How old is your car? If you're like most Americans, you haven't had to replace your primary automobile in a very long time. According to the Polk market-research firm, the average car on the road is now 11.4 years old, which is the oldest it's ever been.
The increases in engineering that have kept cars on the road longer were accentuated by the recession, when people held back on buying new vehicles. The average age of a car was just 8.4 years in 1995, and and had grown to 9.6 years in 2002.
If those advanced ages are bad news for America's automakers, they're good news for auto parts dealers and repairs shops. And the trend is only expected accelerate; by 2018, Polk says, the number of vehicles on the road that are 12 years or older is expected to grow another 20 percent.
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