Truck Stop. (US)

Americans bought 11.41 million new cars in 1986, the most in BEA's table, which starts in 1976. In 2025 they bought 2.73 million: 76% fewer, and the fewest in any year back to 1967. Light trucks went the other way, from 2.98 million in 1976 to a record 13.53 million in 2025.

So Americans didn't stop buying vehicles: the 16.26 million sold in 2025 were 93% of the 2016 peak of 17.48 million. Light trucks first outsold cars over a full year in 2001, 8.77 million to 8.35 million. Cars led again in 2008, 2009 and 2012, and not since. The truck share passed 60% in 2016 and 80% in 2024; from January to September 2026 it was 83.4%.

BEA counts SUVs, pickups and vans together. The EPA, which records every model year's vehicles built for sale in the US, splits them by type. It also draws the line between car and truck differently, so its shares don't match BEA's and the two aren't mixed here.

In model year 1975, sedans and wagons were 80.6% of production and SUVs 1.8%. In 2024, sedans and wagons were 23.7% and SUVs 60.2%; model year 2017 was the first with more SUVs than sedans and wagons. Pickups barely moved, from 13.1% to 14.1%, and minivans and vans fell from 4.5% to 2.0%.

In model year 1981 the average new vehicle weighed 3,202 pounds, the lightest in EPA's records, which start in 1975. That was the bottom of a dip: in 1975 the average weighed 4,060 pounds, so today's is 7% heavier than then. In 2024 it weighed 4,354 pounds, 36.0% more than in 1981. Horsepower rose from 102 to 258, 2.53 times as much. The average pickup now weighs 5,245 pounds and has 335 horsepower.

Fuel economy still doubled, from 13.1 miles per gallon in 1975 to 27.2 in 2024, by EPA's real-world estimate. The mix shows here too: in 2024 a sedan or wagon averaged 33.5 miles per gallon, a truck-class SUV 25.7 and a pickup 20.5.

In 1967, Americans spent $3,215 on the average new car, by BEA's count. In 2025 they spent $33,423. Pay rose nearly as fast: the average weekly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers went from $108.08 to $1,055.33. So the 1967 car took 29.7 weeks of that pay, and the 2025 car 31.7.

In between it climbed as high as 45.6 weeks, in 1994, and fell back. After inflation the 1967 car cost $30,993 in 2025 dollars, and today's costs 1.08 times as much. The consumer price index for new cars rose far less since 1967, 3.52 times against 10.39 for spending per car, because the index prices a like-for-like vehicle while BEA's average counts what buyers actually bought.