A few news outlets have reported the average age of cars and light trucks hitting an all-time high of 12.2 years (see: Average age of cars on U.S. roads hits 12.2 years [Yahoo!].
This ratio chart (semi-log scale) reveals much. The source data comes from Average Age of Automobiles and Trucks in Operation in the United States [Bureau of Transportation Statistics].
You need not know much about logarithms. With the ratio chart, the steepness or slope of the line is an exact measure of the rate of change in the data.
Between 1995 and 2001, the average age of light vehicles rose likely as true prices rose owing to increased credit put into car loans, which let car loan terms increase from three years to five years and more.
Yet from the 2001 crash until today, 2022, there has been great acceleration in the average age of light vehicles. This is owing to Super Depression, which the Federal Reserve managed to keep from the minds of people through its massive quantitative easing.
This evidence supports the True Dollar Journal's True GDP chart, which shows the economy has been shrinking since Q4 2007.
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