How's this for a paradox?

Americans buy more than 17 million vehicles per year — a high not seen since prior to the Great Recession. Yet, the average car on the road is a record-high 11.5 years old, according to a new automotive survey.

How can that be?

Well, a USA Today report sought to investigate why that is the case, and they came back with a rather simple explanation. Americans are still keeping their old cars when they purchase new ones or they're selling them on the used car market, where someone else gets continued use out of them. Any way that one looks at it, cars' reliability factor seems to be rising.

"Vehicles are simply lasting longer than ever before," Mark Seng, global aftermarket practice leader at IHS Automotive, which conducted the survey, told USA Today. "The consumer is hanging onto their vehicle longer than ever before."

In addition, the number of vehicles on U.S. roads today that are at least 25 years old is nearly 14 million, up from the eight million in 2002. Under that, the number of vehicles today that are 16 to 24 years old is 44 million — an increase from the 26 million in 2002. Even a 10- to 15-year run would make most drivers happy, right?

While the survey's findings should be received as good news, don't get too excited just yet. Naturally, hanging onto older vehicles means more money spent in repair shops.

Seng added: "As the vehicle gets older, they get nearly all of that repair business, as opposed to that dealer channel."