do americans keep their cars longer?

[pimping]

Am I just imagining this? I have the idea that americans keep their vehicles literally forever or until they return to the earth due to rust/write off.
I am probably wrong but it has always interested me, the different attitudes to length of car ownership.

[wackojacko]

Judging from the Americans I know it is quite the opposite between their families they havn't had a car they've bought new for longer than 2 years max.

They have an old Dodge Hemi Dart and a Cuda that they have had for 10 years but as said they didn't buy them new.

[Jimbo.]

Seems so, from what I've seen/who I know. Or at least, they're not afraid of mileage: 100,000 miles? Just run in. And they'd be right. Europeans also tend to keep their cars longer (10 years AVERAGE) IIRC. It's the UK and the UK only which is convinced anything over 3 years old and/or 100,000 miles is a death trap, not worth keeping/maintaining.

[Maximum Bobs]

Who cares. Americans, who gives a st.

[smele]

Lot of Americans I know just don't seem to get rid of them and end up with them littering their driveways. Depending on the State and your insurance policy only many vehicles is not that expensive, so why get rid of it when Road Tax is only $50 a year.

[Zwoelf]

They tend to change more frequently than we do owing to the way credit lines work over there I gather.

Owing to the size of the place, they tend to do a lot of miles in that time however, hence their general preference for a large, lazy unstressed engine with a comfortable chassis. The longer the service intervals and the cheaper the maintenance the better. Is it the GM V8 that can be run 100k miles between services and even then still costs £4.78 to service?

Whereas a 3-5 hour drive for us is quite a long trip, it's considered more routine over there. A "long drive" for the few Americans I've met is 10-12 hours/500 miles+ behind the wheel, night at a motel, then the same again for another day.

Maximum Bobs said:

Who cares. Americans, who gives a st.

Americans probably, of whom this forum has a few among its numbers I expect, plus others interested in motoring in a broader context than their own parochial interests.

[gizlaroc]

Also, they tend to have 5 year unlimited mileage warranties etc., so when you get to 3 years old it still has two years warranty and this makes a used car far more appealing and keeps the price higher, so it is easier to change when you haven't lost 60% like you do over hear.

Plus interest at under 1%, that makes a huge difference.

[XitUp]

I'd say not really.

Listening to a Freakonomics podcast today someone was saying that the average age of a car on the road in America is 9 and a bit years.

Also, the fact that they do a lot more miles than Europeans is a total myth.

[Sam1990]

Jimbo. said:

Seems so, from what I've seen/who I know. Or at least, they're not afraid of mileage: 100,000 miles? Just run in. And they'd be right. Europeans also tend to keep their cars longer (10 years AVERAGE) IIRC. It's the UK and the UK only which is convinced anything over 3 years old and/or 100,000 miles is a death trap, not worth keeping/maintaining.

My theory is that in America they generally have longer distances to drive to work, shops, town centre etc so rack up miles a lot quicker than us Brits and with their bigger, lazier engines that sort of mileage won't have the same potential issues as it would do if you were to put 100,000+ miles on a smaller capacity engine.

[Crusoe]

Lots of states don't have regular MOT type laws so it is easier to keep cars on the road and/or have restoration projects on the go. Not such issues with rust/winter salt etc. either in most states.

[HellDiver]

XitUp said:

Also, the fact that they do a lot more miles than Europeans is a total myth.

I call bullst on that statement.

How can they NOT do more miles? You can fit some European countries in American states with room left over.

[Kickstart68]

Jimbo. said:

It's the UK and the UK only which is convinced anything over 3 years old and/or 100,000 miles is a death trap, not worth keeping/maintaining.

To go with what you say, the UK has one of the shortest life expectancies for cars in Europe and the youngest car fleet:-

http://www.acea.be/images/uploads/files/20100520_a...

All the best

Keith

[sleep envy]

doogz said:

Zwoelf said:

Whereas a 3-5 hour drive for us is quite a long trip, it's considered more routine over there. A "long drive" for the few Americans I've met is 10-12 hours/500 miles+ behind the wheel, night at a motel, then the same again for another day.

A mate worked in Texas for a bit. They'd regularly drive 2 hours each way in the evening, for a steak.

in the UK 100 miles is a long way

in the US 100 years is a long time

[Caulkhead]

HellDiver said:

XitUp said:

Also, the fact that they do a lot more miles than Europeans is a total myth.

I call bullst on that statement.

How can they NOT do more miles? You can fit some European countries in American states with room left over.

Rather than guess, let's have a look at the actual US Govt. numbers:

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm

So, overall average 13,476 miles driven per year by Americans.

[HellDiver]

So around 10% more than the UK average.

[Caulkhead]

HellDiver said:

So around 10% more than the UK average.

If this is to be belived:

http://www.directline.com/about_us/news_300605.htm

UK drivers average 9628 miles per year, so over 30% more.

[Melvin Udall]

Well, the used car market in the states isn't great.

[redstu]

doogz said:

A mate worked in Texas for a bit. They'd regularly drive 2 hours each way in the evening, for a steak.

I know Texas is a big place , but do they have bigger days as well , like 30 hours?

A 4 hour drive for a meal has to be a long way by anyones standards.

[Bebop Beru]

Probably depends more where you live in America. If you live in the sticks and the nearest restaurant is 2 hours away, then you're going to have to drive 2 hrs to get a steak.

I'm guessing if you live in Houston and work locally, your mileage will be considerably less.

[redgriff500]

redstu said:

doogz said:

A mate worked in Texas for a bit. They'd regularly drive 2 hours each way in the evening, for a steak.

I know Texas is a big place , but do they have bigger days as well , like 30 hours?

A 4 hour drive for a meal has to be a long way by anyones standards.

But there are vast areas of bugger all.

I worked on a kids camp in Michigan we went to the cinema one night - the nearest one was 1.5 hours away - big areas means outside of cities - few people per square mile hence few facilities.

Whilst someone has given average mileage stats that's massively skewed by city dwellers. Take a look on Ebay USA at say V8 F150's around 10 yrs old and they've all done 200k+