General expression for the age of something


I'm looking for a general way in Japanese to express the following:

> X is Y years old.

I know for human age we use 〜歳 and I have seen other expressions for buildings
and trees (don't remember them off hand).

At least speaking about inanimate objects, is there a generic way to express
age? Here is my guess (probably awkward):

> This car is 20 years old.  
>  この車は２０年も古い




It is not nearly as simple as in English or many other languages.

You could say:

> 「X + は + Y + 年前{ねんまえ}のものである。」
>
> 「X + は + Y + 年前からある。」
>
> 「X + は + Y + 年前 **に** できた。」 ←「できた」 here can be replaced by a verb in the
> passsive voice form such as 「作{つく}られた」,「建{た}てられた」, etc.

For buildings and trees, however, we have common set expressions.

Buildings: 「このビルは築{ちく}Y年である。」

Trees: 「あの木は樹齢{じゅれい}Y年です。」

For food and liquor items where aging is an important part of their values, we
often use the expression 「 **Y年もの** 」. Unless used sarcastically, that
expression generally carries a positive connotation with it. We say:

「３０年もののワイン」、「これは４年もののミソです。」, etc.

Finally, we would _**never**_ say:

> 「この車は２０年 **も** 古い。」 to mean "This car is 20 years old."

The only times when we use 「 **も** 古い」 is when we say "A is Y years older than
B." and emphasize that Y is a _**large**_ number - "A is much older than B".
The 「も」 is for emphasis and it is often used in combination with 「より」. You can
say:

> 「このBMWは、あのトヨタ **より** １５年 **も** 古い。」




It is not nearly as simple as in English or many other languages.

You could say:

> 「X + は + Y + 年前{ねんまえ}のものである。」
>
> 「X + は + Y + 年前からある。」
>
> 「X + は + Y + 年前 **に** できた。」 ←「できた」 here can be replaced by a verb in the
> passsive voice form such as 「作{つく}られた」,「建{た}てられた」, etc.

For buildings and trees, however, we have common set expressions.

Buildings: 「このビルは築{ちく}Y年である。」

Trees: 「あの木は樹齢{じゅれい}Y年です。」

For food and liquor items where aging is an important part of their values, we
often use the expression 「 **Y年もの** 」. Unless used sarcastically, that
expression generally carries a positive connotation with it. We say:

「３０年もののワイン」、「これは４年もののミソです。」, etc.

Finally, we would _**never**_ say:

> 「この車は２０年 **も** 古い。」 to mean "This car is 20 years old."

The only times when we use 「 **も** 古い」 is when we say "A is Y years older than
B." and emphasize that Y is a _**large**_ number - "A is much older than B".
The 「も」 is for emphasis and it is often used in combination with 「より」. You can
say:

> 「このBMWは、あのトヨタ **より** １５年 **も** 古い。」

