How long do you keep your vehicles?

[ToyotaTurncoat]

I am curious how long everyone here usually hangs on to their vehicles. There are generally two schools of thought: Keep a vehicle until it rusts back into the earth, or sell it when it is relatively young and still worth something.

My Dad's 2001 Tundra has something like 330,000 miles on it. It still runs great, but I feel like the past five or so years he frequently has it in the shop for something. Some of it is routine (that truck has a timing belt) but some is not. He had it painted a few years ago since the paint started to fade on the hood.

I used to be on the side of "keep it forever" like he has, but now I'm leaning towards selling it around the 8 - 10 year mark. At that point the vehicle is long paid off, and you could be saving money towards a new vehicle. And hopefully the car hasn't needed any major repairs at that point.

I tried to find some studies or articles that found the average "tipping point" of a vehicle, when the cost to repair begins to outweigh the value, but I didn't find much. I'm guessing it is a tricky thing to figure out since it can wildly vary from car to car. If anyone has any info on this it would be appreciated.

So, what do you do, keep it forever, or sell it young?

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[CoryDallas8123]

I’m 35 tomorrow. Starting driving at 14, country school permit. I’ve had 2 vehicles. This will be my 3rd. So not quite drive till it rusts back into the earth but more like drive well past pay off date and wait for something big to break.

 

[Big_T]

As you say, it will vary a lot between different vehicles, even from the same manufacturer. I'd say anywhere from 2 or 3 years (meaning whenever the warranty runs out) to 10 -12 years or more, also depending to a certain extent on miles driven per year.
My average is 4 or 5 years but I like having different vehicles. 67 years old with just over 50 cars and trucks behind me.

 

[mikejohn13]

I have a 2005 Ranger 180.000 mi and my wife has a 1996 CIVIC 125,000 mi

 

[WesM]

I think the tripping point is going to vary by make/model and even options selected in the model.

I typically buy Hondas/Toyotas and keep them till about the 15 year mark. I have never paid more for those vehicles in a year than what a car payment would have been. Once a vehicle hits the 10 year mark I start budgeting $1k a year in repairs. You figure a new or even used car payment is going to be $300-$400 a month on the lower end and will require some up front money (I typically put down $6k-$10k).

As long as I still like the car I will keep the vehicle. It rarely makes sense from a financial point of view to pick up a car payment, unless the vehicle you have is about to have major ($3k+) mechanical issues. I also can do some of the repairs myself (shocks/struts/brakes/starter motors etc), which saves me a lot.

I am diverging from that a little though with the Maverick. I drive a 08 civic for work, but I really do not like that car. We got it when we lived in the city and it was great for that kind of driving, but on hilly country highways doing 70-80 MPH, its horrible. Its paid off and drives fine for a 08 civic, I just don't like it.

 

[LITH505]

Drive’m til I kill’m
Totaled 1st new car after 6 years. 11 years+ Almost 200k miles for my 2nd car & current vehicle each.
Keeping fingers crossed my sonata lasts.

 

[SantaStephen]

Depends on the use-case...we have my father-in-laws Corvette that we inherited when he passed away (I'm the only one in the family that can drive stick...darn), he bought it new in 1967.

We typically lease our daily drivers, we used to have a BMW i3...in fact have had 2 of them that were both leased. Battery tech and range seems to be following Moore's law so didn't see the point in buying until it starts to level off. We gave up that lease when it expired last year though as we were both working from home full time.

Our other daily driver has been a leased Mercedes SUV of various styles over the years (currently a GLE)...that lease is up in December though so starting to look into what we will be replacing that with.

We also have an old LR Disco2 that I will probably sell when we get the Maverick as it will be taking over the duties of that...hauling the dogs and taking hay, etc. to the barn along with trips to Home Depot.

So...for our daily drivers, we typically have 3 year leases and for our occasional use vehicles we keep them for an infinite period of time. I had an Element that we bought new in 2003 (my first ever new car). I went through the same ordering process as we are doing with the Maverick although back then we didn't have all these sites and social media where we could chat with other folks and find out what was going on. Think it took 6 months to get if memory serves...We kept that one for 10 years until the wheels about fell off it and hoping to do the same with the Maverick (although the Lightning is VERY tempting...)

 

[James St. Patrick]

Lately, 18 months. I like having different vehicles. My last 5:

CRV
WRX
GRAND CHEROKEE
FRONTIER PRO 4X
CX5 turbo

I see my Maverick order as a mixture combo for all of the above. Truck body, decent HP, car like driving, and decent MPG.

 

[FirstFord]

Aside from an Alfa Romeo that I kept for 18 years (sold only because I had no place to keep it and it was no longer a daily driver), I typically go 10-12 years. I've found with my European cars, that's when maintenance/repair costs start to get annoying.

I'll be replacing a car early this time. My current VW Jetta is a 2014 and has only 93k mi on it. I wouldn't be buying now, but I want to give the car to my son while it still has at least a few years of useful life in it.

 

[Old Ranchero]

in my youth I always had paid cash for used vehicles and kept them until I lost interest or repairs got too frequent and/or expensive. When I got my 1st new vehicle (1987 Ranger) I had a 5 year loan and kept it maybe 1 more year after paying it off. When I was stuck with lengthy work commutes I did about 25k per year and would generally sell shortly after 3 year loan payoffs. Don't think I've ever put 100k on any new vehicle before replacing. As I approached retirement my commutes were much shorter and barely drive retired in a small town. I bought a 2013 Grand Cherokee new that now only has 54k on it and will keep it forever. My wife typically keeps her vehicles longer than me and her record was 15 years in a Toyota truck. She last bought a new 2014 Outback that now only has 44k on it and will likely keep forever. We kept a 1989 Chevy 1500 in the family from 1990-2019. We bought a new RV in 2004 and still have it, but plan to sell 1 day and switch to travel trailer.

At this point we have all the frequently used vehicles we need for everything we do and all are paid off so no thoughts of getting rid of them at all. Only thing left is to buy vehicles we really WANT and add them to the current collection

 

[Brian_J]

I am curious how long everyone here usually hangs on to their vehicles. There are generally two schools of thought: Keep a vehicle until it rusts back into the earth, or sell it when it is relatively young and still worth something.

My Dad's 2001 Tundra has something like 330,000 miles on it. It still runs great, but I feel like the past five or so years he frequently has it in the shop for something. Some of it is routine (that truck has a timing belt) but some is not. He had it painted a few years ago since the paint started to fade on the hood.

I used to be on the side of "keep it forever" like he has, but now I'm leaning towards selling it around the 8 - 10 year mark. At that point the vehicle is long paid off, and you could be saving money towards a new vehicle. And hopefully the car hasn't needed any major repairs at that point.

I tried to find some studies or articles that found the average "tipping point" of a vehicle, when the cost to repair begins to outweigh the value, but I didn't find much. I'm guessing it is a tricky thing to figure out since it can wildly vary from car to car. If anyone has any info on this it would be appreciated.

So, what do you do, keep it forever, or sell it young?

I generally keep cars a long time. For the maverick, I plan on keeping it at least 10-15 years unless im in a great spot financially and need to upgrade. I really hate having a car payment & debt.

 

[Bret Maverick]

Keep mine around 15 years, currently have an 05 Ranger Edge with 47K miles on it. Last one was a 91 Chevy Blazer I sold in 06.

 

[Hdang1980]

I typically drive my vehicles until the maintenance/repairs become more and more frequent. I don't have an exact scientific or mathematical way to gauge when enough is enough. Just a gut feeling I suppose.

I've had my 07 camry (135K odo reading) since fall of 2006. Other than a cracked radiator and new rotors a few years ago, she's been good to me the whole way. , I've been working from home since the pandemic last year and wasn't plan on buying anything until the Maverick unexpectedly came into my life. It was love at first sight. I have an arrangement to sell my camry to my buddy's soon to be 16 year old son, who's not in a hurry. Gave him a great deal... $3k including the amp and subwoofer. It'll be just enough to cover the TTL fees for the Maverick.

 

[Connect]

I've had 9 vehicles since I have been driving 27 years, which averages to every 3 years, but as I've gotten older I am keeping them a bit longer and doing as someone mentioned... continuing to make a payment to myself long after paid off.

Current vehicle is going on 8 years (in December) with 167,000 miles so far. The plan is to keep it to 200K miles. So towards the end of next year I will start seriously looking and figuring out what I want and purchase probably shortly after. The other one I kept for longer than average was 7 years old and 180,000 miles on it when it croaked on me

 

[Connect]

Keep mine around 15 years, currently have an 05 Ranger Edge with 47K miles on it. Last one was a 91 Chevy Blazer I sold in 06.

Now that's some low miles.

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