How Often Do People Trade In Their Cars For a Newer Model?

[mathjak107]

i get a new vehicle every 3 years. auto industry statistics show most cars are traded in, in the united states every 3-4 years. thats why most model lines are re-vamped every 3-4 years.

 

[farmerEd]

I suspect that the average is about 3 years - not including people on the road to FIRE of course. My wifes sister and her husband each drive a car that is never more than 3 years old, so in essence they are getting one new car about every 18 months or so...needless to say, they won't be FIRE'd anytime soon, if ever.

My current truck is 8 years old, the wifes car 7. My truck should go another 5-8 years, the car maybe 2-3 before it is very unreliable.

 

[OAG]

Just took a good look. Been driving for 52 Years (started at 15 with first owned vehicle at 16; I got a 47 Chrysler Coupe for painting someones home as payment). Have owned 16 "Main Vehicles" and usually one at a time but had, at times, multiple vehicles (not included in the 16 "mains") when kids were growing up as teenagers. So for the 51 years of ownership the average is right at 3.2 years each. Current vehicle is now 2.5 years old -- have to start looking soon........

 

[riskadverse]

I was 41 before I bought my first "new" car. I keep them about 10 to 11 years. I'm pretty sure I'm the second to last owner on most of them. Since retiring, we drive less than half of what we used to do, so the 10 to 11 may translate into 20 to 22 years. Because we hold a car for so long, there is always a certain amount of sticker shock. On the other hand, you really notice and appreciate the improvements cars go through in a 10 year interval.

 

[mathjak107]

thats why you have to becareful with the ole lease vs buy thing. if you are typical and trade vehicles every 3 years than leasing usually is cheaper as you end up buying the car , hondling the best deal you can and then trade the car back into the dealer at the wholesale price as well as paying the tax on the car at retail and recovering the tax back on a wholesale value.

 

[Dawg52]

Graduated from college 31 years ago and have owned 6 cars. Traded way too often in my younger years. Just young and foolish.

 

[Alan]

depends on mileage for me. (hence reliability). Since moving 3 years ago miles to and from work has dropped dramatically and my Camry is now 7 years old. Will probably trade in when I retire in 3 years as we expect to do a lot more driving at that point. The previous Camry was about 7 years old I think and had 110,000 miles.

 

[firewhen]

My first thought was never.

But to answer seriously, we are about 1 year short of 20 years / 100k miles. Driving not many miles a year, it seems a shame to give up a car after 10 years with 50,000 miles or so.

Since the car is running fine, I still might keep it beyond next year.

(I remember sometime in the mid 90's mentioning to DW that we could keep this car until 2000 and she thought I was nuts--here it is 7 years beyond that).

I would get a new car (probably have to give it away) if this one needs a major repair or a series of small repairs. I have put over $4000 into it, but that includes everything (brakes, batteries, tires, repairs), and never more than $500 at once.

 

[Moemg]

Usually until the car starts getting unreliable .Right now I'm driving a eight year old camry which has been the best car I ever had .

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

most all my employment since college came with a company car so every two or three years max i've had a new car which came with much of the fuel expenses & all of the insurance & maintenance expenses paid.

so between being spoiled with that and my car fetish, i seem to get tired of the one i'm driving within three or four years now. i would imagine the size of my niece & nephews' inheritance will be somewhat restricted by next year's choices of new rides.

 

[2soon2tell]

We keep cars an average of 10-12 years. Recently traded a 94 Buick LeSabre with 210,000 miles for an 07 Camry. I have a 93 Ford f-150 with 130,000 miles that may outlive me.

2soon

 

[Khan]

I'm surprised that everyone really talks about trading their cars based on years rather than miles. Years doesn't mean much to me when it comes to my cars. I put more mileage on my cars in a year than some people do in a decade.

My 1989 vehicle has ~70,000 miles.

 

[mathjak107]

years kill a car worse than miles some times. my volvo was holy hell as seals dried out, uv ate plastic trims and the steering wheel and just exposure to the weather .

 

[OKLibrarian]

My Mazda Protege (1st car I bought--drove parents' old car in HS/college) just passed its 8th birthday, at about 130K. a few rattles aside she pretty much drives like the day I took her off the lot. Barring something catastrophic it should make 200K easily. I'm debating getting new speakers and fixing a dent in the back panel, though at this point I'm not sure it would make much difference to the trade-in/sales value. DH's car is about 12--we got it used about 4 years ago. We're probably going to retire it and buy FIL's car from MIL sometime in the next few months, especially if we buy a house that lengthens his commute.

 

[Andre1969]

I got my license in December 1986, and I think I've had about 16-17 cars since then! But I'm into antique cars, and usually have several around. Plus I've gotten cars handed down to me by friends and family members that no longer wanted them. Sometimes they'd still have plenty of life left in them; sometimes they'd be on their last legs.

The longest I've ever had a car was 17 years, but it's really more of a toy. It's a 1957 DeSoto Firedome that I bought back in 1990, when I was still in college. I'll probably take it to my grave with me.

I've only bought one brand-new car in my life, a 2000 Dodge Intrepid. It was mainly the low 0.9% financing that suckered me in, but it's been a pretty good car. Currently has about 130,000 miles on it, and still running strong. At this point, I figure I'll just run it until someting major goes wrong with it, like the engine or transmission. It's not worth trading at this point. I'd probably only get $2000 at best for it, and I'm just not ready to get back into a car payment yet.

So basically, I don't have a set timeframe for buying or selling cars. Usually it's when something gets wrecked or something major goes wrong. But sometimes I'll just find something I like better or is more useful. For instance, I got rid of my grandmother's old '85 Buick LeSabre when my Mom said I could have her old '85 Chevy pickup. I figured I had enough cars already, but the pickup would be better than the Buick for trips to the dump, Home Depot, etc!

 

[kcowan]

Ford, Volvo, Buick, Olds, Chrysler, Merkur, Pontiac, BMW so 8 cars in 40 years.

BMW has 105000 km on it and is a 95 Cabriolet. Uses premium gas but is a 5-speed 4cyl. Probably will keep it until it starts to need excessive maintenance.

 

[baldeagle]

We just can't seem to part with them. Have owned 8 cars in the 41 years we've been married. Still have three of them.

1984 Peugeot 505 STi -- 185K miles -- bought new 23 years ago
1988 Toyota Camry Wagon -- 160k miles -- bought new 19 years ago
1989 BMW 750iL -- 125K miles -- bought used 15 years ago

Camry is being detailed at the moment -- will look new all over again! Gets about 40mpg on the (flat) highway at 70mph. Good for carrying the dogs.

 

[Arif]

We had a 1992 Nissan sentra that my wife had during college. Kept it for a total of 10 years till it caught on fire. I really liked that car with it's go-cart-like handling and 35+ mpg and it was PAID OFF. Oh well, after that we bought a new Altima in 2002 with the $500 trade in from the Sentra. Still have the Altima as we paid it off and shipped it with our household goods to Panama. We also had 2 Ford Expeditions both of which we kept for a total of 7 years. That was due to us moving to Panama and not needing two vehicles here. Our goal is to keep them till they die and catch on fire.
BTW- People would always tease me for driving that Sentra to work even though my wife and I made good money. We got the last laugh as most of them are still working paying those bills.

 

[johanne]

I still got my 1993 plymouth acclaim ... relatively trouble free ... 140,000 kms or 87,000 miles. Only reason it is still roadworthy is the annual rustproofing I put it through. When one has a 4 or 5 month winter to contend with, with tons of salt spread on the highways, it is the only way of keeping it that long.

 

[Nords]

Years doesn't mean much to me when it comes to my cars. I put more mileage on my cars in a year than some people do in a decade.

Funny, I was looking at it from the opposite perspective.

Mileage is irrelevant when you only drive 3K-5K/year. Components don't "wear" out from the accumulated abrasion of friction. They corrode or embrittle or, in the case of a plastic dashboard, putrify.

Or some electronic component encounters the inevitable quantum tunneling leading to a prompt-jump current increase followed shortly by combustion...

 

[ladelfina]

Or some electronic component encounters the inevitable quantum tunneling leading to a prompt-jump current increase followed shortly by combustion...

Argh Nords.. you've come close to hitting the nail on the head with my poor Saab. Has been driven hardly at all lately and as a result the (brand new last fall after similar problems) battery keeps dying. Either they have very crappy batteries here or there is something that is sucking current.

After yesterday's jump and an hour of driving around OK, this morning it wouldn't start. Dead dead dead to the ground.

'93 and doesn't even have 50k miles on it. Alternator was re-habbed a few years back (driving along and vroooooaaaaahhh.. kept pushing the pedal and going slooower, slooooooooowwwwerrrrrrrr, stuck).

What to do? It seems a crime to "throw away" so many potentially working parts.. but..
some rust underneath, general creakiness, headliner starting to obscure the rear window.
Had a hole in the cooling system that got fixed along with the battery last fall.

Even if I drive it rarely, I need for it to start on demand and keep going. As of today it's stuck in the driveway. No combustion of any kind, expected or unexpected.
[Unexpected combustion could be kinda cool if you're not IN the car. At least then I could sign its death warrant with a clear conscience.]

 

[Nords]

Argh Nords.. you've come close to hitting the nail on the head with my poor Saab. Has been driven hardly at all lately and as a result the (brand new last fall after similar problems) battery keeps dying. Either they have very crappy batteries here or there is something that is sucking current.

The bad news is that you know it's a current-sucker.

The worse news is that it might also be a bad alternator.

The potentially good news is that if you kick a Saab in enough places, the grounded wire will eventually unground itself and the car will miraculously return to life. Until the wire grounds out again...

I bet every Saab mechanic knows how to disconnect the electrical cabling to the car doors to check for grounds.

 

[bssc]

I bet every Saab mechanic knows how to disconnect the electrical cabling to the car doors to check for grounds.

My friend said that Saab translated to difficult in Moroccan dialect. You make it sound like this is true.

 

[sgeeeee]

Funny, I was looking at it from the opposite perspective.

Mileage is irrelevant when you only drive 3K-5K/year. Components don't "wear" out from the accumulated abrasion of friction. They corrode or embrittle or, in the case of a plastic dashboard, putrify.

Or some electronic component encounters the inevitable quantum tunneling leading to a prompt-jump current increase followed shortly by combustion...

Yeah, I've seen that too. The first time I ever shopped for a car I almost bought a 15 year old car with ~3000 miles on it. When I first heard about it, I thought I was lucky. When I first saw it, I thought I was very lucky. The lady who owned it kept it in a garage with a cover over it and only drove it a few blocks about once a week. She had stopped driving it entirely several years earlier.

Then I drove the thing out of the garage and crawled under and around it. It was a mess. It leaked everything from everywhere.

But that's not the way I drive my cars. I drive all over North America. I travel about 1/3 to 1/2 the time. Mileage is more closely related to the auto end-of-life event I face. I guess I'm surprised that more people on this board seem to think of auto replacement in terms of years than think in terms of miles. I guess we just have a lot of green posters.

 

[martyb]

We traded the wife's 1990 Honda Accord (which she bought new) for a 2007 Toyota Camry. That's 16+ years. I doubt we'll wait that long to buy again but for sure will keep the Camry at least 10 yrs. On the other hand, I'll be getting a new truck in about 2-3 years . Then, I'll drive it a looooong time.