How long are we keeping our cars.

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Originally Posted By: Artem
Originally Posted By: rjundi
I get bored between 9-12 years and simply move on.

Not interested in driving an old car nor a brand new one.


I'm with this guy. We kept our last car, a 98 Toyota Camry V6 that we bought new for way too long (15 years). Should have sold it when it still had some value, vs keeping it until it was worth $2,000.

I now plan on not driving anything older then 10 years old. New technologies are interesting. Life is short. Screw driving around in an old rust bucket.


+1
 
When the dealer sends for the tenth time in as many years a notification that the airbags have expired and need replacing, then's a good time to go car shopping.

hotwheels
 
I have got plenty of relatives that buy a car when the wind blows, it is insane. When and if I ever need one, they usually are ready to sell something,,,,egos are expensive imho
 
I have almost 98,000 on the Kia, going to try to get 200K out of it at least. At that point the rest of the car will probably be falling apart.
 
Our family doesn't flip cars all that often. I've had my Mazdaspeed(149k) and 318ti(140k) since they were new, and the Jeep(112k) since 2002. The X3(169k) was bought in 2005 and the 328i(69k) in 2012.
The 2002 is essentially a hobby, bought in 2008 and lovingly restored/tinkered with ever since.
While I may replace the Mazdaspeed sooner than later, I am perfectly content to live without a car payment.
 
Cars are getting more expensive and the major components are lasting much longer than before. Yes there will be minor annoyances like worn interiors and fading paints, but they starts and go much longer than before.

The standard for trouble free ownership is now around 100-150k miles. If you are building cars you will go out of business selling anything that break down before that.
 
I want to retire someday. any extra money goes toward paying down my mortgage or my 401k roth. Sorry kids, your on your own for college, better get that scholarship. I want to retire. I can't trust my health to hold up to work full time until 65. I'm 38 this year. so I drive cars as long as possible.
 
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I used to enjoy driving older cars, but as they age they require more work. Taking a vehicle to a shop for everything quickly becomes cost prohibitive, so your forced to DIY. Driving an old car is pointless if your cost per mile is anywhere near a new one.

As I move on in life I find myself wanting to spend less and less time turning wrench's, washing and waxing cars, etc. I have significant social, family, and work obligations. Its kind of hard to fix a vehicle while working 12 hours a day, and on the weekends I much rather sail a regatta than wrench on an old work truck, or work on my boat.

Its a simple trade off really, money for your time. So as my business gets more established I'm falling into the new work truck ever 5 and lease a toy for 24 months. Basic work like changing the filters or oil is fun, real work like whacking out ball joints on a rusted A arm, nah not anymore.
 
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There use to be an old rule, when a ride got 40k on it, sell or trade. In the 50s and 60s this was a big deal still, but not now days. There was a time in the 60s when you could trade for a new car for a 100 bucks, but not anymore...
 
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
I used to enjoy driving older cars, but as they age they require more work. Taking a vehicle to a shop for everything quickly becomes cost prohibitive, so your forced to DIY. Driving an old car is pointless if your cost per mile is anywhere near a new one.

As I move on in life I find myself wanting to spend less and less time turning wrench's, washing and waxing cars, etc. I have significant social, family, and work obligations. Its kind of hard to fix a vehicle while working 12 hours a day, and on the weekends I much rather sail a regatta than wrench on an old work truck, or work on my boat.

Its a simple trade off really, money for your time. So as my business gets more established I'm falling into the new work truck ever 5 and lease a toy for 24 months. Basic work like changing the filters or oil is fun, real work like whacking out ball joints on a rusted A arm, nah not anymore.



Very, very true.
 
I'll probably be ready by the time I have 200k.

With that said, I am already at 102k on my current car, so I guess that I am already more than halfway there.
 
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
I used to enjoy driving older cars, but as they age they require more work. Taking a vehicle to a shop for everything quickly becomes cost prohibitive, so your forced to DIY. Driving an old car is pointless if your cost per mile is anywhere near a new one.

As I move on in life I find myself wanting to spend less and less time turning wrench's, washing and waxing cars, etc. I have significant social, family, and work obligations. Its kind of hard to fix a vehicle while working 12 hours a day, and on the weekends I much rather sail a regatta than wrench on an old work truck, or work on my boat.

Its a simple trade off really, money for your time. So as my business gets more established I'm falling into the new work truck ever 5 and lease a toy for 24 months. Basic work like changing the filters or oil is fun, real work like whacking out ball joints on a rusted A arm, nah not anymore.



By buying cheap, reliable used cars and doing basic maintenance myself, I will have much more money saved in retirement accounts vs owning a new car every few years. That money will compound and let me retire years earlier. Time is money and I plan on making the most of it.

12 hour days sounds horrible. I work 9s and have every other Friday off. I make less, but have that valuable time to enjoy life
Sailing would be awesome - just getting into SCUBA and love the thought of Channel Island weekend getaways on our own boat
cheers3.gif
 
I was blessed; I was able to retire very early. The only "catch" was that I had to agree to work another 600 days anywhere in the state over the following 5-10 years- and I was limited to no more than 180 days in any given year. I finished up in a bit over 6 years.
 
Hang in there everybody, some nitwit will help you crash your car or truck,,,has anyone looked at a junkyard lately, all those riders were gonna last forever,,nottttttttttttttttttt.
 
It's true the fickle hand of fate can take away your plans at any moment. But, it's better to have a plan then just fall into pattern, especially a bad pattern, like trading in each car with balances and moving the balance to the new car, or buying dogged-out cars with no hope of a proper restore because you have no garage and you have to use them daily.

Collecting a bunch of dogged-out cars instead of owning one or two good ones is another bad pattern that's common out here in the rural areas. I've seen families that can hardly afford to buy food pay insurance on several vehicles "out back" that haven't run in months or years! Why? "Junior's gonna fix it as soon as he finishes his GED and gets a better job" blah blah blah.

I hope to hold onto my '01 4WD Dakota nigh forever. It's pretty easy to work on, not too rusty, and being an extra vehicle, it's no big deal if it's down for a few days now and then.

Everything else we run until it becomes more costly to keep it on the road then to make car payments. Then we buy something 2-3 years old with a good reliability record and pay it off early. Well, we usually buy something reliable; we sure goofed up buying the Taurus! Glad we put that one behind us.
 
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