A slew of recent studies have all come up with the same conclusion: Americans are holding onto their cars longer than they ever have before. A report by automotive industry analysts R.L. Polk & Company says the average age of vehicles on our roads is a year older now than it was a decade ago. So how old is that? The study says the average age of all the cars and trucks registered at the end of 2008 was 9.4 years old. To top it off, the good people at R.L. Polk also looked at vehicle scrap rates, which have fallen from 9.5 percent in 1970 to just 5.1 percent last year.

So what does that mean to us? The Polk study seems to think people are holding onto their cars longer than ever because of the economic down turn alone. In fact, a spokesperson with the company directly links the amount of discretionary income available to a family with the age of their car. We’re not so sure that’s the case. Everywhere you turn, manufacturers boast the longevity of their cars. Just about every family has that one crazy uncle who owns a pick up with 300,000 miles on it, and any vehicle with around 100,000 miles is still considered to have plenty of life left in it. The truth is we don’t need to retire our cars every four years the way our parents did.

That also means there are plenty of used cars to be had with higher miles for much less than their low-mile counterparts. If you happen to come across a good buy with a few extra digits on the dash, just be sure to have every major mechanical system thoroughly checked before jumping in, and expect to replace common parts like starters, alternators and A/C components sooner than “younger” cars. As with any potential purchase, it pays to look at the odometer as a ticking clock, but these days that timer may just have a few more years on it than it used to.