About 52 percent of U.S. consumers intend to keep their cars five years or more, providing growing opportunities for maintenance and repair providers, according to market research company NPD Groups 2011 Aftermarket Outlook Survey.
The annual survey is based on a nationally representative sample of 1,600 vehicle owners. Consumers remain motivated to prolong the life of their existing vehicle, NPD stated, with even consumers with 10-year-old vehicles looking to keep their cars another five years, on average.
As that related specifically to lubricants, the consumer motivation is still similar to last year, David Portalatin, industry analyst for NPDs Houston-based automotive unit, told Lube Report. For example, we have 19 percent telling us they are doing more frequent vehicle maintenance, including oil changes, various fluids and those kinds of things, specifically because they are trying to keep their car on the road longer. So thats a very similar number to what we saw last year.
In the 2010 survey, consumers were still ramping up towards that mindset. For 2011, we are really going to see comparable levels of activity to 2010, Portalatin noted. So were sort of at the new plateau.
NPDs survey found that the majority of consumers expect to have repairs or maintenance work done in 2011. Of those expecting car repairs in 2011, more than 61 percent said they will have a professional do all the work, up from 56 percent in the previous year. Among do-it-yourself consumers, 34 percent said they expect their DIY activity to be the same or less in 2011 than it was in 2010.
The one development not really addressed directly in the survey is that with lubricants, what the people on both the packaged and the installer side need to think about it is the fact gas prices are coming back into the picture again, he emphasized.
Gasoline prices today are higher than they have been since October 2008, he pointed out. We all remember what 2008 was like – the consumer was experiencing $4 per gallon gasoline, which was simply unsustainable, Portalatin recalled. In the aftermath of that, they were deferring spending on absolutely everything, even needed automotive repair and maintenance. Of course, that led us to some of the good times we have experienced recently, as you cant defer some of these things forever.
He said the industry should be cautious and aware of how history suggests the point when gasoline prices top $3 per gallon is when we would expect some consumers to start implementing some behavioral changes around how they use their vehicle – reducing their trips, trying to cut back on driving, and possibly deferring spending in some other areas.