This sounded unlikely to me, so I checked a local site and got 4.9% >20 years old in the used market. A lot of people drive their old cars beyond the point that they are not worth re-selling, so I'd expect that to be an underestimate of how many cars are that old.
The article linked suggests the average age of a car on the road in the USA is 12 years - if you're then selling cars that are designed to obsolete in 6 years, that has potential consumer law implications.
We're flying airplanes that are 30-40 years old. 18 wheel trucks are routinely driven a million miles. I think we need to adjust our expectations that cars need to be replaced every 5-10 years because they're no longer reliable. That's not a wise management of natural resources.
Because they clearly don't often last that long in practice.
Are you saying you wished they lasted longer? Ok yeah that'd be great... but I mean they don't at the moment you can see that for yourself, so expecting it is an unreasonable expectation.
You can expect that cars should last a hundred years if you want... but you're going to be disappointed.
Tesla does not need those screens to last 100 years; but it’s not unreasonable to expect at least 15 - 20 years.
1: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/28/25percent-of-cars-in-us-are-... 2: https://carsurance.net/blog/cars-sales-statistics/
Depreciation has little relevance to the majority of used-car buyers who need a vehicle, not an investment. They drive it until it can no longer be driven.
What is more relevant to the lifespan of a car is durability and availability of parts. For example Honda shared parts between the Civic, CR-V and Integra so they are relatively easy to obtain even going back to late 90s models.
"...about 80 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 20 years are still on the road today." [1]
Used cars are an entry point into an automaker's brand, and they do indeed want their cars to last as long as possible. Furthermore, reliability is a pretty large factor in resale value, and by extension, lease rates.
[1] https://pressroom.toyota.com/america-best-selling-car-camry-...
We were raised to follow this practice and it's hard to imagine doing anything else.
My current car is 20 years old and I have owned it for about a decade. All the other cars I previously owned were also about 15+ years old. I'm not interested in buying a car with a shorter lifespan.
Share of new cars was 6.9% in 2019, ~5.0% in 2020, and scrappage rate was 5.1% in 2019 (source: https://news.ihsmarkit.com/prviewer/release_only/slug/bizwir...).
If the average in/out flow per year is ~5%, average life is 20 years. If 6%, ~17 years.
My previous vehicle was a 1984 Ford F350, which I purchased for $800 in 2017 and then subsequently drove from Seattle to North Carolina with only one breakdown (that I could fix roadside).
With proper maintenance and repair, most vehicles can last several hundred thousand miles and 30+ years. The lack of representation of these vehicles on used car search sites is that most of these inexpensive vehicles are sold private-party. Look at your local Craigslist site for examples.
Hope you're doing well man. With love from Texas <3
How many times did you replace the dashboard before ending up with a dash blanket?
My newest car is a 2009, purchased in 2018 for $4,000. Everything works except the tire pressure sensors (the batteries in the wheel sensors have died; I'll replace them at next tire change).
My oldest car is a 1969 but that's a toy, so I don't really count it. My oldest car that I use for transportation is a 1983. The air conditioning has failed on that one, but I live without it.
In rural areas (read lower income) it's not uncommon to see late 80s, 90s vehicles out and about. Some are in good shape, others not so much...
Outside of the US, some countries have heavy import taxes on new vehicles, meaning that the secondary market dominates and older vehicles are more likely to be overhauled than junked.
[1] https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/2019-tesla-impact-report.pdf (page 8)
It had 300k km on it and ran just fine. Newer cars run forever with basic maintenance. I sold it for $1k and the buyer planned to give it to their teen as a commuter, so I assume it’ll be on the road a while yet.
That does not take into account older cars being exported to eastern Europe.
https://www.autotrader.com/car-shopping/buying-car-how-long-...
I don't think you can use this statistic on its own to say how many live >20 years can you?
The sad thing is I can barely find some parts for that 21 year old car that is mostly in perfect running order, but several small buttons don't work anymore, most of the display (showing basic info like outside temperature, fuel consumption etc), rear windshield blade, so at some point good running cars are abandoned because of lack of parts, not because they really need to. Replacing with newer cars is not just the financial cost, but the associated energy and pollution costs that manufacturing processes have.
For electric cars I have huge life expectations, 30 years or more with just batteries and tires as consumables, but the car body and electrical engine should last a very, very long time. There is no reason to accept less than that.
Lots of useful parts for all kinds of cars going back decades:
If not living in the USA, add: https://www.viabox.com/
Yes.
> Are many people driving around in a car from 2000 or earlier?
A fair number, though not a lot because an accident or neglected maintenance will often kill them first. Though the average age of a car on the road has been climbing quite a bit recently, so 20+ years being common probably isn't unreasonable to see during the lifespan of cars sold today. Well, maybe not for the Teslas, but...
> When I search for cars that old or older it's 0.4% of the used market.
That's because there is little demand outside of collectibles, so they mostly aren't worth selling; if you've got a car that old, you are probably going to drive it until it's ready for the scrapyard, not reselling it.
A quick look at eBay shows a nearly identical F350 listed at $21,500, with >190k miles, so clearly someone sees value in vehicles of that vintage.
There’s a reason old 4Runners and Tacomas and Land Cruisers are worth so much, and barely come up for sale in decent condition.
Your service points on an EV are going to be tires and brakes. If the car battery is rated for 1 million miles, how many years is that?
The central control system is a Touchscreen which will be exposed to a variety of heat/cold/Sun exposure how long should it last?
Not everyone can afford to buy a car every 7 years or WANT to do so.
For a car? Are many people driving around in a car from 2000 or earlier? When I search for cars that old or older it's 0.4% of the used market. Clearly the vast majority of cars do not last this long and I think you have an unreasonable expectation.