Americans keeping cars and trucks longer, report shows

: Americans are keeping their autos and motortrucks longer as quality betters and the unsure economic system do new purchases less appealing, according to a survey released this hebdomad by automotive consulting house R.L. James James Polk & Co.

Polk said the median value age of autos on U.S. roadstead was 9.2 old age in 2007. That neckties the former year's record high. In 2007, 41.3 percentage of all autos were 11 old age or older, compared with 40.9 percentage the twelvemonth before.

The median value age for motortrucks and athletics public utility vehicles rose 4 percentage to 7.1 years. Dave Goebel, a adviser for Polk's aftermarket team, said those Numbers are starting to reflect a rush in motortruck and SUV purchases in the mid- to late 1990s.

Goebel said he anticipates the norm age of motortrucks and SUVs will lift and eventually be on par with autos once the section Michigan its enormous growing and settle downs into a more than stable pattern.

Purchases of new autos drop 3 percentage inch the U.S. in 2007 as a combination of factors, including high gas terms and the lodging crisis, weighed on consumers and led many to set off purchasing new cars. Today in Business with Reuters

But Goebel said increasing durability, not the economy, is the chief driver of rising vehicle age. There are more than vehicles per family than in the past, he said, indicating that people purchase autos and then hang on to them because they last longer.

"Each new theoretical account twelvemonth the engineering goes on to acquire better and there are fewer constituents that fail, so we anticipate to see these tendencies continue," Goebel said.

The Service Contract Industry Council, a trade grouping for suppliers of drawn-out warranties, said it also sees grounds that people are keeping their vehicles longer. Despite the 3 percentage driblet in gross sales last year, there was a 3 percentage to 7 percentage addition in the figure of car service contracts sold as purchasers sought more than insurance than the traditional three-year manufacturers' warranty, according to Tim Meenan, the executive manager director of the council.

The grouping anticipates 5 million people to buy car service contracts this year. The contracts often cover constituents that manufacturers' guarantees don't, such as as electronics, air conditioning or a rental auto during repairs, and may cover vehicles for up to seven years.

Meenan foretells continuing growing in the marketplace for service contracts since an increasing figure of purchasers are purchasing vehicles with loans of seven old age or even longer. While the huge bulk of car loans — 78.7 percentage — now cover a five- to six-year period, 4 percentage are for seven old age and 0.1 percentage are for eight old age or longer, according to the car information house J.D. Power and Associates.

"A batch of consumers can't acquire out of a auto even if they desire to, when you see the value and depreciation versus what you still owe," Meenan said. "We believe that bodes the demand for these service contracts."

The James Polk study was based on a study of 240.9 million autos and visible light trucks.

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R.L. Polk,

Service Contract Industry Council,