By passing on I meant GIVING AWAY!! I gave 2 cars to my younger brother when he was still in college. I gave my mother in law my 1971 Mercury Comet when I got a job with a company car!
The cases you mention we bad examples of family deals. If I sold a car to a relative it would be at 50% of the wholesale value with the understanding there were no guarantees of any sort.
Like I said before, I sold my Riviera to a person in need for $50. I knocked the price down from $100 because it needed a new $50 headlight switch. Full tank of gas, freshly waxed, new $70 battery, oil change, etc. Wish I still had it kinda. She destroyed it in short order by letting her cousin work on it. She never transferred the title either like I insisted she do. I also gave her a money back guarantee and waited a month or two in case she wanted her money back. Then I invested it one night and made a couple hundred off it. It was a nice car but at least I tried and got my garage stall back and some spending money. I tried.
We had a pastor from Africa that needed a car after that and considered giving him our Olds Aurora to use. Then we thought better of it with just too many things on that car that could go wrong. Another member gave him their old Subie to use and that seemed to work out ok. So I guess you just need to be a little careful handing cars out.
I have a friend who leased a truck in August, 3 months later totally disabled due to bone cancer, may never drive again and 2.75 years of lease payments left. At least if he had bought the vehicle he would have something to pass on besides a loan.
Credit life/disability insurance is available for leases and auto loans. Insurance can cover the financial difference in returning the vehicle or the pay-off depending on the plan.
Plan on living forever but forget the Camry. Buy a Rav with more comfortable entrance and egress and better clearance. Thatâs more important. New ravs are built in the same base as Camry with same motir and trans. Youâll get a more safety and functionality.
You gave these cars away ? Can I be your friend ?
If the OP doesnât have mobility issues (which I admit is rare at that age), upgrading from a car to an SUV will involve an unnecessary increase in per-mile cost to drive and an increase overall cost of ownership. The cost of tires alone could be twice as much for an SUV than it is for a typical Camry.
However, if cost isnât a factor, and/or the OP can benefit from driving an SUV, I agree the Rav4 is a good choice.
RAV4 costs double a Camryâs? I really doubt that.
agree!
we are talking maybe +20% on costs (pessimistic in my view), not +200% 
Read it again. I was referring to the cost of tires alone when I said âtwice as much.â
I neither expect nor said the other costs would be twice as much. They will merely be higher (without an anticipated margin).
20% more would be higher. Thank you for your support.
To put that into perspective, letâs look at Tom and Rayâs book that I cited above. According to their undated book that was first published decades ago, the average cost of buying a new car and keeping it for nine years is $7,483/year, or $67,347 total. Increased by 20% margins, those figures would be $8,980/year, or $80,816 total.
I donât know about you, but Iâd notice a loss of $13,469 over the course of nine years, and I could put that money to better use than driving an SUV when I donât need one.
Have you bought tires for a Camry or Rav4? My wifes 07 Lexus (basically a Camry) tires are as expensive as the tires on my Highlander. Those low profile tires are expensive.
@Marilyn33. Your first mistake is acting old at 70 and thinking your next car will be your last. I am 77, I drive a 2017 Toyota Sienna and I hope it wonât be my last vehicle.
What kind of driving do you do and how do you use your car? Do you take long road trips or do you do just around town driving?
I have a Toyota minivan because I am frequently transporting my fellow musicians and our instruments to gigs. We make several trips a year to visit our son and his family, so the Sienna serves as our traveling vehicle. Furthermore, we both like sitting up higher than the driving position in a conventional sedan.
Our other vehicle is a Toyota 4Runner SUV. We bought that vehicle before we both retired. Mrs. Triedaqâs parents were in an assisted care facility 50 miles away. We had a rather harrowing trip over roads that hadnât been plowed in the Oldsmobile 88 that we owned at the time. Mrs. Triedaq wanted the 4Runner that she thought was more likely to get us through the snow. Also, she had a professional position at the University where we were both employed. When the university would cancel classes because of bad weather, professional employees did not have to be there, but the staff did. Mrs. Triedaq thought that was unfair, so she wanted the 4Runner to get to work. She would also go pick up her staff who couldnât get their cars out so they wouldnât lose a dayâs pay.
My suggestion to the OP is to assess your needs. Test an SUV such as a RAV 4 and see if you like the driving position.
Above all, stop the old person talk. Mrs. Triedaq insulted me by insisting that I either get our snowblower running or buy a new one. We had 6-8" of snow predicted. I said with that small amount of snow, a snowshovel would work just fine. She said I am too old to be shoveling snow. Well, Iâm not too old to think my present vehicle will be my last. Itâs time to take my GeritolÂź and read the next post.
Soon approaching or just plain approaching, ha, ha.
Iâm your age and 70 is the new 40!
Some of these folks in the new 40 and over group are concerned they might not live much longer.
Worst case scenario, a more likely one, is that they will live a long time and outlive their money recourses.
Many financial advisors I know of are telling people to plan on living to 105-115. Thatâs what I did. I donât want to run low on money in my golden years.
Donât plan on leasing or buying your last car, just plan on leasing or buying your next car.
With the rapidly changing advancements in health and medical fields planning to live to 100 or more isnât silly. If one doesnât make it to that goal, who cares? They wonât be around to worry about it, ha, ha.
Exercise, cardio and strength, eat healthfully nutritious meals, (cut out all the bad stuff) monitor your body, challenge yourself physically and challenge your brain, and do not think of yourself as being old.
Now, back to the car decision⊠buy your next car, but that could be years away if that old Toyota isnât rusty underneath. That could make it dangerous. After all, 180,000 miles is the new 50,000 miles for cars.
CSA
@common_sense_answer. I want to.live a long time because there are a lot of people, particularly on this board, that I want to irritate. The last thing I want to do is croak because I know where the hell Iâm going.
I hate to throw water on the party but how long you live is not necessarily equal to how long you can drive a car. Many people outlive their ability to pilot a car. That being said, at 71 years young, leasing doesnât sound like the best financial decisionâŠ
Thatâs exactly why Iâm gonna live 'till Iâm 130 y/o and CSA has just said that 70 is the new 40. Counting backwards, thatâll mean that now, Iâm only 28. Just wish that my body would agree with that. 
Camry (base)
tires: P205/65R16
MPG (average): 34
RAV4 (base FWD)
tires: P225/65R17
MPEG (average): 30
both have quite regular profile tires, so price should be quite close
both have FWD drive-train, most likely even sharing individual parts as they are based on the same platform
fuel costs are going to be 13% higher on RAV4
I would imagine insurance costs and depreciation will be very similar
overall, I think my estimate that RAV4 will be 20% higher cost to maintain is conservative, something like 15% will be closer to reality
A friend just bought a new RAV 4 for his wife since she wanted something that was easier to get into. I believe he paid about $32,000 CAN which was about $500 more than a Camry.
Yes, you could laod up a RAV4 and compare it to the cheapest Camry, but it still would not be twice as much.
My late mother in law gave up driving at 91 although she could still pass the test. She then sold her car and moved to a retirement home that had a minibus to take the residents anywhere they wanted.
My dad drove till age 84 when he died of COPDâŠ
Many of us have friends or relatives who drive till well into their 90s.