Post by midnightmare81 on Nov 1, 2012 0:13:23 GMT -5
Until now, not as long as I should have. My first car was old and had a TON of miles on it. It started costing me $$, and at 17 I didn't have disposable income to put into it. I got it for a great deal though so I ended up selling it for what I paid for it after putting about 20,000 miles on it. My second car I had to sell because it was painful to drive, like pulled over in tears half way home from work fairly often (it was stick and I found out I have arthritis in my hips, so the clutch was killing me). My next car was a rush purchase because I needed something automatic, and had so many issues with it right after the warranty went out it was not worth it, plus I HATED it. I traded it in for what I owed and now have the car I have always wanted at under invoice, a 2011 Mazda 3 Touring with 0% financing which I plan to keep till it dies.
H has had many old Jeeps and we just traded in his 2001 with 112k that needed $2k worth of work for a 2013. We got it for a great deal because the dealership screwed up the deal so badly and ended up only financing $13k with nothing but trade OOP at 2.9%. H will be going back to school so we needed something we could fit into our budget with more cargo room and no unexpected expenses. We do have a years worth of living expenses and our budget with the new payment allows for still contributing to savings both now and when he is school. He plans to keep it until it dies as well
Post by sillygoosegirl on Nov 1, 2012 1:27:04 GMT -5
I don't know. I'm only 30. Is that soon enough to establish a "normal" on this stuff?
DH got rid of his first car when it was, I think, 10 years and needed a new engine, and a compatible engine wasn't available. In hindsight, I kind of wished we'd looked harder for a replacement. Strictly speaking, that one was never my car, although I drove it a lot; it died shortly before our wedding. Not a clue how many miles it had on it.
We still have our second car, which is 13 years old and has somewhere between 150 and 200K miles on it. No plans to get rid of it.
Our 3rd car has less than 100 miles on it and is less than a week old. And it's the first one I've ever participated in buying. Hopefully keeping that one a long time too. :-)
I'm not sure. DH got a new one after six years because his car was totaled. I've had mine for 6.5 years so far and will probably have it for at least two more. I sometimes wish I had a new car, but then I remember how nice it is to not have a payment.
I have an 04 Maxima with just under 200K, DH drives a 1992 Dodge truck that has 260K. We'll be buying a used Civic in the next few months because DH has to start commuting to another location and the truck gets horrible gas mileage.
Post by stingsharkruns on Nov 1, 2012 5:41:31 GMT -5
Until I get sick of it and DH says I can get a new one. I drove my last car for 4 years which is the longest i've ever driven a car. I traded my scion TC for a 350Z, which is my "dream" car. We will TTC next year so it was now or never for the Z.
We keep planning on "until they die" and then life happens. DH bought a new 4Runner in 2004. I had an older Jimmy. The next year my Jimmy got totalled so we got a Matrix. We planned to drive those cars until they died. Then we found out about baby 3. We could have made the 4Runner work, but we opted to trade it in this year for a minivan.
We average 750 miles a month on each car. Unless something else happens we shouldn't need to replace these for 10 years.
Post by fussybreeches on Nov 1, 2012 6:35:00 GMT -5
Just got rid of our 99 altima with 212000 mi on it. It still ran but needed a new windshield, shocks, struts, and tires. We ended up selling it for 1200 and put that towards a new used car, a 2004 subaru with 55k. We plan on driving that till it dies.
DH drives cars until they are falling apart. I usually drive them until they look like they are falling apart. I had my Neon 8-9 years and 120k miles, but it had fading paint and a huge dent (someone kicked it maybe? Never knew for sure)
We have Hondas now and will drive them for a long time. We each only drive 10k miles a year or less. I'll probably want to trade mine after a total of 12-15 years. DH will keep his until it does unless we need something different.
About a year or until DH gets bored with them. We bought a brand new Sonata in 2011 with the idea of keeping it for a really long time, but that was sold earlier this year with some issues with Hyundai USA and a constant leaky roof.
We currently have a 99 Tacoma with 95,000 miles on it (had that the longest, 5 years, probably sell in the spring), a 92 Accord with 97,000 miles on it (had that since April I think) and an 07 ML350 with 62,000 miles (got that in July). DH likes to find cars that have low mileage for their ages. We actually made money on the last car he sold, which was an 04 S2000. I counted awhile back and he's up to 15 cars now that he's owned since he started driving 14 years ago.
We rarely have to do anything maintenance-wise to the vehicles we buy, he finds them in really, really good condition.
Um I actually don't know lol. H and I got a new (used) car this past year and sold our small SUV to his sister (we got a minivan). That was the first car we had bought together, it had well over 100k miles on it. Had we not wanted/needed a minivan (we def needed a bigger car and decided on a minivan), we probably would have kept it going for another 3 years or so. We put a lot of miles on our cars though so another 3 years probably would have equaled 50k miles. (We've put almost ten thousand miles on our current minivan that we bought in May).
My family drives cars until they die though, and even beyond that, ha. My dad just got rid of his 1992 Sentra this summer, and it had something like 225k miles on it. We have a Honda minivan and I can see us keeping it easily for another 4 or 5 years, which doesn't sound like a lot of time but if we are putting 20k miles on it a year, thats a pretty good life span.
We're considering trading in both of our newish cars (2011 CR-V and 2010 Tundra) because our needs have changed and these cars don't meet them. We want 1 full sized SUV and one actual car. But our plan is to replace them with used, paid for cars (we still have a loan on the CR-V).
This car is the longest I've ever had a car (6 years but bought used). My 03 Altima is just now about to break 100k miles and I think I'll keep it for another 2 years at least. It will probably have 120k miles when I trade it in. I'll probably get a slightly used (less than 30k miles) or something new depending on prices and what I can find.
DH's truck is 5 years old but barely had any miles when we bought it 4 years ago. He'll probably drive it for another 10 years and it might hit around 100k miles then. Who knows.
We have a 1996 Tahoe with 110k miles. Dh will not get rid of it until it does. He loves it. And we did NOT buy that brand new. We just got that truck last summer, lol. Our other truck is a diesel pickup, also bought pre-owned this year. It has under 90k miles and those trucks go 400-500k miles so I think we will have it at least 15+ years. It is a 2005.
I am in the market for a minivan starting next year. I will buy pre-owned and drive it until it does or costs more in repairs than a car payment.
I have gone through so many cars in the last few years, until last year we got brand new cars, it felt like we were throwing money away at used POS cars. I probably keep Tuscon for another 3-4 years and trade it in. I trade quite a bit, it already has 20k on it, so for us it would make sense.
I had my first car for 10 years. I might have nursed it along longer but it had gotten unreliable (in the shop 2x a month on average) and I was moving 60 miles from work with no public transportation options. I'm currently driving a 2005 Escape Hybrid with ~130K miles on it. I love it and will drive it until we can't repair it anymore.
DH now has two commuter cars, he rotates what he drives daily. He has a 2002 Dodge Intrepid with ~400K miles--we were surprised it made it through last winter, we will do maintenance type things on it (brakes, oil changes, etc) but the next large repair, it's done. It is currently valued at less than $500. We bought his grandmother's 1998 Olds Ciera last Fall when she decided to stop driving. It had ~45K miles, it's now over 100K. He'll drive that until it dies or we move closer to the train station. He'd like to drive newer cars, but it doesn't make sense with his commute.
For me its the mileage not the time. My 2003 Honda has 160k miles and we are saving for a new car. Around 200k is my limit. Around 200k miles, the repairs cost more than the car is worth. My 1999 Honda reached 210k in 2003.
I had a 2003 VW Passat with 130k miles on it. I traded it in last year after spending about $4k in the year. We had been planning to do it before having our baby so we paid cash for it.
Post by ladybrettashley on Nov 1, 2012 7:53:16 GMT -5
Right now it's just a hypothetical because we're young enough that we're both driving our first new cars (mine 4 years old, H's 3 years old) so we haven't had to make that decision yet.
I would like to say we'll drive them until they die, but two factors make that unlikely (for me at least): 1. I am extremely adverse to car problems and repairs. Ideally I would like to be able to sell my car before it has problems so I don't have to deal with them and I can still get a good return on it. 2. I live in Detroit metro area, which means many of the auto industry employees get new cars every year through management leases. Whereas in other cities, when a new car model comes out, you may see one or two of them, in Detroit, new car models flood the streets as soon as they come out. This creates a lot of peer pressure to have the latest and greatest. I certainly don't need a new car every year, but I also really don't want to be driving around here in a beater.
Weighing all of those factors means I'll probably replace my car around 100k miles (another 3 years or so).
Before I married H - I kept cars 8 years or so. Since we got married in 2003 we've owned 8 different cars between the two of us.
For H, a car is more than just a mode of transportation, it's a driving experience. Just like most people want a house that is more than four walls and a roof to feel "at home."
I told H that I will be driving my current vehicle (a used 2008 Suburban) into the ground because I love it. He will switch cars again in a couple of years I am sure.
Had a 68 Mustang in high school. Between the gas tank under the trunk, outside of the frame thing and that it wasn't reliable, we sold it to a family friend who rebuilt it. It had about 80k miles on the 2nd engine & transmission.
Then bought an 88 Volvo 240DL aka the Tank. It had 120k miles on it. I drove it for 6 years & put at least 120k more on it. The fuel pump relay went out (thank goodness I wasn't driving) and that was the last straw. The AC, odometer and speedometer all didn't work and the seat was broke.
Then bought an 02 Honda Accord with 6 miles on it with the plan to keep it 10 years. Well, it has 242k miles on it and is still going strong. I had to put a new transmission on it last year so I'm driving it until it's not worth it any more.
I like not having a car payment. I just wish my car had side airbags.
Generally I get a new/used car at 150k miles. H is on his 3rd car in 20 years. Well, 4th if you count he took over my old Subaru when I got a new one.
So we have an 02 with 140k, an 03 with 75k, and a 10 with 45k. Yes, I'm a long haul commuter. But the 02 was in an accident yesterday and the 03 is our truck, which we discovered we need to trade for a higher towing capacity. So, this was a bad week for thus question.
We regularly hit 200,000 miles on vehicles before getting a new one. It baffles me thar someone would get rid of a car because it needs regular maintenance-it's a lot cheaper to keep it up vs buying another car. Tires is just something normal that needs to be done
We have an 07 Honda with 63,000 miles that we just paid off a few months ago. I LOVE not having a car payment! We'll probably keep it 5 more years (assuming it cooperates). Since we share a car, I don't want to drive it when it gets unreliable, but I also want to take advantage of not having a car payment for a long time.