Drivers hold cars and trucks longer the coronavirus pandemic.
The average age of a vehicle on U.S. roads It has increased for a month this year to be successful in a record 11.9 years.
Consulting firm IHS Markit says the pandemic has led consumers to control their spending and keep their existing cars longer. As a result, fewer new cars are reaching the road, increasing the average age.
IHS said Tuesday that it expects the replacement to create opportunities to repair department stores and portion vendors, as older cars want more service. “Anticipates significant upward stress on the average age in 2020 and beyond, as consumers paint toward a new one, either economically and in the way they use non-public cars in a post-COVID-19 era,” said Todd Campau, associate director of secondary market responses at IHS.
Before the pandemic, sales of new vehicles in the United States are expected to be just under 17 million by 2020, down to a record 17.55 million in 2016, but still at a healthy level. Today, top analysts expect sales to be about $14 million for the entire year.
The average age of cars has been gradually reaching 12 years for several years, and the pandemic will likely accumulate in 4 to six months in the coming years, IHS said. Ten years ago, the average age of 10.6 years.
IHS says sales of new vehicles tended to decline even before the pandemic. New cars accounted for 6.1% of cars in circulation last year, up from 6.7% in 2016. This year, IHS Markit expects the percentage to fall to 5% or less. “The decline in the percentage of new cars in the general population means fewer young cars to encourage average age growth,” the company said in a statement.