Get 33 Days of Your Life Back

[updated on 4/28/2022 to calculate time saved for all Americans. The original post calculated it only for women who save more time because they live longer than men.]

We started Roda to make life easier and more convenient for car owners. We, and everyone we knew was tired of spending hours driving, waiting, shuttling, bad-coffee-drinking every six months or so for an oil change or repair. It took time that we’d rather be using for work or family or sleeping. Everything else in our lives from buying groceries to shoe shopping can be done from our phone or computer, why shouldn’t this?

All this thinking about convenience got us wondering, how much time could we actually save during a lifetime of car ownership? How many minutes, hours, and days of your life could we give you back?

So, we sharpened our pencils and did some extremely complicated mathematical analysis using rigorous online research, our own anecdotal experiences and, of course, actual real wisdom from Brian Healy who runs operations for Roda.

The bottom line: the average person in America will spend more than a month (!) of their life dealing with getting their car repaired or maintained. 

That’s a lot of time! Not as much as you spend sleeping or working or, if you’re like us, eating, but still time that would nice to get back. So here’s to giving you some of those weeks of your life back.

In the spirit of transparency, we’ve provided our math below. We will be the first to admit that there are likely other, perhaps better, ways to calculate this. We welcome any ideas you have. And if you come up with a great alternative and share it with us, there’s a $50 discount on a hand detail in it for you.

• 78.8 – Average lifespan in years of an American*
• 21 – Average age when you buy your first car**
• 57.8 – Number of years when you own a car***
• 2 – Number of times a mechanic should check your car a year****
• 270 – Number of minutes wasted dealing with the average per service*****
• 31,212 – Minutes spent drinking bad coffee in waiting-rooms
• 173 – Hours spent battling traffic back and forth to appointments******
• 16 – Hours spent awake on average each day
• 32.7 days – Days of your life spent getting your car serviced

* What Google says when we searched “Average lifespan of an American”
** According to one survey, 54% of Americans think 21 is the “ideal” year to buy your first car.
*** When you die minus the age when you buy your first car
**** Brian’s advice on the best way to keep your car running safely and well
***** This was the time it took me to get my Subaru Outback serviced last time when the touch screen went out
****** Assumes an average drive of 45 minutes each way to get your car serviced.