Auto Statistic

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there were more than 243 million passenger vehicles registered in the United States as of 3 years ago.

According to the census figures for the same year, 2004, there were just over 293 million people in the nation. At least twenty percent of that population is too young to drive. So there were more cars than there are human beings of driving age. And 13 million more cars than licensed drivers.

These figures testify to the success of the US auto industry over a period of decades in persuading us that everybody needs a car. Also, they've been tremendously successful in persuading us that most of us need a new one. Those aren't the same cars, in this 1:1 ratio to population, year after year. There are always new models, always new gizmos.

Yet, looking at the numbers, I for one can hardly avoid the guess that some of the trouble of the domestic US auto industry is simple saturation.