The news out today is auto sales for the Big 3 US car manufactures increased 8% in 2013 which helped push sales to the highest level since 2007. Couple this with the fact that the average age of the US car fleet is at a record 11.4 years, according to the Polk research firm, and it would seem that there are significant structurally reasons to be bullish on US car manufacturers.
However, if there was one reason to bearish it would be because total miles driven has plateaued for the past six years. This trend is even more worrisome when looked at from a per capita basis (total miles driven divided by non-institutionalized population over 16 years old), especially given the Millennial's aversion to
owning cars.
