There could be many people no longer in need of a vehicle.

1. Cost - too expensive to run a car, especially if trying to save for a house or pay rent.

2. Car isnt being used much - bicycles,e-bikes are a better bet.

3. Storage - Lack of parking space for many, stress of trying to find one, and hold onto it..

4. The sheer, teeth-gnashing, joyless frustration of driving in the UK. There is no joy in it, unless one is ready to get up at 4am and drive to a Welsh mountain pass like road magazine road testers do.

5. Emission zone charges, especially London.

6. Supermarket and home deliveries. For many (too many) the car does shopping duties. With the wider availability of home delivery now, it's one less reason to keep it.

7. Depreciation - a car sitting outside 90% of the time doing nothing but haemorrhage money, either by leasing/PCP or capital loss. (see point 1)

Don't worry, I'm not anti-car. But the scales have long fallen from my eyes. I have an ultra-reliable Honda which cost £4k and some nice bicycles. I'll cycle all my short journeys and use the car for things a car is still good at - long journeys to specific places, transporting people and stuff, trips to the tip etc.

I'm convinced that the pointless charge to fill cars with multiple high definition screens (which provide no clear benefit over, say, a 5-series BMW dashboard from 20 yrs ago) is to distract drivers from the realty of car ownership. Something to play with.

Moreover, why should the figure increase exponentially - that is unsustainable.

Edited by Sulphur Man on 24/05/2021 at 10:25

Average age of car rises to 8.4 years old

28% of UK cars over 12 years old

These stats surprised me! I thought buying latest motor is the fashion.

The sheer, teeth-gnashing, joyless frustration of driving in the UK.

Compared to many other countries in the world, driving in UK is still a pleasure (London & big towns excluded).

Car use should go up after pandemics as many will try to avoid public transport.

28% of UK cars over 12 years old - that surprised me.

Rise in light vans expected, as people increasingly shop on-line.

TBH, as an owner of a car in that group, it actually wasn't a surprise to me - these cars are from the 'sweet spot' period of high reliability/durability and prices being very competitive due to oversupply and the £ being higher in value.

I paid just over £10k for my (essentially new) car in early 2006; now, a very similar specced car would cost (even after discount, which I didn't get as it was from a car supermarket) in the region of £20k.

Would I like to replace it with something with more oomph, sure, but I'm not breaking the bank, especially in the times we have been living over the past decade (especially now onwards) and my existing car still works just fine and doesn't cost me a fortune to keep on the road.

I suspect that this trend will continue (rather like the number of OAPs), with the average age of cars increasing and a larger percentage of them being on the road.

House price has overtaken income rise. There were some predictions that as people spend more on housing, there would be less money available for other purchases.

Since a car is an expensive purchase, wonder whether higher house price led to popularity of buying older (= cheaper) cars.

Many people drive cars they can't afford unless buying (= renting?) via PCP route.

With furlough coming to an end may be lot more cars will flood used market and hence price may fall for newish used cars.