Average age of cars

[GeordieInExile]

My Focus is 23 years old and my missus' Focus is 13 years old. I like mine better although for a bASe 1.6 hers is surprisingly peppy and drives well.

[lisbon_road]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

High and dry I suspect with the Chinese junk. 

@sierraman, You any experience of them?

[IronStar]

1 hour ago, lisbon_road said:

Averages are tricky to work out, but if I eliminate cars I hardly use, I still get 25 years.  Her indoors won't put up with hers for much longer so it will change.

I reckon the future is hard to predict.  Thinking about what @sierraman wrote about electric cars, though I suspect batteries are often more than £4K.  What about the impact of Chinese cars?  On the one hand, those I know working on them, generally say that they are reasonably well made but I do wonder about longer term and spares availability.  China tends to just not allow people to keep stuff for long taking away the local need for spares.  

We hear to much about wet belts and crazy bills - my parents recent £3K bill for a minor brake issue on a four year old Jazz.  But I don't know how representative this is overall.

Very hard to predict anything much now.  

Not much to go wrong with them though powertrain-wise. 
They still need to play by the same right to repair and parts support to sell them in Europe as with any other brand. Coupled with seriously impressive warranties (7y/150k km for Chery here), and the serious amount of money they are spending for brand perception, which would be ruined by no resale value as a consequence of no parts support, I think they are here to stay. I also expect the usual aftermarket suspects to ramp up the support for them to any other manufacturer level in the coming years. The market is just too big for them to ignore it. 

Tiggo 7 Pro I drove was seriously impressive bit of kit, especially considering it costs the same as base T-Roc.

[FakeConcern]

My Volvo C30 is 15yr, Mrs Concerns Renault Modus is 22yr giving an average of 18.5 on those two.

However, Daughter No1 is living with us ATM, Pug 207 18yr so if we add that in we get 18.3.

Daughter No2 lives over 175 miles away, but somehow I still seem to be responsible for it, so add in Citroen C4 VTS 19yr we get 18.5 again. 

 

Before we had them and when the kids were little we always had just one car (I always commuted by bike so Mrs Concern could use it during the week) which we bought at about 2-3 years old and kept until it was about 10 before getting another one.

[sierraman]

17 minutes ago, lisbon_road said:

@sierraman, You any experience of them?

I wouldn’t touch one with a barge pole. 

[IronStar]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

I wouldn’t touch one with a barge pole. 

Give it a shot, you may end up very surprised. I went to laugh at a mate that bought that Tiggo 7 Pro, but went home properly impressed. 

[bangernomics]

11,18, 25, 25, 46 & 66.

Average 31-32 years.

[sierraman]

13 minutes ago, IronStar said:

Give it a shot, you may end up very surprised. I want to laugh at a mate that bought that Tiggo 7 Pro, but went home properly impressed. 

I won’t as I don’t think we should be supporting them. 

[Jazoli]

Low average for us now everyone is earning over median wage at 5 years for 4 cars

2013 5 Series

2021 Captur 

2024 Ateca

2023 A3

it’s only my 5 series that brings the average down, 5 years ago it’d have been over 10, both myself and the missus are likely to get something new this year, but I’ll sort that with a few old bikes.

 

 

[stuboy]

the mondeo is 25 this year the old shiter

[EyesWeldedShut]

8 hours ago, New POD said:

I think ICE vehicles peaked about 2005. 

That would explain the cars listed in my sig?
Car average is 20 years old this year - four out of the five are actually, simultaneously properly mobile plus MOT'd, taxed & fully insured - a record for us  


 

[Talbot]

My fleet:  28, 28, 29, 19, 35, 41.   Average 30 years old.

The ones that are actually road legal and useable:  28, 29, 19.  Average 25.  These are vehicles I use for not only daily drivers, but also for business use.   The newest vehicle I have ever owned was 11 years old at the time, which was in the 1990's, when that was a relatively old car.  This is mainly due to me being a skinflint and I buy at the absolute bottom of the bell-curve of vehicle value, which has gotten older and older as time moves on.

[Zelandeth]

Always interesting to work this out.

Newest to oldest.

Volvo - 2007.  19.

Trabant - 1984. 42.

Invacar - 1973. 53.

Rover - 1962.  64.

Average = 44.5.  Just a smidge over ten years then!

[chaseracer]

9 hours ago, New POD said:

I think ICE vehicles peaked about 2005. 

I'd better look after the Mercedes then!

[captain_70s]

Avg age of my cars is 52. 40 if you include the works van.

Don't often see a pre 2010 car around here. The odd Deliveroo Yaris/Civic is about it.

[Wibble]

Our average is 26.5, with the newest my Superb and oldest the Cortina.

[N19]

5 hours ago, warch said:

Pre the expansion of the ULEZ zone, I used to love car spotting in London. Many Londoners seemed to have 80s or 90s cars long after they all but vanished elsewhere (post scrappage scheme). 
 

I can only assume people rarely used their car so didn’t see the need to upgrade every few years. 

Even up until 5 years ago this was the case. For many people in London the mileage is very low, after all most people will get the tube or bus into town. The car is therefore for the weekly trip to the supermarket 4 miles away, the odd trip to something that's difficult to get to on public transport (out of town or going radially) or perhaps a journey you have to make overnight (most buses only run every half an hour after midnight, for example, so not practical). My Focus gets used for that sort of thing and does about 3k a year. A lot of giffer owned stuff will do much less than that!

[The_Equalizer]

4 hours ago, N19 said:

Even up until 5 years ago this was the case. For many people in London the mileage is very low, after all most people will get the tube or bus into town. The car is therefore for the weekly trip to the supermarket 4 miles away, the odd trip to something that's difficult to get to on public transport (out of town or going radially) or perhaps a journey you have to make overnight (most buses only run every half an hour after midnight, for example, so not practical). My Focus gets used for that sort of thing and does about 3k a year. A lot of giffer owned stuff will do much less than that!

My Mum and Dad (zone 5) fall very much into that bracket. I think Dad's classics do no more than 200/300 miles year (possibly combined!) and Mum possibly 4K because she goes on jollies to different parts of the country, say Wales and the South West. Their freedom passes do most of the work and Dad would still cycle a lot. 

Shame that ULEZ has removed a lot of the more interesting stuff. You can still spot bits and pieces, but it's now more summer focussed and 'classics' rather than daily hacks from what I can tell (although I'm only there for small chunks of time). Very much miss London in that respect. 

[MJK 24]

I have got 3 cars.  Combined age of 98!  And an average over over 32.

They seem to give less hassle than friends have with their moderns.  My annual mileage in them is consistently 10-12k.

[groovyboovy]

(10 + 23 + 48 )/3 = 27 years old average age

[Vince70]

26 +26 +28+29+29+36 so my average is around 29 years here.

My newest is the ASBO bora and my oldest is my T25 Van.

[Macscrooge]

15 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

The average age of my fleet is 60 years old (1965)

That's the average age of me!

[UltraWomble]

Mine (Polo) 20 - 68K mls

Mrs W (Alhambra) 9 - 40k mls

Mk 1 Son (108) 11 - 37K mls

Avrg: 13.3 yrs / 48K mls

[kevins]

Minor 56 years old (sons car)

Elan +2 53  years old

TR7V8. 46 years old

Range Rover 38 years old

mx5 29 years

Street ka 21 years old (dau ghters daily at 10k miles a year)

mk7 1.4 fiesta 16 years old our every day car still agreat little drive at 130k miles, hoping to get it well over 200k.

Focus 4 weeks old, company  lease car I keep in retirement, son uses it mostly because he does 40k a year.

so average is 32.5 with the focus  or if its just the ones we own its 37 years.

[BorniteIdentity]

21 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

On the few rare occasions I’ve been to London (years ago) it did seem there were lots of old cars around.

It is very different today than 10 years ago.  Vastly.  ULEZ has genuinely put a LOT of old porridge out to pasture.  I used to love a walk through Hendon Barnet etc blah to wherever I'd abandoned my car for the tube and you'd see tonnes of old stuff.  @bramz7's old Flickr account was testament to that.  

Now? Up to 20 years old generally.  Then over 40.  But there's a big gap in the middle.

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, BorniteIdentity said:

It is very different today than 10 years ago.  Vastly.  ULEZ has genuinely put a LOT of old porridge out to pasture.  I used to love a walk through Hendon Barnet etc blah to wherever I'd abandoned my car for the tube and you'd see tonnes of old stuff.  @bramz7's old Flickr account was testament to that.  

Now? Up to 20 years old generally.  Then over 40.  But there's a big gap in the middle.

I can’t actually remember when I last went to London. Certainly no ULEZ then though. 
It’s a real shame when things like that happen to a place. I know it’s only cars but it sucks a bit of the individuality and character out of the place. When the Routemaster buses went was another occasion. Everywhere just starts becoming the same.

Malta went like it when the EU or whoever it was started sticking their oar in and all the old buses and trucks (and cars) rapidly started disappearing. Those things are a big part of what makes a place unique. Cyprus was similar too, as you used to see all sorts of antiquated vehicles running still, but most of it has been swept away now.

[Knotty Ash Towers]

23 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

I can’t actually remember when I last went to London. Certainly no ULEZ then though. 
It’s a real shame when things like that happen to a place. I know it’s only cars but it sucks a bit of the individuality and character out of the place. When the Routemaster buses went was another occasion. Everywhere just starts becoming the same.

Malta went like it when the EU or whoever it was started sticking their oar in and all the old buses and trucks (and cars) rapidly started disappearing. Those things are a big part of what makes a place unique. Cyprus was similar too, as you used to see all sorts of antiquated vehicles running still, but most of it has been swept away now.

I first visited Cyprus in 1995 and it was like going back in time to 1980, loads of 50's, 60's & 70's vehicles everywhere, either still on the road or abandoned. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get back to Cyprus until 2022 and found that there wasn't that much left in the way of older vehicles.

Malta didn't have much when I visited in 2014.

I would imagine if you wanted to find somewhere that still had loads of old stuff running around, it would be a southern hemisphere country. 

[beko1987]

Alot will depend on the area the survey is taken... Ulez zone will have a far lower age average.

Around my way, just outside the ulez zone 20 years and younger is ever so common. Tons of 2008-10 things rattling around (myself included).

There's usually a gap and few middle age things, but then random 90s spots everywhere. Hard to find a pattern and I'm on the m40 alot which skews it more

[danthecapriman]

45 minutes ago, Knotty Ash Towers said:

I first visited Cyprus in 1995 and it was like going back in time to 1980, loads of 50's, 60's & 70's vehicles everywhere, either still on the road or abandoned. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get back to Cyprus until 2022 and found that there wasn't that much left in the way of older vehicles.

Malta didn't have much when I visited in 2014.

I would imagine if you wanted to find somewhere that still had loads of old stuff running around, it would be a southern hemisphere country. 

I think the first time I went to Cyprus was about 97, and there was absolutely loads of old stuff around. I remember after we left the airport and got onto the roads to go to our hotel you could see all sorts of old stuff from the 50’s to the 80’s driving around or parked up. The first full day I was there I was just leaving the hotel and could hear something big and meaty coming up the road. It was on a hill so the trucks and buses would be a bit laboured on the way up. Eventually it arrived though and was an early 70’s AEC truck with a big rectangular tanker body on the back. The sight and sound of it was something else to me! 
Stuff like that was everywhere though. Mk1 and 2 Transits were pretty common still, Cortina’s of all generations. Loads of old Datsuns and Mercedes. 
When stuff eventually died though it just got left on bits of waste ground gathering dust and gradually being covered by bushes and grass.

My mum lived there in the early 70’s while my grandad was working at RAF Akrotiri, but in general it still all looked much the same as she remembered it. In recent decades though it’s really starting to modernise, with lots of new building work going on in certain areas. It’s totally unrecognisable now. It’s ‘progress’ of course but it has the effect of removing individuality and character.

Certainly with Malta and probably Cyprus too, the old vehicles disappearing was largely air quality regulations being pushed onto the governments and them pushing for the old stuff to be replaced. The old stuff was all easy targets and they didn’t fit with the new sleek modern look the overlords want.

[Knotty Ash Towers]

3 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

I think the first time I went to Cyprus was about 97, and there was absolutely loads of old stuff around. I remember after we left the airport and got onto the roads to go to our hotel you could see all sorts of old stuff from the 50’s to the 80’s driving around or parked up. The first full day I was there I was just leaving the hotel and could hear something big and meaty coming up the road. It was on a hill so the trucks and buses would be a bit laboured on the way up. Eventually it arrived though and was an early 70’s AEC truck with a big rectangular tanker body on the back. The sight and sound of it was something else to me! 
Stuff like that was everywhere though. Mk1 and 2 Transits were pretty common still, Cortina’s of all generations. Loads of old Datsuns and Mercedes. 
When stuff eventually died though it just got left on bits of waste ground gathering dust and gradually being covered by bushes and grass.

My mum lived there in the early 70’s while my grandad was working at RAF Akrotiri, but in general it still all looked much the same as she remembered it. In recent decades though it’s really starting to modernise, with lots of new building work going on in certain areas. It’s totally unrecognisable now. It’s ‘progress’ of course but it has the effect of removing individuality and character.

Certainly with Malta and probably Cyprus too, the old vehicles disappearing was largely air quality regulations being pushed onto the governments and them pushing for the old stuff to be replaced. The old stuff was all easy targets and they didn’t fit with the new sleek modern look the overlords want.

There's loads of stuff from my first trip to Cyprus that still sticks in my mind over 30 years later. I remember seeing 5 Mazda 1500/1800 sat outside someone's house, a MK 1 Alfa Romeo Alfetta with 3 headlights, loads of 60's & 70's Japanese cars that we didn't get here, a Y-reg Isuzu Piazza, which I assume was a prototype, Moskvichs with really thin steering wheels, etc, etc.

When I revisited, I found Limassol barely recognisable, but I am grateful that I managed to go back.