around (seals going bad and whatnot) then drive it over to the DMV to get registration... the story of pretty much every car I drove in the '90s.

toomuchtodo 2y ago

Older vehicles get shipped overseas from the US. An old Toyota hybrid we owned and sold to CarMax during COVID was shipped to South America, for example.

Waterluvian 2y ago

Or people put more work into keeping vehicles roadworthy, anywhere in the vehicle re-cycle, because they're expensive to replace. That is, if vehicles are currently more expensive, the threshold where a vehicle isn't worth maintaining would go up. So this suggests that it isn't necessarily that vehicles are inherently becoming more durable.

goosedragons 2y ago

No it isn't. Because the price at which it makes sense to junk it changes when prices stay high. You're probably not going to do a $2000 repair on a 15 year old car that cost you $500 but you might if it cost $10000.

UncleEntity 2y ago

> The fact that the average US vehicle age continues to climb is an indicator that the durability of vehicles continues to climb. That's it. Aside from collision damage I can keep any old car on the road -- newer cars, not so much. Find an old car and figure out why they quit driving it plus whatever happened from it sitting around (seals going bad and whatnot) then drive it over to the DMV to get registration... the story of pretty much every car I drove in the '90s.