Cars are amazing. The typical modern car is made of 30,000 parts coming from hundreds of suppliers. Here are a few selected facts about cars through their life cycle.
Planning and Design
It takes on average six years to go from concept to a car actually being sold to consumers.
This great amount of lead time is challenging for car manufacturers; what will consumer preferences be 6+ years in the future, what will competitors be rolling out in 6+ years?
What is the Average Age of Cars on the Road?
In 1980 the average age of a car on the road was just under seven years. Today, the average age is nearly 12 years! Less than 1/3rd of Americans drive a car less than five years old.
What has driven the increase in average age? Mainly increased reliability. Cars and light trucks can easily be driven to 150,000 – 200,000 miles. As cars become more reliable there is less need to upgrade to a newer car.
Americans Love Trucks!
Recently Ford and GM both announced ends to some of their passenger car lines such as the Taurus and the Cruze. This is being driven by falling car sales and increased light truck sales (pickups and SUVs).
An interesting point is that demand for light trucks is increasing in the face of greater new truck prices while car prices have been declining on average. This chart is adjusted for inflation (prices shown in 2016 dollars):
End of the Line
The average car will have 3 – 6 owners during its lifetime and will last 165,000 – 200,000 miles. At the end of its useful life, it will be sent to a scrapyard for recycling.
Steel is the most recycled material in the world and automobiles are the most recycled consumer product and 95% of cars are recycled. About 65% of a typical car is steel and iron and in total about 75% of a car is recycled. Over 12 million cars and light trucks are recycled each year. At the scrapyard:
The tires are removed and sent for recycling. About 80% of tires are recycled with the most common new use being roadway base
All remaining fluids are drained and sent to a separate processing plant
Valuable parts are dismantled for re-use as used auto parts
The engine and transmission are removed and stripped of usable parts
The car is crushed into a more compact unit and sent to a shredder
Machines in the shredding process separate the car into three streams: iron and steel, nonferrous metal and “fluff” (fabric, rubber, glass, etc.).
Magnets are used to separate out the iron and steel from the other materials and is sent to iron and steel recycling plants.
A vehicle's life cycle begins when a vehicle is manufactured and ends when it's no longer operable. In between those two points in time, there may be multiple owners, and hundreds of thousands of miles driven. In the fleet world, life cycling refers to how long you keep a vehicle before replacing it with a new one.
There are five key steps throughout a vehicle's life cycle: procurement, operational management, equipment and driver safety, risk management and remarketing.
Typically, a car will last from 200,000 to 300,000 miles. Or, in terms of time, from 15 to 22 years. If those numbers raised your eyebrows, let us add that multiple variables impact a car's life expectancy. An electric vehicle (EV) will last at least as long as a car with an internal combustion engine (ICE).
A conventional car can last for 200,000 miles. Some well-maintained car models will reach 300,000 or more miles total. The average passenger car age is currently around 12 years in the United States. Choosing a well-built make and model can help extend your car's longevity.
"The average number of cycles before the first overhaul for modern narrowbody engines is 12,000 flight cycles," Dr. Memon writes. "For the two subsequent maintenance visits, the number of cycles may be reduced to 8,000 and 4,000, respectively.
Visit the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) website, vehiclehistory.gov, to get a vehicle history report with title, insurance loss, and salvage information. This site lists NMVTIS-approved providers of vehicle history reports.
As your car ages, the engine might become less fuel-efficient. This problem is partly due to deposit buildup on the engine's intake valves. These valves control the amount of air that enters the engine. Over time, the valves can clog up with carbon deposits.
Planning that is including your car's stock performance and after-tune performance needs to be noted carefully to move further from this stage. Stage 3 tuning = engine reinforcement, complete exhaust system, modified intake/air flow. You're basically getting ready for the race track.
The life cycle of automotive technology is defined here to include all the steps required to provide the fuel, to manufacture the vehicle, and to operate and maintain the vehicle throughout its lifetime up to scrappage and recycling.
How long should you keep a car? A typical car is expected to last 200,000 miles or more, with electric or hybrid vehicles going up to 300,000 miles. If you drive the average number of miles for an American, a typical car should last you about 14 years and an electric car will last about 21 years.
Consumer reports note that while the typical lifespan of a new vehicle is approximately 8 years or 150,000 miles, well-maintained vehicles can surpass 15 years and overcome 300,000 miles.
Read the owner's manual, stick to the servicing schedule, check your driving habits, and you can drive a modern used car or truck of a further 500,000 miles. Almost all modern vehicles have a similar cost of ownership for the first 100,000-200,000 miles. The expensive repairs kick in after that.
The Benz Patent Motorcar was first announced to the public in 1886 at an original cost of $150. The Duryea Motor Wagon, introduced in 1893, was the first American-made gasoline-powered car. It was built by the Duryea brothers, Charles and Frank, using a $70 carriage and single cylinder-gasoline motor.
What was the first car? The mother of all first cars was Karl Benz' Patent-Motorwagen. Built in 1885, this two-seater tricycle design had a single-cylinder four-stroke engine that produced a staggering 2/3 horsepower. It's from these humble beginnings that the entire automotive industry would grow.
The automobile designed by Karl Benz was just like a horse carriage but without the horses. It generated its own power and stood on three wheels, made from solid rubber. The rear wheels were bigger and heavier than the single front wheel.
Find cars that accelerate to 60 miles per hour between 5-5.99 seconds. These fast cars referred to as “5 second cars” were once reserved for only top end supercars, although with the advancements in automotive engineering, 5 second 0-60 times have become more common and open to everyday performance-oriented cars.
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