At our peak auto purchasing capacity, Americans bought an average of 17 million cars almost every year from 1997 to 2007. That means in just ten years, 170 million cars were added to the road, and far fewer were scrapped. In fact, 2009 was the first year in four decades where Americans scrapped significantly more cars than they bought. 14 million autos were sent to the scrapyard (helped in no small part by Cash for Clunkers), while Americans bought just 10 million new vehicles.
Over in China though, the auto industry is going through unprecedented growth. After outpacing U.S. sales in 2009, analysts are estimating Chinese consumers could buy between 15 and 17 million new cars in 2010. And that number is only going to grow.