> Americans Are Keeping Their Cars Longer Than Ever—and Remaking the Auto Industry

Timothy Mason drives a pair of Honda Accords: One is a 2010 model with fewer than 40,000 miles that he uses for his daily commute in Massachusetts to his accounting job, the other a 2001 V-6 with more than 280,000 miles he uses for tough winter driving.

“Where’s the financial sense in a new car?” Mason, 41, says. “Better fuel mileage, maybe, but is it going to save me $800 plus per month?”

Mason is on the extreme side of something happening across the country: America’s cars are older than ever.

The average vehicle on U.S. roads is about 13 years old, a historic high and a 10% jump from a decade ago.

Automakers, long laser-focused on the new-car market, are now pouring resources into propping up used-car sales, aftermarket parts and maintenance work. Dealers are investing in their repair shops, adding service bays and a phalanx of customer-friendly services once reserved for luxury patrons. All the while, competition for repair work is mounting among mom-and-pop mechanics, big oil-change shops and tire chains vying for a piece of the fix-it business.

“If we’re not going to make money on the selling side, we have to make it on the service side,” said Ed Roberts, operating chief of Bozard Ford Lincoln in St. Augustine, Fla. “And everybody is fighting for a piece of that pie.”

Tom Sparks is watching the miles creep up on the cars he and his wife drive, a 2010 Honda CR-V and a 2014 Toyota Avalon. He’s a retired pastor, and she’s a retired schoolteacher; together they have ample income to afford a new car. They just aren’t interested.

Sparks is considering a new CR-V, but the $40,000 price tag for the one that comes with the right features is more than he wants to spend. The cost is actually lower than the average price of a new vehicle, which now hovers around $50,000, according to Kelley Blue Book. But that’s around $10,000 more than at the start of the decade, according to the same data.

Cars continue to get more expensive; the average selling price in April jumped 1.8% from a year earlier. Elevated interest rates make new-car purchases even pricier.

“There’s just a big lack of choice between $30,000 and $40,000,” Sparks said.

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