Driving old cars

[DOOM1001]

If I could convince my whole family to drive manual transmission vehicles like I do, we'd save a ton on maintenance costs. I've replaced too many automatic transmissions in Chrysler and GM products to count. In all the manual transmissions my son and I have driven, only two clutches total, which are not all that expensive.

The brakes last much longer in the manuals also.

Sheila

I bought a new manual VW Jetta in 1999 and the transmission went on it in 2008,HOWEVER even though I only had it for 9 years I put like 320,000 miles on it.You would also be surprised how little I spent on repairs.I'm up to 140,000 miles on my current VW which is also manual and even though I sometimes tell myself the next car I get will be automatic as sometimes you do get tired of driving stick,in the end I'll be sticking with a manual as I would go nuts if a cars transmission went after 120,000 miles as many automatics do.

 

[Colleen27]

My husband's truck is a 1994 F250. That's the oldest we've had as adults and we haven't had to put a lot into it, just routine maintenance and a couple of small DIY repairs like hoses and belts. We're the second owners and have had it since 2001, and it has been well cared for since it was new so even at almost 20 years old with over 230K miles it runs strong.

My van is 11 years old but has a lot fewer miles and we haven't really put a lot into it. We had to replace a leaking power steering pump but other than that it has just been the occasional routine stuff like tires and brakes. I don't drive it much, though, only about 5,000 miles per year so I expect to get more years out of it than most people would out of their vehicles.

To me the big question is dependability. We travel some in my van, daytrips and 'up north', on a lot of remote country roads. My husband works in some very questionable neighborhoods with his truck. If there is any question in either of our minds about whether the vehicles we own are up to handling that, it is time to start looking for a replacement.

 

[cyndik1111]

1995 jeep grand cherokee. smells like an old rotten shoe, lots of rust, needs a muffler, but we can't bare to give to up. Has a masculine steel grill guard. And it has the nicest ride. A cool looking vehicle, warts and all. We keep it as a back up vehicle to our 2003 honda minivan and 2009 mini cooper.

 

[RangerPooh]

Here's my list:

• 1998-2000...1989 VW Fox. Ran great at 11 years, would ahve keptit longer if I didn't hit a deer while driving it.
• 2000-2004...1994 Toyota Tercel. While it had a good engine the repairs became a bit more than I wanted. It became DHand my backup car, and later became my BILs car until 2007.
• 2002-2008...2002 Mazda Protege. I miss this car. It ran great and the zoom-zoom power was fun! We traded it in while it only had 88k miles on it. That was a mistake IMO. I still see it around town every now and then.
• 2003- Present...1990 Ford Bronco. This is DHs baby. It may have plenty of rust and well over 300k miles on it, not to mention a roughly new tranny and engine, but it runs pretty good. This is the same truck that we drove regularly between CA-WA years ago when making a long distance move. The tranny even caught on fireduring oneof those trips
• 2008-2010...2007 Chrysler PT Cruiser. Ran great at first and then the mileage became terrible! That and having to fit 3 kids in the back led us to say good bye.
• 2010-present...2002 Dodge Durango. Even though it has a blown headgasket and needs new brakes, it is still in great shape.
• 2011-present...2010 Chrysler town and country. I love it.

So our oldest current vehicle is 22 years old. Our second oldest vehicle is 10.

 

[ban26ana]

We currently drive a 2000 Ford F-250 with about 150K miles on it. We bought it last year. The only thing we've done so far is replaced a brake line (a few weeks ago) that went as we were backing up our trailer into our driveway.

A few weeks ago we totaled our 2008 Hyundai Elantra, which I planned on driving into the ground. We replaced it with a 2002 Ford Explorer with 104K miles. We paid half KBB value, which completely shocked the salesman. He kept telling us no, he couldn't sell it for that price. No, couldn't sell it that low. Finally said "I'll call the dealership owner and find out how low he'll go. It will probably be about $1000 more than you're offering." Got off the phone and said "I don't believe it, but he's accepting it." So far so good with that one.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

We bought a 1996 C280 Benz in 1997 and used it as my wife's daily car till 2008. We started having enough problems that my wife no longer trusted it for her day to day use. We then purchased a new 2008 Honda Accord - we didn't want to go used because she preferred the styling for the 2008 over the previous model years (Honda changed the styling in 2008).

Part of our reasoning was that we wanted a brand where we had more than one local dealer available for service. We were less than happy with the service department of the Mercedes dealership and did not want to put ourselves in that situation again. This eliminated most of the European models. The American models did not have the reliability ratings we wanted. We looked at the Japanese and Korean models and felt the Honda was our best bet - many friends enjoyed their Honda cars and the closest local dealer was a Honda dealer. Started looking one week and bought the next week. BTW, we have already paid it off.

The '96 Benz - our daughter is driving it. Better than what I drove to high school. If something happens she can call mom for assistance but we have been pretty lucky with the minimal use the has.

 

[herdtoDisney]

My daily driver is a 1997 Chevy Cavalier. I got it in 2008 and my teen ds drove it first until he went off to college. Only thing I've done to it, besides tires and such, is an alternator and some $4 part for the turn signals. It actually has no rust (amazing here in New England) and still gets near 30 mpg city and over that on the highway! It's getting near 200000 miles and I plan to keep driving it as long as possible.

My other car is a 1998 Chevy Astrovan. I got it in 2005 and it was my daily driver for years. I still use it for family hauling. I did replace the transmission on it in 2008. I'm comfortable driving this van in-state but I did rent a vehicle when we went to Disney in Feb.

While the rental GMC Yukon was really nice I can't justify paying on a $40000 vehicle to let it sit out in the parking lot at work all day. I do like the Chevy Traverse, and may 'someday' buy a used one to replace these vehicles. That's down the road though since I'm struggling to save up for it-I've had some dental suprises lately

In my area, there is a trade school that works on cars. There can be a wait, but it's very inexpensive. It's great for the older cars.

 

[erincon23]

We have a 2000 Honda Civic with 220,000 miles. DH recently bought a new Civic, but DS is driving the old one. The trans was replaced at 80,000 (Honda paid the whole thing!), the stereo's been replaced, the driver's mirror is currently held on with rope, and we had one door panel replaced after it started to rust, but it still gets great gas mileage and runs really well. My car is a 2006 Hyundai Santa Fe, and this is the longest I've ever owned a car -- I've always traded them in either before they were paid off or when the lease ended (once). This one, though, has given me no problems and I'll keep this one and pass it along to the boys when I'm ready to get a new one.

 

[Bell30012]

I have a 2003 Lincoln Navigator that I'm going to drive until the wheels fall off. I also have a 2011 Toyota Prius. I will drive them both until, they can't drive any longer. Then I'll trade them in for someone to spend money on.

As a previous poster, I had an Astro Van that you just couldn't hurt. I drove that thing for at least a decade. Hard driving too.

 

[extremesoccermom]

I usually wreck my car before it gets old enough to worry about however, my current 1998 Ford Escort has been humming along for 13 years now with 183,xxx miles. I did have to replace the heads and struts once but otherwise just oil changes, brakes, and tires as part of the routine care. It does help that my husband is a mechanic and I don't have to pay for labor, only parts. My price threshold for this reason is around $500.00.
Now, my son's car a 94 Chevy Cavalier (17 y.o.) has gone through 2 rebuilt engines and a new convertible roof but we are done with repairs on his car as he is now 22 and will graduate from college next year. Hopefully, he will get a good job and be able to buy what he wants then.

 

[bettymae1121]

I bought a '98 Saturn SL2 new when I was 22 and drove it until just two weeks ago. My husbands vehical is a truck and with gas costing what it does, having him drive it 80 miles round-trip to work 5x a week was insane. But I can't drive the truck because it's a stick shift and I have to have a car available now that we have a baby. So, we just bought a '08 Nissan Altima for me to drive, DH now drives the Saturn (almost 200k miles and still runs/lookes great) and the truck will be for Home Depot runs and for the rare times we need to tow something. The truck and Saturn are both paid off so only one car payment, and we just have the state minimum insurance on the truck so three vehicals isnt' too expensive really.

 

[mjmartin01]

My car is 13 years old and I plan to drive until the wheels fall off Love not having a car payment...

 

[Pooh2]

We drove a Honda until 305,000 miles. It was still running when we sold it. So we bought a brand new Honda which is currently 8 years old.

 

[jodifla]

One of our cars is 17 years old (a Buick), the other is 5 years old (a Mercury). We like to get between 10 and 20 years on our cars.

When we sold our Honda, it was 15 years old and had 189,000 miles on it.

 

[branv]

We've asked this question every year for the last few years, but repairs always beat out monthly payment.

My baby is a 2000 Honda Civic. It's got 165K miles on it, and didn't need a major repair until 2010. We did the regular recommended maintenance (ouch, some of those are more expensive than your average repair!), and the only issues we had until recently was a window crank and when we were having our belts replaced were told our manifold was cracked (it really didn't cause any probs so we left it). Our first big repair was done in 2010 as a lump: a leaking oil gasket and a cracked radiator tank, plus we went ahead and did the manifold. Since then, the major repairs have really been for the A/C, but middle of Texas, it gets a lot of abuse: replaced leaking expansion valves/o-rings, the compressor, fan and the blower motor. It's come to about $3000. Now that's not a lot less than I could sell the car for. But over two years the repair was done, that was about a $125/mos. WAY less than a car payment. And we still can sell the car.

In fact, every time we take her in the shop guys tell me what a great car that model is. That this was the last year model of Civics that you could really do a lot of home repairs on / modify, so they're in high demand. They always tell me how easy it will be to sell, and one even told me to call him if I ever plan to sell it.

That being said, she may be leaving the nest sooner than later. We're trying to have our first child and this car doesn't have the safety features of today's cars (no side airbags, no ABS). Plus we're just tired of our cars not being large enough to carry even moderately sized things. She's a peppy little thing, but it's stuffy/hot in the summer (always been that way), the road noise is VERY loud, and it's cramped. And darn it, I've earned power windows/locks! If it lasts, we'll probably hold on to it until just before a little one arrives. We just paid off DH's Accord, so we're instead making monthly payments to our savings account for a downpayment. Mama wants a CRV!