I now drive a 2012 Honda Fit Sport that gets nearly 40 mpg on freeway. 
Nobody trades in a car with 200,000 miles. A dealer will give you maybe $1000 bucks? Not worth it. Most are given away or held as a spare car. Story is bunk.
Notice how they don't even mention that Cash for Clunkers probably FUBAR'd the entire normal purchase cycles above and beyond O'bozo's economy, which was one of his deals and the RINO's went along with it (heck I think a RINO from MI was a big part of it Candice Miller).
On top of that..
They don't talk to Auto Engineers. Discussions with my "auto gnomes" have been in this arena as well. For all the crap "The Big Three" got over the years especially before 2 of them went belly up, their durability and durability testing in regards to the auto's life span would suprise many. They are lasting up to 250,000 miles without batting an eye-lash ( minus the mid life electrical stuff that needs changing and that is for the imports too, Starters, Alternators, Batteries etc ) .
Interesting how that never enters into the equation.
I become more amazed all the time at how dealers have Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks sitting on their lots that are 10 years old and may have 130K or more miles on them and they still want over $10,000 for them. About $12K is all I believe I can reasonably afford for a vehicle and even then I still end up financing it for about 3/4 of a year before I get it paid off. I wish cars still cost about $4K like my parents vehicles did when I was a kid.
I have a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 6cyl, with 176k and it runs well, bought cash and I’ll keep it. My other Grand Cherokees - 1987 LTD 6cyl, 1994 LTD V8 - all had 275k on them when I traded them in, and got a few thousand for each, since they were in perfect condition, yet high mileage. Screw the electronics-laden “new cars”. I never use 90% of that Blu-this/Blu-that/popping-up screens/drop-down screens etc etc. They all come thru “loaded” with crap. Maybe I’ll start looking around for an older, clean, used car next time wo/ electronics doo-dad junk.
“a lot of ppl putting off buying cars until they absolutely have to.”
Absolutely, and when they do have to the best ones are already a couple of years old with some original warranty remaining. The problem is that those now cost what the new ones cost ten years ago.
Who in hell can afford to purchase a brand new vehicle of any make when the cost of living is so inflated?While at the same time the amount of pay you get is basicly static.
I own a 2003 Nissan pickup and even though I want to replace it with a Ford F-150,The cost of the vehicle,Insurance,Finance charges and of coarse the sales taxes paid to the State of Connecticut would make a purchase prohibitive to me.
I now drive a 2012 Honda Fit Sport that gets nearly 40 mpg on freeway.
Good grief - what kind of analysis is this?
People are keeping cars for a longer period and the mileage is higher.
Doesn’t this writer understand that in order to keep a vehicle longer AND have lower mileage - one has to drive the car in reverse?
Just imagine for a minute what car ownership would be like with gubmint out of our business!
No bs restrictions on automakers to neuter (to use a recent obama word) the vehicles, no faux epa rules, etc.
just to imagine this would be too much...
;)
Semper Watching!
*****
It’s a testament to modern engineering and engine technology that you can drive them 250,000 miles without requiring any sort of major overhaul.
bad news.
People are having to go into debt slavery to replace their old cars.
They don’t want to, they know they can’t afford it, but they have no choice.
Obama crushed a lot of good buys with ‘cash for clunkers’.
Then a spark plug disintegrated and scored a cylinder wall. The interior is shot. The paint is starting to flake off the plastic. It's not worth fixing.
My problem is, NOBODY makes what I want: the same thing, only new. :-(