According to a recent survey by IHS Automotive, the average age of vehicles on the road in the U.S. is 11.5 years old. This represents a record average age and is primarily attributed to improved vehicle quality over the years.
In an interesting twist, consumers ARE buying new vehicles (at an annualized rate of more than 17 million vehicles), at the same time that the average age of current vehicles pushes higher. The survey found that consumers are buying new vehicles, but are also less likely to scrap old vehicles that are still running fine.