Average U.S. Vehicle Age Approaching 13 Years, New Report Shows

Cars on the road are more than a dozen years old on average and they’re getting older.

The average age of U.S. vehicles on the road rose to 12.7 years in 2024 and is expected to hit 13 years by 2026, a new report from CCC Intelligent Solutions shows. CCC data shows that the average vehicle age was 11.4 years in 2014.

As the average automobile life extends, suppliers and repair facilities will need a broad array of parts and expertise to service a wider range of vehicles, stated Kyle Krumlauf, director of industry analytics at CCC.

“The vehicle fleet continues to age and get a lot older,” Krumlauf said. “However, the newer vehicles are so different. There’s a stark difference between older and newer vehicles, especially over the past six [or] seven years, as more ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems) features have gotten into the car parc.”

So, why is the average age of vehicles on the road increasing?

In the report, analysts pointed to improved vehicle durability, shifts in buying preferences due to high prices and financing costs, as well as longer loan terms and higher interest rates. Supply chain disruptions and other economic pressures are also causing many consumers to prioritize maintenance over replacement, the report said.

The share of repairable vehicles 7 years or older has increased 9 percentage points since 2019.

CCC found that for claims, the average age of vehicles has increased to 7.6 years—up from 6.9 years in 2020. The average age of repairable vehicles was 6.8 years in 2024 (up from 6.1 years in 2020) and was 10.6 years for total losses (up from 10 years in 2020).

“As vehicles age, there’s a higher probability or propensity for them to be totaled out as opposed to being repaired,” Krumlauf said. “I think that’s a major factor for claims—the number of total losses.”

As vehicles age, their owners’ insurance decision-making can shift. Drivers may elect to reduce coverage or take higher deductibles to offset premium increases. The number of uninsured motorists also continues to increase, Krumlauf said.

“They also may elect not to file claims when there’s damage to their vehicle,” he said. “Whether that’s for fear of a rate increase or because they don’t want to pay the deductible. They may want to make the repairs out of pocket or not make the repairs at all, which then leads to things like unreported or unrepaired prior damage.”

However, newer vehicles present their own challenges.

The average transaction price of new vehicles has increased by about $11,000 in the past five years, CCC reported. Newer vehicles are generally larger, Krumlauf said, and while the ADAS systems they have on board may improve safety in the long term, vehicles equipped with the technology require more frequent calibration and diagnostic procedures, which continue to drive up repair costs.

“Ultimately, I think there’s a lot of disparity in the technology that’s on America’s roads today,” Krumlauf said, pointing to a time when cars produced in the early 2000s had limited technology to the most today’s line of technologically sophisticated vehicles making their way onto roads.

While analyzing the report’s findings, Krumlauf said the increase in repair costs for hybrid vehicles jumped out at him. Repair costs for hybrid automobiles that were three years or newer increased by roughly 50% between 2020 and 2024. That represents a huge leap for the segment, he said.

Hybrids aren’t just Priuses anymore, Krumlauf added. More new hybrids are falling into the SUV and crossover vehicle categories as opposed to the sedan and passenger car categories. The vehicles’ technological complexity and performance are increasing, too—significantly inflating the cost to repair them.

When asked how the White House’s announced tariffs could affect the industry overall, Krumlauf said that year-over-year data already shows some “noticeable increases in part prices.” New and used vehicle prices could be affected, he said, which would affect the threshold of determining when a vehicle is repairable or a total loss.

“As all these things play out, that would likely have an impact on overall claims costs,” Krumlauf said, “and then result in some way, shape, or form in insurance cost. We don’t know how those things are going to play out because the way things are right now, it’s very unpredictable in how the tariffs are being rolled out and what’s getting put in play and then taken off the chessboard.”

CCC will host a live webinar on April 30 to share the Crash Course report’s findings.

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