Car Consumers Stick to Vehicles Longer

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But May Not Be Adjusting Maintenance Habits; Survey Shows a Potential Gap Between What Drivers Should Be Doing and What They Are Doing

June 22, 2009 -- FAIRFAX, Va. -- Drivers intend to keep their vehicles longer than they originally intended, but may not be adjusting their maintenance habits to keep pace with their change in plans. This finding is the result of a recent auto maintenance survey commissioned by ExxonMobil.

The survey, which polled men and women ages 18 and older who own and/or drive automobiles and participate in the decision-making about automotive maintenance, suggests that the attitude of drivers towards their cars has changed as a consequence to the uncertainty of today’s economy. Few of these drivers, however, are adjusting their maintenance habits to account for the extra miles they intend to log on their vehicles.

Key survey findings include:

* Drivers intend to keep their vehicles for a long time. Just over 40 percent of survey participants want to keep their vehicles for 150,000 miles or more (and nearly a quarter of them – 23 percent – intend to go more than 200,000 miles).
* Economic instability changed drivers’ plans. More than one-third (37 percent) of those surveyed say they now intend to keep their vehicles longer than they planned when they bought them; of those, nearly half (48 percent) cite economics as the reason.
* Synthetic motor oil use is very low. Only 11 percent of survey participants are using synthetic motor oil in their engine. While more people want to keep their vehicles longer, very few are using the best possible motor oils in their engines.
* Few follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for maintenance precisely. Only 21 percent of survey participants are following the directions and warnings of their vehicle’s manufacturer the way they should be to keep their car in the best condition.

Note: The survey was conducted online by Impulse Research with a random sample of 1058 men and women, 18+ who own/drive automobiles, participate in the decision-making about automotive maintenance and have personally taken their vehicle to a service station/mechanic or shop for repairs or maintenance in the past year -- all members of the Impulse Research proprietary online panel. The Impulse Research proprietary online panel has been carefully selected to closely match US population demographics and the respondents are representative of American men and women 18 +. Research was conducted in April 2009. The overall sampling error rate for this survey is +/-3% at the 95% level of confidence.

Source: ExxonMobil