YUMA, AZ (AZFamily) — New consumer spending data shows more Americans are hanging onto their cars longer than they used to, leading to more money being spent on repairs and less on new car payments.
The trend can be tracked through data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which shows an 11.26% growth in spending on automotive repairs for 2023.
Jeff McCloud manages Express Auto in Yuma. He said he’s seeing customers putting money toward repairs.
“New cars are very expensive,” said Jeff McCloud, who manages Express Auto in Yuma. “There’s a lot of regulations on the safety equipment and the emissions requirements that are making cars expensive.”
McCloud says he’s seeing more customers putting money towards repairs. Because if they don’t stay on top of car maintenance, he warns of more significant and costly repairs.
“If a person’s car breaks down, that’s always unexpected,” McCloud explained. “Car trouble never happens at a convenient time.”
Economist Danny Court with Scottsdale-based Elliott D. Pollack & Company says more people are avoiding buying new cars right now.
“Everything has increased over the last three years, so it just becomes a decision to pause that big-ticket purchase,” Court said, but added there may be light on the horizon for the new car industry. “On the new car side, we’ve seen a slight reduction in prices along with some relief on the auto loan interest rates.”
That could continue, according to Court, unless new tariffs take effect.
“If those tariffs to Canada and Mexico would have stayed in place, it would have eventually increased the price of a car by two-to-three-thousand dollars,” Court said.
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