Issue No. 15 | July 14, 2026

Intelligence for F&I agents, administrators, and dealership finance professionals.

Recommended reading before the desk: The $39 Billion Home Warranty Opportunity: What DTC Marketers Need to Know. The aging-asset and repair-cost dynamics in that piece are the same forces driving VSC economics on your lot.

THE VEHICLE MARKET NUMBER: 12.8 years

The average vehicle on U.S. roads is now 12.8 years old, per S&P Global Mobility, a new record. BLS data shows motor vehicle maintenance and repair costs up roughly 43.6% since 2019. For F&I, that combination is most of the pitch: an older vehicle fleet paired with structurally higher repair costs widens the gap between what a mechanical failure costs and what a customer can absorb out of pocket.

That’s the same dynamic playing out in the home warranty market right now: aging assets meeting rising repair costs, just on four wheels instead of a foundation. This isn’t a short-term phenomenon. Both curves have been moving in the same direction for several years, reinforcing the economic case for protection products.

THE F&I ANGLE

A 10-year-old-plus vehicle financed at today’s rates is one of the deals where VSC has the clearest economic case.

A customer financing an aging vehicle is taking on real repair cost exposure at the same time monthly payment sensitivity is higher than it’s been in years. A single mechanical failure on a vehicle already in its higher-failure-rate years is a real, quantifiable cost, and BLS repair cost data gives you a concrete number to put next to the monthly VSC payment rather than a vague appeal to peace of mind.

The desk that can translate vehicle age plus repair cost inflation into a specific per-month comparison, VSC payment versus expected repair exposure, is making an evidence-based case instead of an emotional one. As the fleet keeps aging and repair costs keep climbing, that argument becomes applicable across a growing share of the vehicles coming through your lane.

FROM THE BLOG

The $39 Billion Home Warranty Opportunity: What DTC Marketers Need to Know

The same forces driving home warranty demand, aging assets, rising repair costs, and limited household repair savings, are running in parallel in the vehicle market. While the blog focuses on home warranties, the underlying framework is the same: when repair exposure rises faster than a customer’s ability to absorb it, the economic case for protection becomes easier to demonstrate.

THE DESK STAT

Motor vehicle repair costs are up roughly 43.6% since 2019, per BLS. On the next 10-year-old trade-in you write paper on, do you know what a single major repair would actually cost your buyer, and are you presenting the VSC against that number?

Until next Tuesday,

If you’d like to see how repair cost data could sharpen your VSC pitch at the desk, reply here and we’ll book 20 minutes.