How Many Miles Before a Trade-In?

[rickatheslicka]

Interesting thread.

Bookie - your friend makes a really good point. My guy is currently car shopping, and I have been pushing him to get something cheaper and less exciting, but maybe he should get the one that will make him happy, since he is the one who will have to drive it for the next several years...

He drove his previous car into the ground. The odometer stopped working a long time ago, so I can only estimate that he put over 100,000 miles on it. Last week the car died - there is a huge crack in the engine case and oil was spewing everywhere. Now it is completely undriveable and we are stuck with it. We will probably donate it, but I can't help but wonder if we should have traded it in (or sold it ourselves) a few months ago, before it started having all these problems (but then it might have died on somebody else, and that just seems like bad karma).

So when you all say "drive it into the ground," is that what you mean, drive it til it dies? What do you do with it then???