Trucks or cars, young or old, we are driving our vehicles more than ever, for personal and for commercial reasons.
In 1992, on average, Canadians drove their vehicles 14,849 km for personal use and 43,656 for commercial use.
Projections call for those respective numbers to rise to 16,911 and 50,057 in 1999 and keep going up to 17,038 and 50,559 in 2001 before dropping to 16,953 and 50,458 in 2002.
On the financing front, only 19.1 per cent of the people who bought new vehicles for their personal or fleet use in 1998 paid cash. In 1989, the percentage of people who made a one-time payment was 32.8. It went up to 35.0 per cent in 1990 and down to 31.9 in 1991 and up to 32.6 in 1992, but since then it's been dropping steadily.
The big growth in financing has been in leasing, which went from 13.4 per cent in 1989 to 46.2 per cent in 1997 before dipping to 41.0 per cent in 1998 as car companies put less money into subventing the lease rates.
When it comes to maintenance or repair work on their vehicles, more and more Canadians are choosing ''mechanic-installed" over ''do-it-yourself" at a growing rate, the AIA study says.In 1988, about 45 per cent of Canadians were willing to take on such jobs as replacing batteries, air filters, water pumps, hoses, starters, or exhaust systems, or even doing their own alignment.