Car maintenance spans household spending, repair prices, roadside failures, vehicle age and the businesses that keep cars operating. The statistics below focus primarily on the United States and distinguish observed totals, surveys, estimates and forecasts.
Key Car Maintenance Statistics
These highlights summarize the most useful measures across the available U.S. data:
- In 2024, about 298 million vehicles were registered in the United States.
- In 2024, U.S. vehicles traveled about 3.3 trillion miles.
- In 2024, average travel was 11,071 miles per registered vehicle in the United States, calculated from national totals.
- In 2022, the median vehicle age was 8 years in the cited U.S. household-vehicle distribution.
- In 2024, other vehicle expenses averaged $4,206 per consumer unit in the United States, although the category includes more than maintenance.
- From 2023 to 2024, other vehicle expenses rose 9.4% for U.S. consumer units.
- In 2024, transportation represented 17.0% of consumer-unit spending in the United States.
- From December 2023 to December 2024, motor-vehicle maintenance and repair prices rose 6.2% in the U.S. city average CPI.
- In 2024, AAA handled more than 27 million emergency roadside service calls in the United States service events it recorded.
- In 2024, approximately 7 million AAA calls involved battery issues.
- In 2024, AAA estimated 215,000 roadside service calls for electric vehicles.
- In 2024, U.S. light-duty aftermarket sales reached $413.7 billion.
- In 2024, U.S. light-duty aftermarket sales grew 5.7%.
- Through June 2024, U.S. new-vehicle dealerships wrote 133,491,662 repair orders.
- Through June 2024, the average dealership customer repair-order sale was $450.
- In a February 1–14, 2024 survey, about 63% of independent repair shops reported difficulty making routine repairs daily or weekly.
- NADA estimates that nearly 76,000 replacement service technicians are needed each year in the United States.
- NADA estimates an annual shortfall of about 37,000 trained service technicians.
Contents
- Vehicle age, fleet size and annual use
- Household spending and transportation costs
- Repair-price trends and cost pressures
- Roadside assistance and breakdown data
- Aftermarket industry scale and forecasts
- Dealership and independent repair capacity
Vehicle Age, Fleet Size and Annual-Use Statistics
The Federal Highway Administration separates administrative totals from household survey measures. Its 2024 national totals describe the scale of the fleet and road use, while the age distribution comes from the 2022 National Household Travel Survey.
| Measure | Figure | Population and period |
|---|---|---|
| Registered vehicles | 298 million | United States, 2024 |
| Vehicle travel | 3.3 trillion miles | United States, 2024 |
| Average travel | 11,071 miles per registered vehicle | United States, 2024 |
| Median vehicle age | 8 years | U.S. household vehicles, 2022 |
The average travel figure is an FHWA division of total miles by registered vehicles, not a typical-car observation. The registered-vehicle total includes registered vehicles, not only passenger cars. FHWA, “Vehicles | Our Nation’s Highways 2026”
The 2022 household-vehicle distribution shows how much of the maintenance market involves older vehicles:
- Vehicles aged 0–4 years represented 26% of vehicles.
- Vehicles aged 5–9 years represented 30% of vehicles.
- Vehicles aged 10–14 years represented 18% of vehicles.
- Vehicles aged 15–19 years represented 14% of vehicles.
- Vehicles aged 20–24 years represented 7% of vehicles.
- Vehicles aged 25 years or older represented 5% of vehicles.
These percentages describe the NHTS distribution rather than a 2024 administrative count, so they should not be directly substituted for the registered-vehicle total.
Household Car Maintenance Spending and Transportation Costs
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey provides a broad view of what U.S. consumer units pay for transportation. Its “other vehicle expenses” category is useful for scale, but it includes more than maintenance and repair alone.
- Average annual spending on other vehicle expenses was $4,206 per consumer unit in 2024.
- Other vehicle expenses rose 9.4% from 2023 to 2024.
- Transportation accounted for 17.0% of consumer-unit spending in 2024, compared with 17.1% in 2023.
- Transportation expenditures increased 1.1% from 2023 to 2024, after increases of 7.1% in 2023 and 12.2% in 2022.
The same BLS data show why transportation totals should not be treated as maintenance invoices. Average vehicle-insurance spending rose from $1,775 in 2023 to $1,993 in 2024, a 12.3% increase, while vehicle purchases declined 3.6%.
| BLS measure | 2024 result or change | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Other vehicle expenses | $4,206 per consumer unit | Broader than maintenance |
| Other vehicle expenses | +9.4% | 2023–2024 change |
| Transportation spending | 17.0% of annual expenditures | Major spending component |
| Vehicle insurance | $1,993 per consumer unit | Insurance, not maintenance |
| Vehicle insurance | +12.3% | 2023–2024 change |
Spending on used trucks increased 14.8% in 2024, while spending on new vehicles declined 14.7%. These are BLS vehicle-purchase subcomponents, not repair or service measures. BLS, “Consumer expenditures in 2024”
Car Maintenance Price Trends and Repair-Cost Pressures
Consumer Price Index data measure price change rather than the average amount paid on a repair order. For the U.S. city average, motor-vehicle maintenance and repair prices rose 6.2% from December 2023 to December 2024, following a 7.1% increase from December 2022 to December 2023.
| CPI component | Dec. 2023–Dec. 2024 | Prior comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Motor-vehicle maintenance and repair | +6.2% | +7.1%, Dec. 2022–Dec. 2023 |
| Motor-vehicle parts and equipment | +1.3% | −1.2%, preceding year |
| Motor-vehicle insurance | +11.3% | Insurance category |
| Motor-vehicle fees | +1.3% | Related vehicle cost |
Parts and equipment prices rose 1.3% from December 2023 to December 2024 after falling 1.2% in the preceding year. That category is related to repair work but broader than repair labor, so it should be read separately from the maintenance-and-repair index.
Other transportation components moved differently over the same period: state registration and license fees rose 2.1%, parking fees and tolls rose 4.6%, and gasoline prices fell 3.4%. Motor-vehicle insurance prices rose 11.3%, which reinforces the distinction between maintenance inflation and total vehicle ownership costs. BLS, “What price changes contributed the most to increases in the CPI in 2024?”
Roadside Assistance and Car Breakdown Statistics
AAA’s figures describe its own U.S. service events, not every breakdown and not the probability that an individual vehicle will fail. They nevertheless show the volume and composition of roadside demand in 2024.
- AAA handled more than 27 million emergency roadside service calls in 2024.
- About 13 million of those calls required towing, an AAA rounded estimate.
- Approximately 7 million calls involved battery issues, also an AAA rounded estimate.
- Towing and battery incidents together represented roughly 74% of AAA’s 2024 roadside calls, based on rounded category totals.
- AAA received an estimated 215,000 roadside service calls for electric vehicles in 2024.
- EV calls represented about 0.8% of AAA roadside service events, which measures service mix rather than EV ownership or failure rate.
Battery-related calls are especially relevant to maintenance because they can reflect starting-system, charging or battery-condition problems, but AAA’s category is a roadside-service classification rather than a diagnostic study. AAA, “AAA Urges Drivers to Stay Proactive on Auto Repair and Maintenance”
Automotive Aftermarket Scale, Growth and Forecasts
The Auto Care Association’s light-duty aftermarket totals include parts and services beyond routine maintenance. They are industry sales measures, so they should not be interpreted as household repair spending or as a count of maintenance visits.
- U.S. light-duty aftermarket sales reached $413.7 billion in 2024.
- U.S. light-duty aftermarket sales grew 5.7% from 2023 to 2024.
- The association projected 5.1% light-duty aftermarket growth for 2025; this is a forecast, not a realized result.
- The combined light-, medium- and heavy-duty aftermarket was projected to reach $664.3 billion in 2028; this is also a forecast and includes medium- and heavy-duty segments.
The association’s 2025 report context also described more than 239 million licensed drivers in the United States and an average U.S. vehicle age of more than 12.8 years. Those figures are industry-report context, and the opened release does not detail the fleet-age methodology. Auto Care Association, “New Report: 5.1% Growth Expected for Auto Care Industry in 2025, Reaching $664 Billion in 2028”
Dealership Service and Independent Repair-Shop Statistics
NADA’s June year-to-date 2024 dealership measures describe service-and-parts activity through the first half of the year, not a full calendar-year total.
| Dealership measure | Result through June 2024 | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Repair orders | 133,491,662 | All U.S. new-vehicle dealerships |
| Average repair orders | 7,882 | Per dealership |
| Service-and-parts sales | $76.31 billion | All dealerships |
| Average service-and-parts sales | $4,505,792 | Per dealership |
| Average customer repair-order sales | $450 | Per customer repair order |
| Technicians, including body technicians | 270,284 | Dealership workforce |
| Average technicians | 16 | Per dealership |
| Customer mechanical labor rate | $173 | Average rate measure |
The $450 customer repair-order figure is a dealership measure, not an all-shop average, and the $173 mechanical labor figure is a labor-rate measure rather than a complete repair bill. NADA, “NADA Data 2025: Midyear Report”
Independent shops reported access and diagnostic constraints in a February 1–14, 2024 Hanover Research survey of 407 shop workers, with a reported 5% margin of error:
- About 63% reported difficulty making routine repairs daily or weekly.
- Scan-tool or vehicle error messages were a routine issue for 34%.
- Restrictions on aftermarket tools were reported by 33%.
- See-dealer messages were reported by 29%.
- Vehicle-data limitations were estimated to cost independent repair shops $3.1 billion each year.
- Automaker tools reported as too expensive cost up to $2,400 on average, a survey-reported upper average rather than a universal price.
- Vehicles ultimately sent to dealers consumed an average of 2–4 labor hours of independent-shop work before referral in a separate cited survey; those hours may be uncompensated.
The workforce pipeline adds another capacity constraint. NADA estimates that 39,000 new service technicians graduate from U.S. career-technical colleges and training programs each year, while the industry needs nearly 76,000 replacement service technicians annually; NADA therefore estimates an annual shortfall of about 37,000 trained service technicians.
These are NADA estimates, not federal completion counts. Auto Care Association, “Repair restrictions regularly prevent independent repair shop owners and technicians from being able to repair and service modern cars” NADA, “Service Technicians”