Average age of cars in the UK reaches new high

SteveInTheMidlands    on 24 May 2021

More people are in insecure jobs, Wages for many have not and will not rise. Careers for younger people are taking longer to get off the ground. Mega rents and mortgages on account of government and bank sponsored house price inflation takes much of a couples wage, never mind a single persons wage. Many are choosing not to have cars if they live in cities with pay for parking permits, congestion charging etc. Then we have the people that can afford new or nearly new cars are now waiting for cheaper electric cars for two reasons, a) they want one and will hang onto their current car a few years more and b) if they buy a petrol/diesel car now it will depreciate faster when electrics become common and affordable. The cherry on top of course is that covid and Brexit have exaggerated all these issues.

Also of note, new car prices have gone up faster than real wage inflation in the last 20 years and they have been able to sell them with the magic of lease magic-money which never existed for normal people some years ago. The people still doing my old job (mid level IT job, was exported to India) are still on the same wage I was in the year 2000.

Edited by SteveInTheMidlands on 24/05/2021 at 19:19

Contax139    on 24 May 2021

I bought my new Peugeot Bipper Tepee Outdoor 1.4 HDi Feb 2011, it just about reached 7K miles in 10 years, it's still like new and only way I can leave home due to osteoarthritis and heart failure, can't walk far enough to get a bus in rural area. No way am I moving to EV for use I would get from it and the cost of them, people with EV probably cause more pollution than I do with my little diesel. Time they produced something for disabled better than an 8mph mobility scooter, battery bikes and illegal e-scooters are allowed 15.5mph, a single or 2 seater with a good boot that can do say 30mph with 50 mile range would be nice if they kept price down, don't need the frills to go to shops and such.

jchinuk    on 25 May 2021

All car (new and used) dealerships have effectively been closed for 14 months, I doubt if many company cars were replaced / upgraded, indeed removing those as a perk is a possible side-effect of home working in some companies.

It's hardly surprising the average age of cars increases in those circumstances.

petergreen    on 25 May 2021

Most people can't afford an electric car. We can buy a three year old car for under £10,000 and a nearly new car for £15,000 to £18,000. When if ever will electric cars be the same price.

The number of charging points is a sick joke. It is difficult to see this changing, even by 2030.

I suspect the demand for petrol cars will remain steady well after 2030.
Peter

hissingsid    on 25 May 2021

New car prices are kept artificially high with the addition of more and more "Tech" which few buyers want or need. When it goes wrong, as it surely will, repair costs will also be kept high and the motor trade will be happy.

My Mazda CX-3, which I have owned from new, is coming up to five years old and has covered 21,000 miles. The dealership is constantly trying to tempt me to buy a new car but why would I? I don't want autonomous braking, lane departure warning, rain sensitive wipers etc etc. These devices are all part of the slippery slope towards driverless cars.

targen    on 25 May 2021

A totally misleading article... firstly , economic uncertainty is bound to lead people to hang on to cars longer. Secondly , as cars age their annual mileage reduces , so emissions produced overall also go down. Thirdly , electric vehicles are overpriced , depreciate quicker than conventional vehicles , and , hybrid vehicles are , in all arguments , a red herring , causing similar emissions to non hybrids in running , but causing considerably more in their construction. A final point , surely , as car have developed better build quality and longer warranties over the years , their lifespan will naturally have increased.

Gordon Ennis    on 25 May 2021

I drive a 13 year old Mitsubishi CZ1 Colt 1100 cc 3 cylinder model It has covered 64k, has a full service history, and passed it's last two MOT with no advisories. I am 80 years old living on our pittance of a state pension, so a new car is out of the question. I have owned this car for two years and only drive about 4.5k a year. To talk in such a derogatory manner about cars of this age, which have many years of service left in them, is a sad attitude of the motoring press.

Model Flyer    on 25 May 2021

The figures can say what they want but don't take into account what people want or can afford . Why should we all scramble to buy the latest car A, when they are so expensive B, our present cars are perfectly serviceable C, and EV's don't do the mileage when many cannot even charge them at home .
What the figures don't say is that many drivers are not doing the mileage they were before the Covid pandemic with many working from home so the overall pollution must be way down but no mention of that.
Just more hot air from an overpaid executive of some organisation that helps motor manufacturers extract cash from the buyers .

Oldboy    on 25 May 2021

SMMT, Society of car makers and floggers wants us to buy more new cars.

Well, I will go to the foot of our stairs !!

We have 3 cars, for different jobs, a convertible for fun, a 4X4 for pulling a boat up a harbour slipway and a mini for running around

Total cylinders 20, capacity 10 litres bhp 740 combined age 47 ( cars, we 2 total 145 ! ) Combined total pre-Covid mileage C. 7,000 pa

Will consider buying a 4X4 convertible plug-in hybrid when they make one with a 50 mile electric range and a 2 ton towing capacity. I will probably be dead before that happens !

hissingsid    on 25 May 2021

Model Flyer makes a good point. Emissions from both aircraft and road vehicles has fallen massively during the pandemic, but you won't hear a word about that from the environmental lobby.
Good news does not suit their agenda, which is to force us all onto scarce expensive and overcrowded public transport. In my village there is a bus every two hours, but nothing after 5.00pm, and the nearest railway station is four miles away.

Rob Pollock    on 25 May 2021

Bring back the lpg grant for older vehicles and help with the development of synthetic fuels which will burn in ICE vehicles, get this in place before 2030 or those 40 million vehicles on the road now will still be on the road then, which of course, will give a chancellor another excuse to levy a tax. On top of that, the government needs to look at traffic flow, all these new traffic lights and bus lanes just cause vehicles to sit idling and kicking out pollution, then again when they race off to the next stop where brake dust and tyre dust are given off as the drivers brake.

aethelwulf    on 25 May 2021

Has HJ joined the government propaganda machine? We have old cars because
1) They are cheaper than new ones
2) They are reliable without tech that is NOT reliable
3) We cover fewer miles so the cars do not wear out
4) No one believes that EV will get them to their destination.
5) EVs are fantastically expensive
6) Government does not discourage flights so cannot be really concerned about CO2
7) It is a con to make the government look good at international meetings where the delegates fly to in first class accommodation.
8) Most of the world's population does not give a stuff about CO2( China is building new coal-fired power stations)
10) so, why should I live a miserable life to please a politician?

   on 26 May 2021

E.Vehicle?? no thank you!
Over time, the battery loses it's range by as much as 20% take into account the mountain roads of where I live in Wales and I would need a range of 400-miles.
On the days I take the car out, touring etc. I drive 200-plus in one day.... no chance of charging the vehicle. There is also the cost of battery replacement at around £4,000.
I've owned my Skoda from new, 1.2....3-cylinder which returns 60-mpg 14-years old 75,000 on the clock. I only drive on "B" and "A" roads, usually between 35/50-mph.

gavsmit    on 27 May 2021

Everyday people, not the mega-rich, wealthy criminals or people on huge pensions from the golden age of final salary schemes with nothing else to spend their money on, aren't buying new cars because the prices have gone bonkers.

ICE car prices are at ludicrous levels, far out-stripping rates of inflation, with regular rises and even the smallest facelift seen as a great excuse to bump prices up by a few grand. A new model is the jackpot in terms of obscene price rises - even at the tiny city car class level - Hyundai i10 for over £17k anyone?! Or an entry-level Yaris for £20k?!

Excuses like safety aids (no thanks - that's why I passed my driving test) and in-car 'tech' that some of us don't want and is just another thing to go expensively wrong just outside of warranty doesn't wash with me - it's just part of a huge scam to close the price gap between ICE cars and EVs so EVs will never become cheaper as everyone was expecting.

I've kept my current car for longer than any car I've ever owned - and when it needs to be replaced, I'll be working from home more thanks to Covid changing employers views on that so I'll buy a bicycle, walk more and begrudgingly use public transport instead of being suckered into paying way too much for a heavily depreciating, compromised, taxed to the roof (by then) EV.

wilmo    on 1 June 2021

I delivered a set of boots & gloves to a vehicle repairer recently.
So what? you say
These were special EV boots & gloves designed to avoid electric shocks!
Bet none of us saw that one coming.

Warning    on 2 June 2021

A new car from 2020 emits, on average, 112.8g/km of CO2 — which is 18 per cent better than a model registered in 2011.

If someone drives 6,000 miles a year in an older car. What benefit is there to upgrade to a new car? What is the CO2 cost of manufacturing a newer car, which will spend its time largely parked up and not causing any pollution.

If high milers are doing this in older cars, it is a valid statement and should be encouraged to upgrade. Not low mileage users.

Warning    on 3 June 2021

I have a 16 year old car. I do low mileage. A newer car might have lower emissions, but what is the cost carbon footprint of building a brand new car?


Someone who does high mileage in a new car, emits more pollution, then my car which is doing low mileage.

I have been looking at re-freshing my car, and it is hard to find a 3 or 4 year old car at a decent price, good service history and quality. In the past, there were many ex-fleet cars available for sale. I suspect company car tax and changing jobs may have something do with it.

Newer cars are far more complicated and they are n't as good as they used to be. Waiting at the main dealer to pick up my car following a service. The owner of a two year old car was quoted £250 for air conditioning re-fill. The same job in my older car is £40. The tyres on newer are bigger and they cost £250 each, on my car they are £100 each.

Add to that the hostile attitude towards motorists. Roads have been narrowed to make way for cyclist. So what is the point of buying an Electric car? If you are stuck in traffic due to loss of capacity.

Councils have high car parking charges. To park outside my home, I need to pay for a resident parking permit. If I visit family by car, I can't park there as they in a different residents parking zone. You can't park unless they have a visitors parking permit. Even they they have limit such as 6 hours maximum.

Then you have councils who set up honey traps to catch motorists for wrong doing. Such as putting up yellow lines outside businesses and then using CCTV to catch desperate people. One local council pedestrianised their high street, but it looked like a normal roads. The signs were camouflaged.

I have been honey trapped at yellow box junctions. Councils are milking drivers via their CCTV systems. Yet crime reports to the police or council never get investigated even when these CCTV systems. They are only used against motorist. In my another area, I drive through, they have put 20mph zone on a major road, but I don't see the signs, until too late and you have to brake hard and hopping not caught on cameras.

I have been hit twice by uninsured drivers, so do not I want to buy a nearly £15k car, only to be ripped off by my insurance company when I make a claim.

Even though I pay for a car, insurance (insurance tax premium), fuel duty, road tax, parking charges.... I still need to use public transport and taxis to get around.

I rather see driverless cars, which I can call up like Uber. I won't need to worry about parking or someone damaging my car.