How often do you replace a car?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m always surprised at these people who see keeping a car a long time as a weird badge of honor. I’d love to have it analyzed.

I am the pp with the 21 yr old Honda Civic and a brand new Tesla model S, P100D. I am not a car person. It runs. I’m happy. I love the Tesla though. I love gadgets: the Tesla has “ludicrous mode” (named after the movie Space Balls) - 0 to 60 in 2.3 secs: Faster than any supercar/Lamborghini/etc. - a freak’n family sedan - and does not use gas. Really cool. Paid cash.

The Civic - I had a trash truck back into me in a alley. No big deal another scratch. I forget to lock it sometimes and park on the street in DC. It’s still there one time someone went into my car and organized everything in the glove and storage compartment in neat little piles. It runs and never had a repair bill over $400, what’s not to love....

What’s not to love is I find it soul crushing to commute to work or cart my children in a car that feels like I’m traveling in a piece of junk. Brings me down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m always surprised at these people who see keeping a car a long time as a weird badge of honor. I’d love to have it analyzed.

Insecurity. DMV is full of big egos and moderate incomes. DMV is also full of similarly educated people who chose to go into business and now make 5-10x the income of the first group.


So the first group claims to be "old money" (read no money) who could afford a nice car but "choose" not to. As per some books written by similar big ego/middle income intellectuals.

+1


you hit the nail on the head

Disagree. I think you're overthinking it. There are a lot of us who just don't put a lot of value on having an updated car. There are some who would rather spend money elsewhere, like the house or nice vacations or school tuition. There are some who just treat it like a sport to see how many miles they can get out of a car. There are some who loathe car shopping and the whole experience. There are a lot of reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m always surprised at these people who see keeping a car a long time as a weird badge of honor. I’d love to have it analyzed.

Insecurity. DMV is full of big egos and moderate incomes. DMV is also full of similarly educated people who chose to go into business and now make 5-10x the income of the first group.


So the first group claims to be "old money" (read no money) who could afford a nice car but "choose" not to. As per some books written by similar big ego/middle income intellectuals.

+1


you hit the nail on the head

Disagree. I think you're overthinking it. There are a lot of us who just don't put a lot of value on having an updated car. There are some who would rather spend money elsewhere, like the house or nice vacations or school tuition. There are some who just treat it like a sport to see how many miles they can get out of a car. There are some who loathe car shopping and the whole experience. There are a lot of reasons.

Agreed. I also grew up with immigrant parents/grandparents who drilled into me the importance of using thinga aa long as possible...both for finances and for the planet. My husband didn’t grow up similarly and has been bugging me about buying a new car (it’s 6 years old, Japanese, and has lesss than 100k miles on it). I don’t get it. It still runs, has leather seats and all the “accoutrements”...why get a new car?

[Anonymous]

I have a 11 year old civic with 65k miles - it still drives new and is pristine on the inside.

I’m bored of it but it drives too well to not keep it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m always surprised at these people who see keeping a car a long time as a weird badge of honor. I’d love to have it analyzed.

Insecurity. DMV is full of big egos and moderate incomes. DMV is also full of similarly educated people who chose to go into business and now make 5-10x the income of the first group.


So the first group claims to be "old money" (read no money) who could afford a nice car but "choose" not to. As per some books written by similar big ego/middle income intellectuals.

+1


you hit the nail on the head

Disagree. I think you're overthinking it. There are a lot of us who just don't put a lot of value on having an updated car. There are some who would rather spend money elsewhere, like the house or nice vacations or school tuition. There are some who just treat it like a sport to see how many miles they can get out of a car. There are some who loathe car shopping and the whole experience. There are a lot of reasons.

Agreed. I also grew up with immigrant parents/grandparents who drilled into me the importance of using thinga aa long as possible...both for finances and for the planet. My husband didn’t grow up similarly and has been bugging me about buying a new car (it’s 6 years old, Japanese, and has lesss than 100k miles on it). I don’t get it. It still runs, has leather seats and all the “accoutrements”...why get a new car?

I agree with both of the PPs. I actually like driving an older car and I especially love driving a car with a low perceived status. Just because I have the money to buy a new and expensive car every year doesn't mean I have to...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m always surprised at these people who see keeping a car a long time as a weird badge of honor. I’d love to have it analyzed.

Insecurity. DMV is full of big egos and moderate incomes. DMV is also full of similarly educated people who chose to go into business and now make 5-10x the income of the first group.


So the first group claims to be "old money" (read no money) who could afford a nice car but "choose" not to. As per some books written by similar big ego/middle income intellectuals.

+1


you hit the nail on the head

Disagree. I think you're overthinking it. There are a lot of us who just don't put a lot of value on having an updated car. There are some who would rather spend money elsewhere, like the house or nice vacations or school tuition. There are some who just treat it like a sport to see how many miles they can get out of a car. There are some who loathe car shopping and the whole experience. There are a lot of reasons.

Not really. There are people who have new luxury cars, large houses in prestigious neighborhoods, vacation internationally every year and send their children to brand name privates.

[Anonymous]

We replace our cars every 7-8 years, which I feel is long enough that we're not being frivolous but short enough that the car doesn't start feeling old and junky.

I also find I'm better off buying something nice that I love. I did that two cars ago and kept it happily until 8 years when it started having issues. I made a more fiscally conservative choice and bought a less expensive car that I didn't love as much this go round and at 5 years, I'm already eager to trade it in.

[Anonymous]

I replace my car every 8 years. So that gives me a few years without a car payment in between purchases to save for the next car. Since I am in the car 2 HRS every day I consider it reasonable to want to enjoy the car I am in, and after 8 years I am often ready for something new/different. It's a luxury/want, but worth it to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I replace my car every 8 years. So that gives me a few years without a car payment in between purchases to save for the next car. Since I am in the car 2 HRS every day I consider it reasonable to want to enjoy the car I am in, and after 8 years I am often ready for something new/different. It's a luxury/want, but worth it to me.

I personally think the 6-8 year range is the sweet spot. Not frivolous, but not needlessly frugal. (This is assuming the buyer can afford the car of course.)

[Anonymous]

We just replaced one of our cars after 15 years. Our other car is 10 years old and now I wish we could replace that one as well but we will probably wait a year or so. I love the new features on our new car and do not enjoy the 10 year old car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I replace my car every 8 years. So that gives me a few years without a car payment in between purchases to save for the next car. Since I am in the car 2 HRS every day I consider it reasonable to want to enjoy the car I am in, and after 8 years I am often ready for something new/different. It's a luxury/want, but worth it to me.

I personally think the 6-8 year range is the sweet spot. Not frivolous, but not needlessly frugal. (This is assuming the buyer can afford the car of course.)

+1. I don't want to drive a car that is going to break down and leave me stranded by the road and start needing expensive maintenance. I pay cash for my cars, so it's not a car payment thing. I do find that I will drive a nicer car longer, so between that and the higher resale value, buying the more expensive care isn't as big an additional cost as it might be otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my family its almost a contest to see who can keep a car running the longest. My mom basically had one car my entire childhood (had an 82 corolla) and my dad one for 14 years (89 volvo). My mom still has her "replacement" corolla ( 98) and my dad has an 03 accord..both still running strong. Our household consists of a 00 camry and a 12 pruis. We will replace the camry the second we have to put money in it over normal maintenance. My mom always had this theory that cars should last about how long dogs last.

You sound like you have a low HHI.

Would you like to know what you sound like?

[Anonymous]

The issue is more and more “nice cars” don’t seem all that nice and there are too many cops and too much traffic to really enjoy great cars.

I’d rather have a 15k Civic and 40k Patek Phillipe than 55k bmw and 10 dollar Casio.

Now if you can comfortably buy in thE 200k car range, then it makes sense.

I don’t see much value in the sub 100k range that you can’t find in the nice Toyota/Honda tier

[Anonymous]

I don't see all these 11+ years old cars around here or anywhere... bunch of liars!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see all these 11+ years old cars around here or anywhere... bunch of liars!

11 year old civic pp - you wouldn't have any idea my whip was that old unless you were a hard core car person

It is well maintained and garaged