Do you drive a car until the wheels fall off or trade it in before they do?

[Neesy228]

We have this ongoing debate in my house about our cars. I strongly dislike cars, and car shopping and car buying...I'm just not a car person! As long as it's safe and reliable, then I'm fine. HOWEVER, my car is now 12 years old and has over 160,000 miles on it. So, we keep having the "trade it in or keep it for a while longer" conversation.

It got me wondering how many people drive their cars until the car just dies on the side of the road and how many people trade it in after a certain number of miles. I see advantages to both avenues. I think I lean more toward the trade it in side of the debate, but I'm not sure WHEN to trade it in.

 

[LBIJim]

We trade it in, sell it privately, or junk it when the cost of maintenance and repairs over the past year exceeds the car's value.

 

[Luvchefmic]

Drive it until we are waving " Bye Bye " and taking the last pictures as it rides down the road on a flatbed. Keep it until it dies then sell it for whatever we can get for scrap ( last time was $200. about 5 yrs ago ) , can't even remember what kind of car it was. The clock is ticking on the beast outside as we speak.

 

[smadath]

I thoroughly detested my last vehicle (Elantra) within months of buying it, and drove it 12 years. Drove it gasping it's last breath to a dealership this past December to trade it in. Still love my new one (Escape), so that's a good sign! Barring major disasters, I'll have it at least as long.

 

[Mizzoufan]

Depends if you need the money for the trade in

 

[Luvchefmic]

Depends if you need the money for the trade in

Never had one that was good enough to trade in thought for sure I would have to pay someone to take a few of them !

 

[mrsv98]

Well, my van is 9 years old and that is nothing compared to DH's car which is 17 years old! We have an excellent mechanic and are good about maintenance so we don't see any reason to buy a new one. DD will be 16 next year and start driving to school so we will look at something then but for now we are happy.

 

[jeepwreck]

I guess for most it all depends on your needs and desires.


My self being a car guy. I have had both old cars which I maintain and can drive forever and I have also had new cars and trade them in every couple of years. Both my wife and I have new cars but we also have a 1 ½ year old so I want to have a good reliable car. My current car is a 2012 VW and I love and will keep it for many years.


My wife drives a Kia but I think year we will get her into a newer car


But for where we are right now owing two new cars is ideal because maintenance is low and knowing that we can just get in the car and drive without having to worry about anything happening. But with any car it does not matter the year, if something is going to break it will lol but it is less likely in a car which is only a few years old.

 

[superme80]

I am a drive it into the ground kind of person. I have a 2008 Rogue that has been very good to me. The problem is I am now the mother of 3 very lively and growing bigger ever day boys. I see a minivan in my future. My very near future. When we get the van, the Rogue will be a good trade in.

 

[sam_gordon]

Run it until it needs repairs that outweigh the value of the vehicle. I don't want it to die on the side of the road, but about a week after we turn it in.

 

[eliza61]

I'm not a car person but I've always had jobs where I worked at least 50 miles each way, so generally I'm doing 100-150 miles each day in my car. I have to have some creature comforts.

That being said most of our cars get handed down to kids so we tend to keep cars 15-17 years. I just traded in a 1990 Nissan maxima with 288K miles.

I'm like LBI, I trade in when the car starts getting expensive to maintain.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

If our needs change, we'll change cars. Otherwise, we're more of the "drive it til the wheels fall off" camp.

 

[PigletsPal2]

Our cars are pretty old, but the wheels aren't ready to fall off as we take good care of them;

DH drives "Buster," a 2006 Dodge Durango with +/- 126,000 miles.
DD#2 drives "Baby Car," a 2001 Volvo V40 with +/- 130,000 miles.
DD#1 drives "Buzz," a 2002 Volvo S60 with +/- 175,000 miles.
DGD drives "Oliver," a 2007 Kia Sportage with +/- 90,000 miles.
I drive "Remington," a 2016 (yes, a 2016, not a typo) Kia Sorento that I got in January, and it has just over 4,000 miles on it.
We also have what we call the spare car, "Rufus," a 1996 Volvo 850, a behemoth tank of a car that's used whenever one of the other cars is in the shop. We don't know how many miles are on Rufus as the odometer broke about three years ago at 265,000 miles.

DH and I were talking about how reliable our cars have been when we realized that except for brake work, which is to be expected on cars this old and with so many miles, none of our six cars have had any major work done - no engine work, no transmission work, no air conditioning work, no timing belt, etc. We did have shocks and struts replaced on the 2001 and 2002 Volvos.

I think the Sorento is the last new car we'll be buying for awhile. We're planning to sign the Volvos over to our DDs and they can do with them as they please, but neither wants car payments, so they may drive them 'til the wheels fall off!

Queen Colleen

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We drive them until we are uncomfortable that they may break down in the middle of nowhere on us.

We generally don't trade them in - we sell them to a junk yard or donate them to organizations who do the same and use the money for their programs.

 

[ronandannette]

DH and I are both "lease" people. We're used to turning our vehicles over every 36-48 months (at about 60,000 miles or so). We ended up buying 2 vehicles in 2008 during the auto-makers melt-down when all of them stopped leasing. We ended up financing them for 5 years each and I truly despised both of them after about 3 1/2 years. I ended up driving mine until just recently because the trade-in value was basically nothing and we decided to pass it down to DS. Barring the unforseen, I'll never drive an old beater again.

 

[jennasmommyinMS]

My dad raised me to drive it until the wheels fall off! When I was 8 years old, he bought a 72 Oldsmobile 98, and my oldest daughter came home from the hospital in that car. It had almost 500,000 miles on it when he sold it, when I was in my 20s. I had a 95 Ford Windstar that I put 300,000 miles on before it bit the dust, and now I have an 07 Chrysler Town & Country with 125,000 miles on it--it's barely broken in! The only car we got rid of early was a Nissan Sentra--bought new, but it was a lemon from day one. Even then, we managed to get 130,000 miles on it.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Pretty much until the wheels fall off.

 

[tvguy]

Other than severe rust or collision damage, I am a believer in fixing a car as long as it still meets your needs. It will always be cheaper. We have had his, her's and ours cars for the past 29 years, the ours being the family car. All purchased new.
Our family car is 28 years old and has 149,000 miles on it.
My car is 12 years old and has 129,000 miles on it
My wife's car is 15 years old and has 112,000 miles on it.

Full disclosure. We ARE shopping for a 4th car, a just for fun car. A 1965 or 1966 Mustang, so I am going the wrong way I guess since my new to me car will be 50 years old!

The biggest repair bill I have had was this year with the family car, a new transmission that cost $1,900. Not cheap, but the sales tax alone on a new vehicle of the same make and model would be between $4,000 to $4,500. And sales tax buys me nothing.

 

[Skippy918]

We have this ongoing debate in my house about our cars. I strongly dislike cars, and car shopping and car buying...I'm just not a car person! As long as it's safe and reliable, then I'm fine. HOWEVER, my car is now 12 years old and has over 160,000 miles on it. So, we keep having the "trade it in or keep it for a while longer" conversation.

It got me wondering how many people drive their cars until the car just dies on the side of the road and how many people trade it in after a certain number of miles. I see advantages to both avenues. I think I lean more toward the trade it in side of the debate, but I'm not sure WHEN to trade it in.

My car is 15 with 164k, Dh's car is 11 with 153k. We plan to keep them until the cost of repair for something major is worth more than the car. I figure another 2-3 years before we look for replacements. It's nice not having had a car payment for the last 8 years.

 

[mousehockey37]

We have this ongoing debate in my house about our cars. I strongly dislike cars, and car shopping and car buying...I'm just not a car person! As long as it's safe and reliable, then I'm fine. HOWEVER, my car is now 12 years old and has over 160,000 miles on it. So, we keep having the "trade it in or keep it for a while longer" conversation.

It got me wondering how many people drive their cars until the car just dies on the side of the road and how many people trade it in after a certain number of miles. I see advantages to both avenues. I think I lean more toward the trade it in side of the debate, but I'm not sure WHEN to trade it in.

I'm currently getting to this situation myself, lol. I'm not in the "this is a newer car I'm alright" stage, I'm in the "what was that noise, what's gonna happen next" phase... and will that "what's gonna happen next" be the end of my relationship with my car... lol