How long do you keep your car?

[bjl584]

My dad just bought a new truck. I've lost track of how many different vehicles he has owned in my lifetime. He keeps then a couple years at most. I have to guess that he has perpetual car payments. His life, his money, and he doesn't seem to worry much, so good for him.

My wife and I are total opposite. Our vehicles are older, bought and paid for years ago, and no plans to upgrade.

Do you have any rules as to when you get a new car?
Do you keep it till it starts to become unreliable?
Or do you like to upgrade often just because?

I assume most people who will read this are probably trying to avoid or minimize auto loan debt

[Fishindude77]

We have a 2020 and a 2021, both with about 80,000 miles on them.
Will probably upgrade one or both within the next year or two. Not because of need, or because they are unreliable, just because we want something new.

Will pay cash for the difference when we upgrade, no borrowing. Haven't had a car loan in decades.
If we were borrowing to buy, I'd get them paid for and run the wheels off of them till they were problematic.

[MonkeyMama]

The last couple of cars, we kept for 13 years (purchased used). The only reason I've changed cars is because of circumstance changes. The last round was about saving $$$$$ switching to electric fuel. There was also definitely a big boost in technology/luxury, going from a 2005 basic model to a 2017 with a lot of modern bells and whistles. (Before that, I switched out my sports car to a 4-door sedan, when we had a kid and a child seat to contend with.)

Our only car rule is that we pay cash for cars. I imagine I'd have to keep a car for 30 years to feel that it is 'unreliable'. Have paid cash for and driven some old cars that were just fine.

Exception is my son was handed down a 'newer' car that is a complete piece of junk. He will likely replace the car, simply because it's unreliable and a constant PITA. I get it. Crap happens. But I think our culture is wasteful and mostly overly fearful of used cars and older cars. Even this car with infinite issues, willing to put up with a lot of it because it's a 20yo kid and a free car.

[myrdale]

The 2002 Frontier had 319,000 miles on after 19 years when I traded it in, for a 2021 Tacoma. I now have 140,000 miles on it. I haven't had the first wif of mechanical issues yet *fingers crossed/knocking on wood.

I should imagine you could work out a curve at which point your annual maintenance cost outweigh the annual car payment for some schedule. You could make the argument that a motor or transmission is only $3-5k, but even then every other part of the car is going to have high miles on it.

I think putting effort into the general upkeep and maintenance of a car is going to help you in the long run. Don't dog it out. Treat it gently and assuming no fool runs into you, it should get you well past 250,000.

[ua_guy]

Newer and nicer fairly often, because we can. I've done my time in older vehicles with miles and needs, and I don't need to do that right now.

[Drake3287]

Prior to retirement, we always bought one new car every five years and kept it for 10 years, our other vehicle was replaced when one was paid off and hit the 5 year mark. Basically always had one newer car and one that was between 5 and 10 years old all the time. Worked well for us for many years. Since retirement and driving less, I'm guessing we'll keep each car 12 or 13 years each now. Covid also threw off my every 5 year routine simply because you couldn't find new cars at a decent price.