How many miles are you driving in retirement?

[Ronstar]

I have 113k miles on my truck bought in may 2017 and 39k on my Jeep Wrangler bought in June, 2021. So 152k miles in 7.75 years or 19,600 miles per year. And maybe 5k per year on DW's car.

Lots of road trips through all 48 contiguous states since we retired. Now road trips are done, so mileage should go down.

 

[aja8888]

My neighbor a few houses away (retired 75 year old woman) has a 3 year old BMW with 10K miles on it. She only drives during the day and not very far. If she needs to visit family an hour or so away, she calls her close by son to take her. She refuses to drive on the freeways.

 

[Music Lover]

That depends. If you only drive 6,000 miles per year over a three year lease that is only 18,000 miles of the 36,000 miles you paid for. While you can get leases for 10,000 miles/year, it makes the most sense to use close to the mileage you are actually paying for.

That's how I see it too.

I bought a 3-year old car 8 years ago and have put 100 kms (62k miles) on it. That included two trips to Florida from Canada totaling about 16,000 kms. We now snowbird in Mexico so the car isn't used for 3 months every winter.

So, we've averaged 12,500 km (7.8k miles) per year over that time, But now it's probably just 8000 kms (5k miles) per year.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Averaged 9,800/yr miles since retiring with about 2/3 of that being due to road trips. If no trips, a tank of gas will last 1.5-2 months.

 

[5Miler]

DGF and I both bought our current vehicles in 2001. I just turned over 103K miles and she has 68K miles. We now both qualify for the senior exemption for state emissions testing as we drive under 5K per year on each vehicle. We are both way under that 5K limit.

We always opt to fly when traveling out of town and have even started using a car service for transportation to/from the airport which is about 40 miles from us. The cost is usually equal to or cheaper than airport parking so why not.

 

[TheWizard]

I've been averaging about 20,000 miles per year over the past decade, about half on the Mustang and half on the pickup, currently an F-150.
I like road trips so that's a main reason...

 

[jollystomper]

We are averaging between 17K-18K miles across all our vehicles annually since retiring. We were probably closer to 30K when we were working. Our area is not walker friendly, and it is at least a 4 mile roundtrip to the closest stores, with most daily errand/shopping/recreation/entertainment trips (which we try to cover multiple stops) being a 20-30 mile roundtrip.

My member golf course is a 40 mile roundtrip, so playing close to 100 rounds a year accounts for around 4000 miles.

For long road trips (>500 miles), or when family and grandkids are in town I have rented SUVs or minivans, so that is additional mileage beyond our own cars. But we just bought a newly used SUV, so that will be used for most of those longer road trips for now.

 

[rk911]

Not much. Since buying our new '23 Jeep Wrangler in June of 2023 I've put just shy of 3500-miles on it. And probably a lot less than that on our other Jeep...maybe 5k total miles in 18-mos.

 

[Montecfo]

Till recently I had 2 cars.Probably put 6k.miles total in the 2. Wife prob 7k on hers.

It's not a lot since some days we don't go anywhere and usually only 1 car away at a time..

 

[Lewis Clark]

We have averaged about 19,000 per year between all of our vehicles over the past 4 years. This includes:

* a six-week road trip to the Upper Midwest from Florida in 2021

* six round-trip transits (2,000 miles round trip) to our summer home in Ohio.

 

[pacergal]

We are down to one car now, as DS has our other one. I have not kept track, but we usually get about two oil changes a year, at about 5-6,000 miles each, so 10,000-12,000+ miles, I am guessing. I know we could wait for 10,000 miles with synthetic oil, but DH likes sooner.
Family is all close by, but we do go to California once a year to visit friends and to the coast several times a year.
We fly for any "trips", but we are not big travelers.

When we were working, DH and I both drove 40-50 miles RT daily, depending on traffic and which way we drove.

 

[rembrandt]

I just drive to the Piggly Wiggly on weekends. About 10 miles round trip.

 

[NeilDH]

In working days before COVID: About 11,000 on my CR-V and 6,000 on DW's Elantra.

In working days after COVID: About 7,000 on my CR-V and 6,000, maybe 5,000 on the Elantra.
* This became a problem particularly with brakes, which got to rusting up easily with the lack of movement.
* And I learned what a battery trickle charger was and how to use it.

In FIRE days: Back up to 11,000-12,000 on my CR-V and maybe 9,000-10,000 on the Elantra.
* We did a Chicago-Florida drive, and Chicago-Pittsburgh drive. We're doing a drive out west this year.
* We or DW drive from Chicago area to southern Illinois and back for family about a half-dozen times per year.
* And I drive more for bicycling, maybe hiking.

Speaking of:
* Working days before COVID: 4,000-5,000 a year on the bike
* After COVID: 6,000 a year on the bike
* Still working but life got back to fairly normal (read: busier): 5,000-5,500 on the bike
* In FIRE: 9,125 on the bike in 2024

 

[Sunset]

With some of the posters here driving less than 10,000 or so miles per year, I can see how leasing a vehicle might make sense.

At the same time, driving a vehicle a small amount per year, and keeping it in a garage means it lasts in great condition for decades. Making buying is cheaper.

 

[Sunset]

I don't have an exact number, but estimate that it's 6K - 7K per year combined between the 2 vehicles.
I change the oil for each once per year, as the mileage rarely warrants it on one of them.

 

[skipro33]

8,000 miles per year of each of our cars, 16,000 total. We live WAYYYY out in the woods, grocery store is 12 miles one way.

 

[DrRoy]

About 14-15,000 miles/yr. A good chunk of that is an annual trip from MI to AZ, UT, or NM.

 

[rembrandt]

At the same time, driving a vehicle a small amount per year, and keeping it in a garage means it lasts in great condition for decades. Making buying is cheaper.

Yes, there is no better feeling than a paid-off car.

 

[Out of Steam]

About 27,000 miles total; 17K on my car, and 10K on my wife's. Both cars are newer, but mine is better for long-distance travel. I've always driven a lot, but once I complete a couple of long distance outdoor trips this summer, our driving should decrease by 20% or more.

We've decided to pay off my wife's car in the next few weeks.

 

[Gumby]

6-7,000 miles per year.

 

[DayDreaming]

Average 10,700 miles/year. Now that my last remaining parent is gone, I'll be driving quite a bit less.

 

[scrabbler1]

About 2500 miles a year....not very much.

I'm glad to see someone who drives rarely like I do. I just pierced the 50k miles mark on my car which turns 18 years old in 2 days (2,800 miles/yr, although it has been closer to 2k the last few years).

My car is in great shape, and it spends most of its time in a heated garage, so it is protected from the elements and rarely is started in temperature extremes at either end.

 

[Surewhitey]

When I lived in Mansfield and worked in Arlington, I got temporarily assigned to our office in Richardson on 75. I had to do that round trip for about 6 months. That drive home on Friday evenings was insane and that was over 25 years ago. Fortunately, we convinced management that our extra driving counted as work time even though we were salaried.

That's a beat down for sure. I did Richardson to Red Bird Airport for a few years and took DART to give me a break once in a while, especially Friday.

I left the office j*b in 2018 mainly for the 30 mi one way to Cedar Hill. Since then, I do ~6k miles annually on mine & similar on DW. She only goes to the office 1-2x monthly. We're doing 1 oil change annually since Covid...

I do like to plan for off hours when driving through the cities. Just don't like it anymore. Will take the back roads even just to lessen the stress.

We do a few road trips with Big Bend a couple of months ago and just returned from the hill country.

 

[VanWinkle]

I drive about 20K per year with driving trips almost every year. Kids on the west coast makes a long exciting drive from Tennessee.

 

[aja8888]

At the same time, driving a vehicle a small amount per year, and keeping it in a garage means it lasts in great condition for decades. Making buying is cheaper.

I don't know how true that may be given the costs involved in owning the car. Even idle time or driving just a little, you have insurance, depreciation, in some cases property tax, upkeep, and some maintenance (wear Items). I would guess that the sweet spot may be around 10,000 - 12,000 miles per year for a lease to make sense. With cars costing what they do these days (like $45,000 average U.S. price new), depreciation is hefty during the car's life.