As the average age of U.S. vehicles on the road continues to increase and now exceeds 11 years, a large majority of consumers say they are taking their cars in for regular maintenance, according to the Aftermarket Business World Consumer Attitude Study.
More than three-fourths of respondents surveyed said their vehicles receive maintenance on a regular basis. Some 82 percent to 87 percent of consumers in several of the categories surveyed said they make it a point to take their car in for regular maintenance.
About 90 percent of consumers in most categories say that they take their vehicles in for regular or occasional maintenance.
Those who say they only take their vehicles in for maintenance when a repair is necessary were consistently in single percentage points, averaging about 6 percent of respondents.
Consumers also tend to compare prices. More than 50 percent of respondents in seven of the 10 categories surveyed said they compared prices when shopping. Respondents are least likely to price shop for wipers (40 percent) and fuel pumps (43 percent) and most likely to price shop for gaskets (88 percent) and chassis parts (85 percent).
Click here to see the 11-page study.
Methodology: The survey sampling for the 2014 Aftermarket Business World Consumer Attitude Study consisted of a consumer-sampling panel via email. Of the 23,193 invitation sent, there were 1,635 responses for a response rate of 7.04 percent and a +/-2.1 percent margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level.
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