Old Cars & Trucks At Record Age in America (F, GM, TM, HMC)

Most Americans know nothing of Polk when it comes to analyzing auto data.  There is likely soon to be a booming new car industry in America if American’s begin to revert anywhere close to a mean in historic behavior.  The entire fleet of America’s auto market is now the oldest in a generation. The implication is likely going to be a boom for Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), General Motors Company (NYSE: GM), Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE: TM), Honda Motor Co. (NYSE: HMC), and a slew of other companies when the economy turns back up.

Polk noted that the average age of cars and trucks in the United States is at its highest level going back to at least 1995.  It also noted that more cars were scrapped last year compared to the number of cars registered.  The good news here is that with a bad economy or a good economy, the public will have to start buying new cars again soon.  Old cars can only be driven for so long before the cost of maintaining and repairing them exceeds the financing of a new car.

The average age of a car is now 10.2 years, with cars staying as they were and trucks increasing in age: cars went to 11.1 years from 11.0 years and trucks went to 10.4 years from 10.1 years. The table below shows that the age has been creeping higher as you would expect because of the recession and the great jobless recovery.

Polk measured that 13.6 million new car and truck registrations took place last year, versus 14.8 million which were sent to junkyards or scrapped.  The 2009 Cash For Clunkers program likely added to the rate at which the cars were scrapped.

FULL DATA FROM POLK