maddythebeagle
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2005
- Messages
- 2,450
We have a couple of Fords (1990 and 1996) and plan to keep for awhile....the 1990 is a second and am also in the camp of probably never getting to 200k...
I think the "scared my car will break down right where lots of thugs out to hurt me" excuse is just that. If you get bored with cars and it's worth it to you, by all means buy a new car! Our '02 Jeep GC has 85k on it and we plan on hitting 200k, then getting a minivan for the litter of kittles.
My Volvo has 35k on it and I hope to keep in for 300k like my step dad kept his. If you change the oil on time and get regular tune ups, most cars will run just about forever. When the compression starts to fail, you can get the cylinders refitted with sleeves to get some more life out of the car. My buddy at work has done that twice with his '80 Blazer, I think he's at half a million miles at this point.
...gotta love SoCal driving.
This is less important than it used to be, assuming you have a cell phone in the car.
Buncha rookies! I passed the 375k mark on my 1988 GMC Jimmy (bought with 22 on the odometer) and it was still running when I sold it in 1998 or so with just about 390k on it! The last new car I'll ever own!
Now the Saturns (1996 and 1997) have 145k and 240k miles on them. They are no less reliable than your new cars--BTW, we spend a lot less on parts than most folks do on comprehensive insurance.
I snorted when I saw that CR mentioned only imports in their list of long-lived cars. We don't necessarily have lots o' miles as a goal with our cars, but it just works out that way. The Saturns were $2000 and $3500 and look like they'll keep going a while longer.
I figured out a few years ago that the cost of doing cars like we do instead of new ones worked out to asavings of about $90k over the course of 10 years, including the car payments, higher taxes and insurance, and so forth of two old cars versus two new ones.
Sarah
Putting it another way, how many OLD IMPORTS do you see versus OLD DOMESTICS? I would say the ratio is about 8 or 9 to 1............
It's important for me... I can't use cell phones except for the text msgs and I don't think that will help me much in an emergency situation.
And need I remind you that the 2007 Car of the Year is a Saturn.
I don't know where you are either Al, but I sure hope help comes along soon so you can trade in that old junker on something dependable.HLP IM BRKN DOWN AND I DNT NO WR THE FK I AM
I am about to hit the 4 year mark on my 2003 Honda Element, at which time I will also hit 25K miles. I was originally planning to keep it for 10 years, but with the low mileage I am putting on there, I hope to keep it a lot longer than that. Still, my ~6k miles per year is nothing compared to some of you. 3k miles per year? That is impressive!
Also, my brother-in-law had a Nissan Pathfinder for about 15 years and finally sold it when it had about 200k-250k miles on it. It was still doing fine, but it was a 2-door, which didn't work so well with getting carseats in and out.
my volvo was the worst car i ever owned. in fact i think in the 8 years i owned it the only thing i didnt replace was the glove compartment door. that car was the main reason i never wanted to own a vehicle more than 4 years.
hope you have better luck than i did.
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Just because you couldn't keep your domestics running...
Don't make me have to drown you when we go out on the boat, FD!
I'm hopelessly buy American, comes from working on the family farm. Knee jerk reaction--don't get me started talking about imported shrimp!
Just because you couldn't keep your domestics running...
But what does it mean to "Buy American" in the context of buying a car? The Honda Element is made in East Liberty, Ohio. Is it import or domestic? Similarly, the Pontiac Aztec is made in Mexico. Import or domestic? And Volvo is owned by Ford Motor Company (along with Land Rover and Jaguar). Am I really buying a Ford when I buy a Volvo?