How long do you keep your cars?

General Discussion
21

As per bloody_knuckes comment, there is a rational method based on cost, that will determine the best point to get rid of a car. Businesses use a similar appraoch; if the typical annual cost of ownership per year starts going UP, then is a good time to trade. With businessses there is tax and depreciation allowances to consider of course.

The offical business rule is that "if the incremental (current) annual ownership cost starts to EXCEED the CUMULATIVE average annual cost to date, you trade. Any individual can do this, but you must keep track of all your costs and know what the depreciation is in each year of ownership.

My retired accountant sister practices basically wearing out the car until it either becomes unsafe, or there will be a repair bill that exceeds the remaining value of the car. That usually happens when the car is about 15 years old.

Personally, we keep cars until they become unsightly with corrosion, they become unsafe, or they cease to be “repairable” due to parts unavailability or excessive cost.

Some past cars and their reason for disposal:

  1. Dodge Dart 1965, chassis rusted out, car became dangerous, could no longer be jacked up! Scrapped for $30.
  2. Dodge Colt, 1977; very hard to start, needed new choke and other engine parts no longer available. Scrapped for $60 in 1997.
  3. Chevelle Malibu, 1966; crashed in 1977 at 98,000 miles, car still in excellent condition before crash. Scrapped for $100.
  4. Mercury Comet, 1971; given to mother-in-law at 50,000 miles in 1978; new job required better car.
  5. Ford Granada, 1976, drivability problems and corrosion, sold at 108,000 miles in 1989 for $750.
  6. Chev Impala, 1984; given to son for college at 200,000 miles in 1996, in near perfect condition. Son drove it another 8 years, then sold it for $700. Kid who bought it is still driving it.
  7. Chev Caprice, 1988; new job required newer car; sold in 2007 in near perfect condition for $1400.

P.S. Yes, we “get rid of” cars since we don’t have room for non-functional or redundant objects that size. A fellow down the street kept a 1970s Volvo (inherited derelict) and a pristine 1976 VW Rabbit (inherited from father) in addition to the late model Corolla family car.

He’s moving this summer and the neigborhood will breath easier with the Volvo gone from the driveway.

22

You Mean You’re Supposed To Get Rid Of Cars ?
CSA

23

“You Mean You’re Supposed To Get Rid Of Cars ?”

:slight_smile:

Actually, I am surprised to learn about the number of people who just keep their old cars even as they add new ones. 3 cars? 4 cars? 5 cars? I’ve always been a auto monogamist myself. I would think it would be more trouble than it would be worth to have to insure, register, and get annual inspection stickers for multiple cars. But I’ve never tried it.

24

I know a man here in rural Mexico who has come back from the States five times. Each time he has driven an old pickup. He still has all 5, and somehow keeps them running and in fairly good shape. He is not married and says those five pickups are his women, taking all his money to keep them up. Hee, hee.

25

When I worked, I had a teaching friend who also kept every car he ever owned. He was up to 4 very large storage garages around his “estate”. I never believed him when he told me he had less $$$$$ in cars in our lifetime than I did including his garages until we did the math. Not only cars, but tractors and motorcycles as well.

He taught all of his fellow teaching friends who were interested about his “rust prevention” techniques. The techniques work and I’m now convinced that any car can give it’s owners not just years but many decades of use and last for generations when stored properly. His cars are all original and still run and as such are not that much fun or safe to drive; which makes me ask…why ?

26

Things might be different in Mexico and rural areas, but in the city where I live if you want a drive a car on the street (and maybe even just park it on the street) you have to have it insured, re-register it every year (around $70), and have it inspected every year for safety and emissions compliance. Since I only have a one-car carport, all those factors add up to a disincentive to keep former cars around as backups.

27 
Generally I keep mine until my needs change. Then I dispose of it.
  • dagga “I had a teaching friend who also kept every car he ever owned. He was up to 4 very large storage garages”

I have to wonder if he included the cost of the investment in those cars and buildings in his calculation. It just does not seem likely. What value does he gain by building a garage to store unused cars. All I see is money spent, without any value created.

28

Agree with Joseph that otherwise normal and rational people become anal retentionists when it comes to cars. It’s normal to feel some emotion when you get rid of a car that has served you well. My wife shed a tear or two when we scrapped the 1965 Dodge Dart in 1978, the car that took us on our honeymoon and brought our children home from the hospital.

I notice that farmers are prone to hoarding old vehicles; at least they have the space at no cost to keep these old derelicts behind the barn. They also strip parts to use somewhere else. The engine from our 1941 Chevy served to power a welding machine until 1994.

As Joseph points out the investment costs of that storage space and preservation and insurance costs will eat up any savings one might envisage.

29

If you let them, my wife and kids want to keep all our older cars; they remember all the good times they had in it and somehow magically forget the wait for the tow truck. I ignore them, sell the car and take them out for dinner with the proceeds.

30

Some people see cars as a family member and have a hard time getting rid of the vehicle.

As a mechanic, I have often recommended people to switch vehicles, only to get a horrified look from the owners.

Unless you like eating a hamburger everyday for lunch, I encourage everyone to experience different vehicles. I have owned alot of different vehicles . Each one has expanded my automotive knowledge and motoring experience.

31

“His cars are all original and still run and as such are not that much fun or safe to drive; which makes me ask…why ?”

Cars are appliances for some people. I know an emergency room surgeon that used to drive a beat up old Pinto. Sure, he lived in the Bronx (near work) and had loans to pay off, but he could have owned a lot nicer car at the time if he wanted to. He just needed something to get him to the hospital each day and didn’t car about anything else.

32

When you live in the Bronx, a beater Pinto might be just the right car. I’m told every Corvette in New York has been stolen at least once.

33

I used to have the big ego and thought I had to drive a new Benz or Caddie. As I have gotten older I don’t care. I am now driving a 95 Camry XLE 4cyl that I purchased new from an out of state dealer when the motor blew up in my last Caddie leaving me stranded half way across the country. I have always done the required maintenance on all my cars including the Toyota and it still runs perfectly at 200K miles.
I have not had a car payment in 12 years and have a nice amount of money in the new car fund that I continued to add my monthly payment too for all these years.

34

So far, have an 01 MPV at 150K miles that I intend to keep until the transmission dies. It is also starting to have body rust issues that may cause problems in the long run. Wife commutes with an 03 Subaru Legacy wagon, 145K miles on it. Our plan is to replace these when we retire in two years, or keep the Subaru. We will no longer need a second commuting vehicle. Each of us put 24-30K miles on our cars, due to commuting to work.

Longest our family kept a car was the 94 Geo Prizm, 255K miles when it was involved in an accident and totaled. There was nothing mechanically wrong with it when the accident occurred, so believe it would have lasted a much longer time.

35 
 How long do I keep my car?  My current car is a 2000 Buick Regal (so 11 years old), with 135,000 miles, other than this Regal (which my parents bought with 80,000 miles) and my first car (80,000 miles, but 25 years old), every car I've gotten has had over 100,000 miles when I bought it.  It's just not a problem these days.  When do I get rid of a car?  When it's worn out, or starts becoming a real lemon.  Well, usually -- my sister got one car I used to drive when she moved out of town, because it was a durable model with a cast iron block & head, and she is known to be hard on cars.  Good thing it was cast iron, because within 6 months her friend crashed it into some tree or something and damaged the radiator.  My sister just kept driving it like that, and instead of checking the coolant level frequently, she'd wait until it started "acting up" and add like a gallon or more of water to the system to top it up (where she lived then it didn't freeze.)  She kept complaining about having to replace tires and such, when I finally asked how many miles she'd put on it, she's like "I don't know, the odomoters has rolled over twice", which would have put it at over 300,000 miles. I had to inform her "Well, when you're putting hundreds of thousands of miles on a car it's normal for tires to wear out" haha.

 I don't have some fixed age or mileage limit.  I've been in cars with well over 200,000 miles and (other than the interior wear -- very few people are going to bother to replace seat cloth and such) they seemed new.  Others, 75,000 miles and it's somehow already turning into a jalopy.  I had a Dodge Shadow with like 90,000 miles -- the exhaust literally fell off, it blew the head gasket, I spent at least an hour or two EVERY week replacing hoses (I finally replaced them all at once), tightening screws and bolts (the dash CONSTANTLY rattled), finding pieces both inside and under the hood that had broken and replacing or repairing them, and so on.  Hours a week working on it and it was noticeably deteriorating.  What brought things to a head was it dropped a cylinder and started running on 3 -- some Mexican type bought it for $200 or $300, I saw it driving after that.  They blocked the intake or something so it was still running on 3, but not blowing raw gas out the exhaust from the dead cylinder any more. So I probably had that car less than 6 months and 5,000 miles.

 Where I live, rust is a big consideration, some cars seem to rust much more severely than others (I think quality and type of paint, rustproofing, and undercoating is a factor, along with types of metal used on the vehicle.)  I don't care about cosmetic rust (although I'm happy to say my current car has none visible..), but that can get dangerous eventually.  I had a 1989 Buick Century that had high miles (220,000) but mechanically seemed fine.  It was ugly, noticeable rust and the hood paint had peeled off and someone had tried to fill it in with some blue spray paint.  But, eventually I started having occasional "hard start" problems.  Fuel pump!  Well, get the thing on a lift, and the estimate was "I don't want to do it.  But it'd be over $1200".  The pump, fuel tank, fuel tank straps, and fuel lines were basically made of compressed rust and would have had to all be replaced simultaneously.  There was probably not much metal to weld new tank straps too either.  The shock towers and brake lines looked pretty dicey too.  I donated this vehicle, then a month or so later I saw it on one of those ads "We're so crazy, we'll even take a car like this!!" and  the car ad guy dropped bowling balls on it.

 I sold another car to a friend (no, not after it was worn out haha), he liked the car and I found one I liked better.

 Other than that, though, I've bought higher mileage used cars, and driven them to exhaustion.  I haven't had problems with breakdowns, just like a new car you just listen for untoward noises and take care of them before they are a problem.  I don't think the number of repairs I've had to do on my vehicles over the years was out of line either.  The wrong way to go about this I think is to get a cheap $1000 car, then expect to spend $0 on it -- tires, shocks, oil changes, those are a fairly large % of the value of the car in this case, but the car will obviously not last as long if you ignore that stuff.
36

Daily Driven
1964 Mercury Comet
one million fifty thousand miles.
I’ve owned the car since August of 1980
The question is, How good is your mechanic?

37

Well, lets see. My current Daily Driver is a 1992 F-250 Supercab 4X4, it’s got 302,000 Miles on it, but had a newer engine put in it right before I bought it ~2 years ago with 225K on the odometer. My next rig is a 1989 F-250 Regular Cab 4X4, which while only having 50K miles on the clock, was a fleet rig, and spent ages idling. Then I’ve got my '41 Ford, which has about 4000 on the new engine, And I just invested in a 1970 CJ-5 with 92K on it. Previously, I had a 2000 Subaru Outback Wagon, bought it with 140K on it, sold it with 172K on it, and I had a 1984 Subaru GL Hatchback, bought it with 192K, sold it with well over 300K on it. Generally speaking, I won’t buy something with less than 100K on the odometer, but I do all my own work, and really rarely turn over my vehicles. Of course, having the 2009 Dodge 2500 with the Cummins in it provided by my Employer really does tend to make it easier if one of my other vehicles isn’t up to the task on a given day…

38

My 78 F-250 bought new is sitting out back, waiting for a rebuild (or the junk tow truck) after 320K miles. It could have gone longer, but the hills of western Nevada were too much for it after crossing the salt flats of Bonneville in the dead of summer. My current ride is a "95 F-350 Powerstroke with 165K. Both are 4 X 4’s. It is my “daily driver” though since retiring that doesn’t mean as much. My wife, on the other hand, went through her Pinto (with 35K), upgraded to a Mustang Pace Car (40K), replaced by a 83 Grand Marquis (more protection for brand new baby son) given to junk dealer with 65K, Explorer (unfairly renamed “Exploder”) totaled on a trip with <80K (28K hers).

39

I bought my 1991 Corolla new, with a 5 speed transmission, and sold it with 130,000 miles, and the original clutch. I wanted to keep it. I just sold my 2004 Corolla, automatic (bought used with 32,000 miles), and it has 138,000 miles. Again, I did not want to sell it, but my mother is losing her vision, and gave me her 2002 Camry, which she bought new, and has 35,000 miles, mostly highway miles (several long trips). Wouldn’t you? I live in Northwest lower peninsula of Michigan, and long commutes are common. Despite the heavy snow, two wheel drive with snow tires have been fine, though my next car will probably have awd. I refuse to buy any car with 300,000 miles, especially for 4-5 thousand bucks, as some delusional Subaru owners are prone to do.

40

I have a hard time keeping a car a year. The longest I had a car was 3 years. I just get so bored and also I don’t have any kids so I can afford to do that.