Iceland’s fleet of private cars is older than elsewhere in Europe, with the average car two years older than in the EU.
The average age of private cars in Iceland is 10.2 years, according to the newest figures from the Icelandic Roads Administration. The average age of private cars in EU countries is 8.5 years, according to ACEA figures. Interestingly the average age of Icelandic cars nearly 20 years ago in 1989 was 7.5 years.
In comparison, the average age of cars in the UK is 6.7 years, 7.5 in Italy, 8.1 in both France and Germany, 9.1 in Denmark and 9.4 in Sweden. The Finnish are the only nation surveyed by ACEA with older cars: an average age of 10.5 years. According to Statistics Norway figures, Norwegian cars are of a similar age to those in Iceland, at 10.3 years.
The impression of some commentators outside of Iceland that every Icelander drives a brand new car bought on credit before the banking crash would appear to be rebuffed by these figures; and it is probably the high rates of tax which encourage Nordic residents to keep their cars on the road slightly longer.
The ACEA statistics for the EU are from 2006 because no newer figures are available, Visir.is reported. Ozur Larusson from the Confederation of Icelandic Car Retailers says that the figures will not have changed much in the meantime as the EU car market is comparatively massive and therefore more stable. He points to independent figures just released from Sweden showing that the age of Swedish cars has not changed since the ACEA figures in 2006.
Wally has likely hit it spot on. Looking outside my office here at 8 AM and I can see 34 cars. 18 of those are company cars that the management uses as personal cars. It is part of their “pay package”. The other 16 are owned by us workers. All of the 18 are 2 years old or less. Of the 16 privately owned cars only 3 were made after 2004. Most are before 2000. Mine is from 1995.
There is a big difference between “privately owned” and “company owned/leased”. Now for the rest of the story: Many people did go crazy and bought a new car before the credit crunch, but contrary to popular media, I suspect it to be less than 25% of the people. Companies on the other hand do like to update their fleet of cars every 2 years because of leasing agreements. Having a company car became a popular perk in the good years.
I’m just saying.
What a BS!!
Ha ha – this is just propaganda. The reason the statistics shows relative old cars in Iceland is shown here (in Icelandic) :-)
http://www.fib.is/?tengill=newspop&FID=2146
I think the key word might be ´private´. Alot of the luxury cars we see daily are probably registered to a company.
Often we can not really relay on the information we get. Whatever information the need to clarify and verify is neccessary even if they are given by commentators. What is said is maybe slightly correct or is a late report or maybe bias. Often, it hurts to hear judgemental or conclusive decision specially with referrence to Iceland. Direct reports is much better as in this case by ACEA statistics for the EU is better even as far back as of 2006.
Cars in Iceland are well taken cared of, most keept in garage and with the hard times, it is really impossible to change car annually because of the increased in taxes.
I really find these figures surprising. Icelanders must then be superb at taking care of their cars, 9 out of 10 cars on the roads looked absolutely brand new the times i’ve been there. I’ve also never seen such a high concentration of luxury cars before in my life.