Motley Fool advisor Joe Magyer recently showed an interesting chart depicting current U. As those vehicles get more and more expensive to fix and used car prices hover near record highs, new-vehicle demand will get pushed upward whether the economy comes along for the ride or not. By Joe's estimates, current auto sales are about 4 million vehicles a year shy of where they need to be. When I interviewed Mesirow Financial chief economist Diane Swonk last year, she put it another way: I think it is very important to recognise that the[auto] industry is an industry where we have been scrapping vehicles faster than we have been buying them to get more than four years. roads is now a record 10. The average age of cars on U. 6 years . economy. |