Sixt rent a car and Continental propose measures to stop the ageing of Spain's vehicle fleet

The car rental company and the tyre manufacturer have joined forces to carry out a study on the ageing of Spain’s car fleet and to learn the opinion of its owners. The study was conducted with a sample of 300 drivers of cars registered before the year 2000. There is plenty to discuss here, since the recommendations made to stop Spain’s car fleet from ageing even further are quite radical.

Regarding older cars, the study concludes that the average age reaches 16 years, a figure that coincides with the age of the cars scrapped under the PIVE Plan. 57.79% run petrol engines with an average consumption of 7.9 l/100 km, 93.44% are insured for third-party liability only, 52.87% are second-hand, the average year of purchase is 2000, and 81.97% are driven by their own owners; 68.4% of them are men with an average age of 40, 51.2% are married and 68.4% are employed.

Continuing with this striking picture of the state of the car fleet in our country, only 15.57% of owners of older cars take their vehicle to an official workshop for repairs, and roughly half use the vehicle for leisure purposes. 78.28% have no intention of changing their car in the near future.

The report’s request to the government states that the replacement of obsolete vehicles should be encouraged and that people who scrap them should be rewarded, in addition to banning the sale between private individuals of vehicles older than 15 years, withdrawing from circulation cars older than 30 years (except classics) and limiting access to large cities for polluting vehicles.

But they have not said something that is “not very important”: Where will the money to renew the cars come from? I don’t think this is the right moment to “recommend” this series of measures, unless they are blind and deaf to the economic reality of Spain, with unemployment queues that are longer than car sales figures.

It is good that more incentives are requested, that the advantages of newer cars are mentioned, and that limits are set on the most polluting ones, but given the situation we are living through, these recommendations are merely a voice in the wilderness.

Via | Coches