Identification of the Right Moment for Motor Vehicle Replacement—Life-Cycle Analysis in Serbia and Montenegro

This paper deals with the issue of planning the end-of-life phase of motor vehicle life cycles in Serbia and Montenegro. This topic is trending around sustainability issues, given the very unfavorable age structure of vehicles and the increasing import of used cars, which intensifies the problem of the number of waste vehicles. On average, a motor vehicle is in active use for a period of 10 to 15 years. Individual phases of its life cycle are indicated differently, using multiple parameters. All phases are influenced by many factors, but this paper focuses on the phases of active use and the end of life of a motor vehicle. This paper investigates these two phases in terms of the influencing elements. The main aim of this study is to lay the foundations for making adequate decisions on how to handle end-of-life vehicles, from the perspective of their drivers. The study includes performing quantitative research analysis via the k-means clustering technique on a sample of 1240 drivers (private and commercial vehicles), in order to draw concrete conclusions through appropriate statistical analysis. The key findings suggest that different market, business, and environment indicators define the phases of active use and end of life, throughout the life cycle of a motor vehicle. Future research will expand the sample to surrounding countries.