AKRON (Feb. 28, 2017) — Automotive service shops have many reasons to be optimistic in 2017, according to executives from several component suppliers, as a greater population of vehicles are coming of age for replacement of key parts.
Suppliers of OE and replacement brakes and ride-control components agree that the aftermarket should see the beginning of a three- or four-year replacement cycle based on several key industry trends, including:
- The average age of vehicles is 11.5 years, due to better-built models and people holding on to them longer;
- New car loans now extend up to seven years;
- A glut of cars coming off of two- and three-year leases is expected to hit the used car market this year; and
- Buyers of used vehicles are holding on to them for four to six years.
Impact on shocks
These trends bode well for the shocks and struts market, which has experienced slumping sales in the past few years at the same time that new car sales rebounded to pre-recession levels, said Mac McGovern, director of marketing and training at KYB Americas Corp.
- This piece appears in the Feb. 27 print edition of Tire Business.
Because consumers are holding on to their vehicles about two years longer on average than they did 10 years ago, Mr. McGovern said, vehicles are reaching a "sweet spot" of a later but broader period of replacement needs.