Vote: Is The Second Car Going Out Of Style?
Bloomberg and car analyst Itay Michaeli spotted a new trend: The second car could be going out of style, and this “may hurt U.S. auto sales,” Bloomberg says.
Indeed, “the average number of vehicles for every U.S. driver has declined since hitting a record in 2007.” Is it a new trend that “Americans are increasingly willing to settle for owning one car or truck?”
It looks to us like it is simply a phenomenon that occurs in most recessions (our grey overlay) when the number of vehicles per driver usually goes south.
However, excessive car ownership may indeed have plateaued. With more than 800 cars per thousand people, the U.S. is the country with the highest car ownership in the world. Other countries with wide open spaces, such as Canada, or Australia have much less.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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My wife and I each have a car. We're looking at picking up a used Toyota or Jeep 4x4 SUV as the 3rd vehicle in our fleet as our 3-series and Mini are pretty useless on Forest Service roads around where we live.
I run a pair 528es for daily drivers and a Ranger 4x4 for utility. I also have a home garaged work truck used strictly for work.