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

[Dog]

DH and I are having a discussion about LBYM - he thinks we may scrimp too much....I think we still fritter away more than we should. Just casual discussion. Anyway, somehow we started talking about how often people trade in their cars for a newer model. He thinks the average is three years. What do you think?

 

[LOL!]

We have had 5 cars total over that last 28 years. We will still drive 2 of those for another 10 years each, so that's about 76 person-years for 5 cars or about 15-person-years per car.

I don't think we scrimp since we've always had very nice cars. The Lexus will easily go the next 10 years and the other car is brand new.

Some folks calculate average trade-in time from the average car-loan term. I'd guess 4 years, but I know folks with multiple cars, so the 3 years may be right.

 

[dmpi]

We drive our cars about 11 or 12 years and then we give them away to relatives and get a new cars.
Also we don't drive much. Maybe about 6,000 miles/year per car.

 

[Mwsinron]

Last car we had went 15 years. Till some kids stole it for joy riding We dont take long trips so we try to run our cars into the ground.

 

[sgeeeee]

Post a poll if you want to find out about averages. It might make a difference depending on whether people buy new or used cars too.

We tend to keep a car until it becomes unreliable transportation or rattles so much we can't listen to a book-on-tape as we go down the highway. Today I'm driving a 2003 Saturn VUE with ~97,000 miles on it and a 1995 Dodge RAM with about 170,000 miles on it. I'm not thinking of trading either. I've traded cars in the past with as little as 100,000 miles on them. Until this RAM, I don't think I ever kept a car past 140,000.

 

[W2R]

In the past, trade-in time for me has been when the repairs start getting frequent and expensive. But right now, I have a 2000 Toyota Camry Solara with 33,000 miles on it.

Assuming it is still running without many repairs in 2010 when it is 10 years old (and I don't see why it wouldn't be), I will trade it in then. That's because I plan to retire around then, and would prefer not to worry about having to replace my car for my first crucial ten years of retirement.

I really don't give a flip how long other people drive their cars before trading them in. They aren't living my life, and I'm not living theirs. They have their own reasons for making their decisions, and I have mine. I guess my attitude reverts to the introvert/extrovert thread that we had going a few weeks ago.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Seems like its every 7 years for us, unless its a car bought on a lark rather than by plan, then it seems to last about 2-3 years and its gone.

The bmw convertible I bought on my sabbatical because I thought it'd be fun and the infiniti q45 I got because they seemed cheap and gosh, I had a big SUV and a small convertible and nothing in the middle...well, those fell into the latter category.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

8-11 years overall. Notable exception: 4 y.o. Lexus IS250 traded in for a Prius, my current ride.

Cars just don't thrill me. Ever.

Of course my several motorcycles might have met that need . Now they're gone too, replaced by a small diesel motorhome.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Of course my several motorcycles might have met that need . Now they're gone too, replaced by a small diesel motorhome.

Do you sit on top of the motorhome, just to get "the feel" or have you copped out and started driving it from the inside?

 

[RE2Boys]

Let's see, I buy them when they are one year old used, keep them until they are 10 years old. So about 9 years. Replace the oldest with a used vehicle about every 4-5 years. Worst case is having a 5 year old vehicle and a 10 year old vehicle (typically).

RE2Boys

 

[Khan]

I have had my vehicle for 18 years (Feb 1). It's starting to make strange noises.

 

[REWahoo]

Back when we were both working and putting 30,000+ miles annually on each car, it was 3-5 years depending on whether we bought used or new. Now we have a 2001 (bought used) and a 2004 (bought new). No immediate plans to replace either.

Oh yeah, and I have a 98 pickup. This is Texas after all...

 

[Behan]

We buy a car (used) about every 7 years. We also always have a pickup around and generally keep it until it completely falls apart.

 

[Dog]

I'm not surprised that most folks here hold on to their vehicles. I drive a 98 Honda (my daughter bought my 88 Honda and it is still running). DH traded in his 92 Explorer for the 2002 Explorer he drives today. We typically buy a new car, although I'm not opposed to buying a newer used car if I knew it had been treated well. I have to admit - I was planning to trade the 98 Honda in on a BMW 3 Series (my dream car), but I decided I would rather retire in 2008 instead.

 

[Meadbh]

I really don't give a flip how long other people drive their cars before trading them in. They aren't living my life, and I'm not living theirs. They have their own reasons for making their decisions, and I have mine.

I agree with Want2retire. Who cares what everybody else thinks?

I have owned three cars in 27 years and my 12 year old Honda is running well. The rattle I mentioned last week turned out to be a loose garage door opener attached to the front windshield. I have bought all my cars new.

 

[runchman]

I have to admit - I was planning to trade the 98 Honda in on a BMW 3 Series (my dream car), but I decided I would rather retire in 2008 instead.

That's funny, because I bought a new 3 series in 2004 (325xi) and now I find myself eyeing prius's and civic hybrids on edmunds, and calculating how I'd come out if I sold mine and bought the hybrid.

Love my 325, it's fun, 0 problems, but it's still just a car after a couple years.

Just goes to show, the grass is always greener on the other side !

- John

 

[clifp]

Put me down in the seven year group. I've owned 7 in my 31 years of driving, that last was purchased 3 years ago I expect to keep it 4-6 more years.

I have bought the last 3 new but that is because I do like new cars. My sister and husband seem to buy a new or newer car every three years (to be fair he has a 80 mile/day commute so that is hard on the cars.) but they have spent a fortune on cars over the years.

 

[brewer12345]

Lessee, had the 1987 toyota pickup until I totalled it on the highway one night. Had the 1995 escort for 10 years. Finally gave it to my sister (too small for our needs), and it is still running, one accident later. The subaru is 4 years old now, but has 92k on it and rising fast. I imagine I will keep it until it starts dumping me on the side of the road (many miles in the future). Since we only put 8k a year on the minivan, I suspect we will have it for at least another decade.

Translation: we keep them until they pretty much lay down and die by the side of the road.

 

[Bikerdude]

Since I've retired (04/2000) I've purchased 1 new car that GM was giving away in 2006 and a 2001 motorcycle. I have 2 other motorcycles (1980 & 1991) and a pickup (1993) with 75K on the clock.

The car I replaced had 175K and was a 1993 that I bought used in 1995. I now put about 5K on the car, 3K on the truck and 7K on the MC's per year.

When I was working I put 15K on a car per year just commuting.

 

[Surfdaddy]

We usually go by miles rather than time. We've only gotten rid of one car at under 100K miles (86K).

Our current 1994 Villager has 221K miles and is still running great.
We have a 2005 Acura TL with 45K on it.

I've also had a 92 Honda Accord (120K), an 85 Jetta (143K), and a 66VW Bug (235K).

You get the idea. 8)

 

[SonnyJim]

Here goes a long list
1992 toyota 4 runner sold in AK 1995 8 k miles
1995 Chevy S-10 sold 1996 15k miles (kid on the way, car seat didn't fit)
1995 Nissan Sentra sold in 1998 70k miles
1992 Volvo 960 wagon sold 1997 80k miles
1997 toyota 4 runner sold 1998 25k miles
1996 toyota camry totalled 2001 108k miles
1997 GMC Suburban sold 2004 with 175kmiles
2003 Diesel VW Jetta totalled 2005 with 75k miles
1995 Lexus LS 400 sold 2006 with 116k miles
2004 Kia Sdona still have it 64k miles
2000 Ford Expedition bifuel propane/gas still have it 118k miles

11 vehicles between 2 people over 15 years, ouch my head hurts from the math, I thought you said there wasn't going to be any math. I guess it works out to about one car every 3 years per person. we like to drive a lot.

 

[Brat]

About once every 15 years....

 

[loosechickens]

Well, let's see.....we bought our motorhome new, although it was a leftover previous year's model still on the lot when the new models came out, in early 1998, so we got a smoking deal on it. We expect to still be driving it when we hang up the keys because of extreme old age or illness. Since we knew it would depreciate, we bought a high quality motorhome with plans to just keep it forever. It has a Caterpillar truck diesel engine designed to be a hardworking part of an 18 wheeler crisscrossing the country all year. It will surely hold up under what we require of it in this lifetime. And since carpets, etc, can be updated if necessary just like in a house....it's a forever motorhome. We want the KIDS to have to deal with the fact that it depreciated, not us....

At the time we bought the motorhome, we got a little 1992 Mazda pickup to tow behind it. We had to give up our former "forever" truck as it was too big and heavy to tow, being a larger truck that we had used to pull our former home, a travel trailer. The Mazda had 46,000 miles on it when we bought it, and has about 181,000 now (50,000 being towed). It's still in great shape, even looks good with no rust since we spend much of our time in the southwest. I would imagine it has more than a few years left.

Since I rarely can tell one vehicle from another, I wouldn't even recognize if someone had a vehicle that he thought everybody was admiring. To me, if they get me where I want to go, reliably, they're a member of the family until death.

Sometime I am going to sit down and think about just how much money we have saved over our lifetimes by not being caught up in the car craze I see so many people spend money trying to satisfy.

Ours just become members of the family. LooseChickens

 

[sgeeeee]

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.

 

[bssc]

Dodge Colt 82-88 70K Miles
Ford Bronco 88-97 120K Miles
Ford Windstar 97-05 95K Miles but was starting to die
Dodge Grand Caravan 05 - present 26K miles