Technology helps today's vehicles age better - Bakken.com (press release)
Alonzo Weston | St. Joseph News-Press, Mo. Todd Zuptich brought his 2001 Toyota Tundra brand new. Even though he spent $3,000 on body work last year, he doesn’t plan on buying a new car. According to the IHS Automotive consulting firm, the average car on the road today is 11. 5 years old. Zuptich said economic frugality is still the driving force behind he and his friends and customers holding on to their vehicles longer. “It’s more economical to pay $20,000 for a vehicle, drive it 15, 20 years instead of trading it in every year (and) paying an extra $3,000 $4,000. … And there’s financing, interest, higher taxes, higher insurance,” he said. Todd Irvine, sales manager at Reed Chevrolet, said cars today can last up to 300,000 miles with proper maintenance. The market for new car sales are steady at Randy Reed, he said, but the market as a whole for new cars is down. Price is another factor. “A new Impala costs $42,000 (or) $43,000. Used to be 20 years ago that was a $14,000, $15,000 car, so you have to make them last a little bit longer,” he said. “You have to keep them a little bit longer because I don’t think our salaries are going up quite as fast as our car prices, our house prices, or food prices — or any prices for that matter. Irvine said years ago, a car with 100,000 miles was worth pretty much nothing. Source: bakken.com
