When should I buy a new vehicle?

[fruitbowlk]

I got a new one when my Transmission died.

[ua_guy]

Most vehicles after 2010 should be able to go 200,000. mi but all the GM call backs make me question the current thinking.

What exactly makes model year 2010 and newer vehicles more likely to be able to run to 200,000 miles?

What GM recall is indicative that a particular model isn't likely to survive an average service life?

(Let's assume you aren't hanging a 10lb keychain from the ignition key of your Chevy Cobalt)

[Eagle]

When do you guys know when to buy a new vehicle? Do you wait till the current one dies or at what point do you say it's time to upgrade?

I bought a new economy vehicle (Honda Civic '07) on credit before my car (Chevy Prizm '98) died. The reason for this was I was finishing my education and needed a reliable vehicle. The university was 45 min away without traffic. I went there 3-4 times a week. I didn't want to put money into an older vehicle anymore. It has 69k miles on it and I plan on drving it till it dies.

Our 2nd vehicle was a Toyota Sienna and we bought it cash and used. 143k miles on it. Just did a bunch of maintenance on it at the beggining of the year and lat last year. Hope this lasts till 200k. Starting to save for our next van.

[lrodptl]

We average about 10 years per vehicle (150K) and try to unload before the headaches start,not after. Mileage on an automobile is only part of the story as engines are usually the last thing to go. With age comes corrosion and rot and eroding confidence.

[Kabe]

When do you guys know when to buy a new vehicle? Do you wait till the current one dies or at what point do you say it's time to upgrade?

I've bought new and used when I needed and wanted to upgrade. And that's an awful strategy. Unless you're rocking a millionaire income you should (ideally) only buy a new car when you can throw down a stack of hundreds and buy it outright. Things like cars should never damage your income streams, yet nobody teaches this.

If you bought a $10,000 car (yes its hard to save that much) with cash, you'd save thousands in interest over the next 5-8 years.

[James Salmons]

If you like to go by the numbers, the cost data historically is this for the most economical advantage:

• Buy a car that is three years old (Any before that costs too much depreciation)
• Sell/trade your car when it is 8 years old (on average upkeep exceeds cost of trading up)

Of course you can always adjust for personal factors if you drive less than most folks, if you service and maintain your car better than others (be honest), or the opposite.

There are sometimes unusual circumstances. When the government messed up the used car market with the cash for clunkers program one of the unexpected results was the destruction of the good used car market. I needed a car at that time and literally got a new car for only about $3,000 less than a 2-3 year old of the same make.

Most of us bend the rules at times, but on average this is the way the money will work. It is always good to keep that in mind no matter what decision or choice we make.

[dawnwes]

My husband is very knowledgable about cars so that is helpful. If I were single and didn't know much about them, I wouldn't keep them nearly as long.

He can fix them too, but often doesn't have the time. One way we have gotten around this is to have 3 working cars at all times for just 2 drivers. One can be "in the shop" so to speak while he takes his time fixing it.

HOWEVER, we replace them or get rid of them when the repair costs exceed the value.

We recently got rid of our 1996 Saturn station wagon when it was worth less than $1,000 but the replacement parts (not even including labor) were over $1,200.

[TheKayla]

I'm young and haven't had many cars to go through, but my general opinion is using it until it costs more to maintain than its worth to keep it around. It may or may not be until it completely dies. If I feel unsafe in a car, as if I had a good chance of getting stranded because it was beginning to become unreliable, that would be a decision factor for me as well.