US roads graying as vehicle buyers age - Toledo Blade
NEW YORK — Richard Emmons, 83, likes to spend his weekends cruising around in a 1995 Jaguar convertible with a big 12-cylinder engine. , where he works full-time as a jet engineer. At the same time, cars have never been crammed with more features to safeguard drivers with fuzzier vision, slower reactions, and stiffer necks. Those forces have created a powerful economic engine for car manufacturers. “Honestly,” said Harley-Davidson Chief Marketing Officer Mark Hans-Richer, “we sell new bikes to guys in their 80s all the time. From 2003 to 2013, the number of licensed drivers over the age of 65 surged by 8. 2 million, a 29 percent increase, according to U. S. Census data. 5 million U. S. drivers are over 84, a staggering 43 percent increase over a decade ago. On the other end of the age spectrum, teenagers no longer have the income or inclination to own a car. Over that same 10-year period, the ranks of drivers under age 20 declined by 3 percent. In the past five years, the number of new cars registered to households with a head age 65 or older has risen 65 percent, according to IHS. Drivers over the age of 75, meanwhile, registered about six times as. Source: www.toledoblade.com
