Regarding your Prius, I think Toyotas are just low maintenance. I have a 10 year old Yaris and I'm just now having problems with a fussy belt. Nothing dangerous, just loud and annoying. Other than that, nothing else has gone wrong.
We have an '08 Acura RDX. It has 32k miles on it. We don't drive that much because we that the subway or Uber for the most part.
Our plan is to get the Jeep Wagoneer when its released in 2017. I love that car, and we need more room for car pools. We will hopefully be out of car seats by then.
Otherwise, I would drive the RDX until repairs were too costly. We haven't had to do much to it, but it has needed new tires and routine maintenance.
I typically buy a 3 yo car coming out of a lease and drive it 5 years. Once it starts breaking down too frequently I get something new. It's more the inconvenience than cost of repairs because I don't have time to deal with that all the time.
I buy a new car and pay it off as quickly as possible and hope to have 5-6 years with no car payment. Around 180,000 miles I start thinking about a new car. Two cars ago my 96 Honda Civic (190,000-ish miles) was totaled about 6 months before I planned to replace it. I bought a new Honda CRV. The transmission died a horrible death at 11 years and 226,000 miles--I'd hoped to hold onto it for another year, but lots of little things were going wrong as well. I bought another new CRV. I'll probably replace this one at 180,000 miles or about 8-9 years.
I sold my old Neon when it looked like total shit at 120k miles. Ran great still.
We currently have a CRV and a Civic coupe. The Civic really doesn't work great with our son. We'll probably trade it for a mini van on a few years. The CRV should be fine 5-for another 5-10 years depending on how long it takes to get too beat up/start having issues. It's 7.5 years old and only has 80k miles. We don't drive much at all.
As infrequently as possible. DH drives a 1996 Civic with 180K+ miles on it. In the past 2 years we have had several things go wrong and we've definitely spent more in repairs than the car is worth, but it is still much cheaper than the cost of a new car.
We haven't had a car payment in 7 years and don't want to start now. I'd rather spend money on travel and experiences and that is a huge motivator.
My first car in HS was a '68 Mustang. It was a family car and I didn't take it to college because it was unreliable. My junior year in undergrad (96) I got an 88 Volvo DL with 110K miles on it. I drove it until I didn't feel safe in it anymore (A fuel pump relay went out and I was driving 1000-1200 miles/month for work). It had 220K miles on it before the odometer broke (so more like 275K). I traded it in for an 02 Accord that had 6 miles on it. (So I had the Volvo 6 years). The Honda, which I affectionately call "Ol' Betsy" currently has 293K miles on it. I put a new transmission on it about 4 years ago. She is currently being driven by my boyfriend since he has a small commute. She's hanging in there but I'm not putting any more money in her. My goal was to have her 10 years. Officially, she was my main car for 12 years.
I bought a '14 Toytota Camry with 18K miles on it last December. I've already put about 16K miles on her this year. My goal with her is to keep her at least 10 years.
My rule of thumb is to start looking for a new (to me) car when I don't feel safe driving it (reliability) or when you start putting more money into a car than it's worth and you're looking at more major repairs down the road.
We don't have any particular standards. We get rid of them whenever they are no longer useful for us, whenever the maintenance gets out of hand, whenever DH whines like a baby and want's something new, whatever.
But, I don't think the amount you've spent in repairs on the Subaru is excessive. You also need to remember that just because a car has low miles, time also does damage to a lot of parts. We just replaced a bunch of stuff on DH's 2005 truck and it only has 73k miles. The parts don't wear out due to use, they wear out due to age. Manufacturer parts are made to be replaced, rubber, metal, and plastic all deteriorate over time. There are no auto parts from a stock vehicle that are made to stand the test of time.
Post by CrazyLucky on Nov 23, 2015 11:10:20 GMT -5
We have said we will replace cars every 6 years, but that hasn't been put into practice, really. I have a 2010 Prius. It has 155k miles on it. I keep the maintenance up to date. We just had the first repair, which was to replace a wheel bearing. Other than that, just regular maintenance and two sets of tires. So for me, the Prius is a very reliable car. DH does not like the Prius. It's too small, it's too noisy, DH likes the latest greatest technology, which it does not have. So he wants a new car. I am pushing to wait until the 6 years that we previously agreed to. At that point I won't feel AS BAD about wasting money on a brand new car because the Prius will have >180k miles on it. It is hard to justify buying a new car when it is still more of a want than a need. Reliability is a huge deal for me. I have two kids and we live in the middle of nowhere. I do not want to be stuck. A lot of people think AAA will cover everything, but there are places near where I live that do not have cell phone reception. We save money every month for the next car, with the intention of buying it cash, so at least we won't be going into debt....
We pretty systematically replace our cars when they are 10 years old - because we buy new it means we have had them for almost 11 years. Normally they have somewhere around 120k miles.
We do this for a few reasons but the #1 reason is that it means that we know when we will have a car payment and we always have one car that is Newer than the other and never have two car payments. Right now we have a 2014 car and a 2008 car. We'll replace the '08 in 2018 (we hope).
This is exactly what we do. We have two cars, we replace our cars every ten years, and we have it staggered so that we buy a new car every five years. That way we always have one car that is 5 yo or less and never have two car payments. Right now we have a 2007 and a 2012. The '07 will get replaced in 2017.
I would actually be fine with keeping them longer. DH would love to get a new car every few years. This is our compromise and works well for us.
we drive them into the ground. I just sold my 20 year old Civic that had almost 300,000 miles on it. I would have kept going with it, but the window wound't go up all the way and it didn't seem wise to keep sinking more money into it. I also have a long commute so I wanted something more reliable. My DH's car also has a lot of miles but we'll keep going on that one too since we really don't want 2 payments at once.
Post by sillygoosegirl on Nov 25, 2015 15:51:28 GMT -5
In 2004 we got a new (to us) car because our previous car wouldn't go without a new engine. In hindsight, I'm not sure that junking it was the right move, but it definitely was going to cost more to repair than it's blue book value.
In 2012 we had the opportunity to get a new electric car for $8500 and decided that at that price, we'd enjoy having a second vehicle.
So, I guess we haven't been adults long enough to really develop a pattern on cars.
Post by karinothing on Nov 25, 2015 15:56:06 GMT -5
My car was purchased in 2001, it is a 98. I can't buy a new one until daycare is done, but as long as repairs are less than a car payment I am not very motivated.
Definitely not MM but we generally trade in when the car is just under 100K miles - so 5-7 years on average. It used to be "drive it until it dies" but we're older and have more money and like shiny things.
The first is a 2007 Lexus I bought for DH for a Christmas/birthday present in 2009. Paid for, but it was an expensive car to buy. Because I bought it used I let someone else take a $30K hit on the depreciation so that was MM.
Bought a 2014 Camry hybrid last year because he felt he was putting too many miles on the Lexus and he wants to keep it for a long time, so he wanted a commuter car that was more fuel efficient and would let him keep his Lexus long enough to be buried in it, I think. Not MM in that we bought it new. And this is the car we'll be handing down to the girls when they start driving in four or so years.
Bought a 2015 Highlander a few months ago. My Mazda seemed like the tranny was hesitating, we'd already been putting money into it and the electronics were failing (no Bluetooth - $1K repair after already spending $500 on a "try it" fix) and television monitors ($2K repair), etc.) so we decided to just buy new rather than nickel-and-dime the car for repairs. We bought it used (for a 2015 that was amazingly fortunate) and we have an extended bumper-to-bumper warranty for five years plus the certified warranty so as long as I keep it under 100K for the five years, we're good.
So basically, if it feels like it's ready to nickel-and-dime us, we trade in for a new (or newish) vehicle.
We drive them until the wheels fall off or they no longer suit our needs. DH got a new to us SUV in January because his 2001 Tahoe was on its last leg and had over 220k miles on it. We bought my sedan new in 2008 and now have four kids, so we're looking to replace it in the next few months with a minivan, which I'll then drive into the ground. My rationale is I hate paying for cars so I try not to do it unless I absolutely have to.
Post by awkwardpenguin on Nov 28, 2015 0:47:30 GMT -5
We drive them until they are a bigger hassle than convenience. Our current car is 13 years old and we just rebuilt the transmission, so honestly I hope to get another 80-100k miles out of it, which is another 5-7 years.
Post by penguingrrl on Nov 28, 2015 9:21:08 GMT -5
I tend to replace when it needs a repair that exceeds the value of the car. Last year I put $1100 into my 10 year old Honda Pilot and a month later it needed a new transmission. I replaced it instead. I have three kids, at the time we were living away from family in a rural area and my Hs car only has four seatbelts, so if we were broken down he couldn't even pick us up and cabs were few and far between in the area.
I originally planned to keep that car for 15 or so years (it's a Toyota and I drive 12,000 miles a year), but I'm not in love with it, so Inmay replace it sooner. I bought into the hype that a minivan would be life changing and I would love it and I absolutely hate it. It's too big and hard to drive and hard to park and ugly. Once we're fully done with strollers I plan to go to a smaller vehicle that still has a third row (we have carpool kids and friends in the car daily). I was surprised by how much harder I find the minivan to drive and park than even my Pilot, which seemed like the same size but isn't.
I purchase a new car every 4 years because my husband's employer requires that I do so.
Wait, your H's employer has a say in your car? Not just his? I sure hope the employer is footing the bill.
DH is an upper level executive at one of the auto manufacturers. At his level, it would certainly be a bold statement if his wife drove a compwtitor's car.
DH gets a new company car every 6 months. He can order any car he wants. The company pays for all maintenance, insurance and most importantly, gas. We live pretty far out in the country so DH's monthly gas is equivalent to a car payment. The trade-off is that if DH has any dependents of driving age (for this purpose, I'm a dependent since I utilize his company health insurance), DH is required to buy or lease a car every 4 years. We have to own or lease the car for 12 months, then we can sell it or turn it in. If we choose to buy, DH would order the car as his company car, drive it for 6 months and then we buy it from the company at the used car price. We can then sell it 12 months later, if we want. We do this a lot for family members. We sell to our siblings so they get well maintained fairlt new cars at a cheap price. We always have new cars and aren't really out any cash since we buy at a discounted price.
If we don't want to be obligated to buy/lease a car every 4 years, DH could opt out of the company car program. But he won't because we make out like bandits between the free gas and resale value.
I replaced my 2001 Camry at 130k miles and got a new vehicle in 2014. My H has a work vehicle, so his truck (2006) is hardly used at all. Probably less than 1000 miles a year. I don't anticipate we will ever upgrade his personal vehicle.
My Camry had reached the point of diminishing returns IMO, where maintenance was becoming more and more expensive and having a reliably working vehicle was extremely important. I had a 1 year old, was pregnant, also had a traveling spouse and limited support system.
We've had 4 cars, but only really ever purchased one of them. So, I guess we get a new car whenever one of our parents say, "Hey, do you want a car? ". Then, we drive it as long as humanly possible.
Sounds like my family. I've had 4 cars and only bought one of them (used!). The other 3 were either gifted to me (college graduation) or hand me downs.
My parents have only purchased 5 cars since they've been married and they have been together 41 years. Currently they have 4 cars; 2 that they bought and 2 that were hand me downs from grandpa.
I lease cars, so every two to three years I get a new one. I love leasing cars because it allows me to drive a car that has the newest safety technology and crash protection available.