America's love affair with the automobile has reached such a level that there is now one car on the road for every person old enough to drive. This statistic may well come to haunt Detroit's struggling carmakers.
Suburban sprawl and improved car quality have allowed many families to amass not just two but three, four or even five roadworthy vehicles. The median American car is now 9.3 years old, 50 per cent older than in 1990, which is an odd statistic given how easy it has been to buy a new one - until recently that is. The rate at which cars are scrapped should track sales in the long run but car sales have managed to exceed vehicles being retired by a third on average since 1990.
