How long do you plan to keep your car?

[RunningBum]

My Miata is 21 years old and I have no plans to get rid of it, but values are starting to creep up so I may if the price seems right. After 19 years of ownership I'm starting to lose the enjoyment of a convertible sportster just a bit.

I generally go about 6-10 years with my main car. If I start having problems, or it's not meeting my needs (like the underpowered first year Honda CRV) I'm on the lower end. If there's no reason to sell, I'm on the high end. I've totaled the two best prospects to go longer (one my fault on ice, the other I got hit) so I don't know what my upper end is. What I may do is pass my current one on to my son if his goes. I used to be used, but 3 of my last 4 have been new. You just don't get a good discount on Hondas and Subarus. But my two most reliable cars were bought a couple years used--97 Miata, 86 Acura Integra.

[tulak]

10+ years. At least that’s what I plan for. The last car I had for 17 years. The current car I’ve had for 2 years and I wouldn’t be surprised if I keep it well past 10 years.

[6miths]

Current Honda product is 11 years old with 190K miles and doing well. Was thinking of replacing with an automatic Subaru Impreza hatchback so more in the family could drive it but son enjoys the manual so he would like me to keep it. Probably partly because it decreases competition for the car!

[bizlady]

I got rid of my car after 17 years, and only because I wanted the new electronics and navigation now available. It was a Nissan Maxima, had just over 100k miles, and other than routine maintenance and new tires, had nothing more put into it. Ran great and the dealer was shocked at the body still being near perfect (one small ding was it). But I love my new 2017 Honda accord even more!

[Jerry1]

I’m new to this. One of the perks I gave myself while working was frequent new cars. Now retired, I drive way less. I’m thinking 10 years or about 100K miles. The one exception is that as long as we have two cars and one car is predominantly for local trips, I would keep that car longer. I think my hardest hurdle is my want for a new car versus my need for a new car. I think 10 years is long enough due to technology changes. If I waned to save every penny, I’d literally drive them into the ground. 15 to 20 years and over 200K miles would be no problem as long as the car’s not a lemon from the start and is well maintained.

[pacergal]

We keep ours as long as possible, until repairs are too frequent/costly.
We replaced both just before retirement, one had over 200,000, one had 250,000.
These will last us quite a while, as we are not driving near as many miles.

[pb4uski]

Great question and one I have been thinking about since our 2016 Outback has 45k miles and I'd like something a little bigger. Historically we have kept cars to 75-100k miles as long as they continued to be reliable... so that would be another 2-3 years for the Outback. While I really like the car, the only thing that I don't like is that you have to fiddle around a bit to get 4 people and 4 sets of golf clubs in it... and there are times when we could use seating for 6.

A couple friends have Buick Enclave and a Ford Explorer and those you can flip do the third row seat and easily and conveniently get 4 bags of golf clubs and 4 people in easily or flip the seats up to transport 6. If we do go bigger, I might lean towards the new Subaru Ascent or the Honda Pilot... but they are all a lot of $$$$. Gulp!

[omni550]

I have a 2006 Toyota Highlander with 156,000 miles. I'm planning on keeping it until the maintenance costs are too high and/or it becomes unreliable. I drive it the ~1,400 miles each way to/from winter condo in Florida plus a lot of shorter trips to visit friends, etc.

I'm hoping to get an autonomous vehicle as my next car, but not sure when they'll be widely available.

omni

[treypar]

We plan to keep our two new 2017 cars for at least ten years. We only drive 5-6,000 miles a year now so it may be longer. I do like the technology upgrades from our former cars which were 9 and 13 years old. Maybe we will not need to own a car in the future and these vehicles will be the last cars that we own.

[ProspectiveBum]

We buy new, and keep them a minimum of 10 years. Cars are so well-made these days (and our SoCal climate is so mild that rust isn’t an issue), we find we’re keeping them longer. Our current vehicles are a 2000 SUV, and a 2005 minivan.

Our oldest will start driving in a couple of years, and she’ll likely get the SUV as a first car. It’s no-frills, heavy and slow, and should be an ideal first car for a young driver. At that point, we’ll buy a new vehicle for DW, and will be a 3 vehicle family.

The van is the best overall vehicle we’ve ever owned. It’s at 175K miles, and still runs great. Barring any huge repair bills, we’ll likely keep it until both kids are off to college. So we’ll probably end up getting 20 years out of each of our current vehicles. DW wants a Toyota pickup as her next vehicle. Based on reputation, that should easily go 20 years, too. Geez, if we don’t change something in our buying habits, I probably only have a couple of new cars left!

[FIREd]

I usually keep mine until the upkeep becomes too expensive or too frequent. But the last 2 cars were sold because of life circumstances:

* my 2010 Toyota Camry was sold in 2015 (< 30,000 miles) because it was sitting in the garage way too often. We had moved to downtown San Francisco and we did not need a car to get around anymore.
* I will be selling my 2018 Mazda 3 in a few weeks (~ 13,000 miles) because I am moving overseas and it would have been too costly to take the car with me. Had I known I would be moving again, I would not have purchased it (I'll take a big hit on depreciation).

I think that my new car will be an Audi A3 Quattro (new or 1-2 years old) and I plan on keeping it a while (and this time I know that I won't be moving again in a long while).

[RE2Boys]

We generally keep our cars about 7 years.....buy used and keep until about 10 years old. As many have mentioned, technology and safety features (combined with the road salt in this area) govern the decision to upgrade. In 2016 sold two vehicles (both 2005 models) and bought three.(2010,2011,and 2012).....moved from front wheel drive/front airbags to AWD and side curtain airbags on all. Two older ones were for my college sons.
In early 2018 the 2012 Hyundia Santa Fe (56K miles) was totaled by a deer. For the first time, I spent more that $20K on a car (not by much $22K). My wife now has a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe AWD with 30K miles. Dealer had it on the lot for six months and priced to move.

[Ronstar]

I plan on keeping my 2001 corvette forever. It has less than 90k miles, and I’m only putting a few thousand miles on it a year. It’s fiberglass so it won’t rust.

Also plan on keeping my 2017 Ford F150 forever. It’s aluminum so it won’t rust and I don’t put too many miles on it.

DW’s 2012 Acura has 65k miles. Probably replace it when it gets to 10 years old in 2022.

[imoldernu]

96 Cadillac, 82K mi. 98 Lincoln 105Kmi.. Both now old enough to drink, and still pretty.

Will keep >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> forever!

[SheitlQueen]

I keep it until it is no longer reliable. My last car was 16 years old and had 321,000 miles on it when I decided to finally replace it. It was still running, and I actually gave it to my nephew. He is still driving it.

[Jeffman52]

Cars depreciate so quickly that I tend to keep them as long as possible. I drive a 2002 F150 (So 16 years old). I figure every year I keep it past the payoff date is like putting extra money in my pocket. I will say that I recently moved from Georgia to Ohio and I may need to trade just to get a 4X4. The light truck bed on the 2WD makes it a bit scary to drive in the winter when the weather gets iffy.

I also have a 2015 CRV that we bought when we gifted our 2004 CRV to our daughter. Daughter is still driving the 04, its still in good shape. We plan to keep the 2015 at least 10 years. Maybe more.

I look at it this way. Assuming I don't pay cash for a car. If I have to put 500 or even 1000 dollars into repairs, that's just a few car payments in the scheme of things. Even if I pay cash, which I would. I look at the longer term picture. Now when I get a bit older, I might look at my personal safety (not being stranded) as a higher priority and stay in newer vehicles.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmallCityDave The car I have now is the best car I've ever had but it's 11 years old and has 110k+ miles, this car should last me another 40-50k without too many problems (unless I get bit by the new car bug). For those of you getting the most out of every dollar, when do you plan to upgrade? Is it when you reach a certain amount of miles, age or when it becomes too cost prohibitive to keep repairing?

My 2009 Toyota Venza has 29,700 miles on it.

In the spirit of "Blow that Dough", I wanted to get a new SUV this year, but couldn't find one that I like any better than what I already have. Oh well!

I don't like to keep a car once it starts needing frequent repairs, at all. My Venza really hasn't needed any (yet). Mileage is still relatively low, too.

I am beginning to think that its age is an advantage for me. I hate vehicle with excessive electronics loaded on them and as bad as my Venza is for that, this type of thing seems to be getting even worse in more recent car models.

So, what will trigger buying my next car? Simple. If/when I see a brand new car that I like better than what I already have, and actually WANT, I'll buy it just because I can. So far, no cars fit that description.

[DAYDREAMER]

I hope our newest car (2014 Ford Escape) last long enough to get us to cars that drive themselves. We love all the bells and whistles of new car technology. Our other vehicles are a 1996 Ram/cummins 4x4 truck with 220k miles and a 2004 Honda Accord with 175k. The older cars feel naked without the fancy technology, but keep running good.

We traded in a 1993 Honda Accord with 350k miles on it when we bought the escape in 2014. Got a whopping $400 for the trade in! Eh, we got our money's worth out of it, and I hate selling stuff to people.

[ncbill]

I have too many vehicles (most from older relatives who stopped driving) given our family's size.

A couple are over two decades old, even the newest are over a decade old.

The 15-year-old minivan has started leaking (or consuming) oil.

If the above is not a cheap fix (i.e. not paying to disassemble the engine) then it will be retired, probably in favor of a mid-sized SUV.

[FI_RElater]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midpack We buy new and keep cars for 8-11 years based on past history. Most of our cars were over 100K miles when traded in, the highest was 164K (Honda Prelude). What determines when we trade varies based on several factors - past reliability, change in desired utility, new alternatives, etc.

always figured eight years was break even, ten plus was optimal. The biggest factor was reliability

we bought new vehicle for DW just before retirement, when we knew we needed something different, in this case AWD, and something more reliable than the older vehicle we had; gave the old one to of DW siblings for their kids use. did same thing with my earlier replacement vehicle. (both are still working but needed some minor work to maintain. Earlier vehicles we just traded in because we knew that they were going to cost too much to bring back to a reliable state).