running cars to the ground - when a good plan goes bad?

[Anonymous]

Never buy new. Get one that's 3 or more years old. Enough that it's still under warranty but about 30 to 40% cheaper than new. Keep the 10 year old to essential repairs only.

[Anonymous]

OP we also have two cars that are both more than 12 years old. One is starting to cost a lot of money and we are replacing it in the next six months with a new car. The other is a Honda with about 80,000 miles on it. DH is convinced it can last another 5+ years but I’m planning on my head to replace it in another 2-3. I just can’t deal with buying two cars at the same time right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP we also have two cars that are both more than 12 years old. One is starting to cost a lot of money and we are replacing it in the next six months with a new car. The other is a Honda with about 80,000 miles on it. DH is convinced it can last another 5+ years but I’m planning on my head to replace it in another 2-3. I just can’t deal with buying two cars at the same time right now.

That should say more than 10 years. One is 11 and one is 13.

[Anonymous]

OP I am in a similar situation and I don't have good advice. You just never know when a car is going to start costing more money than you want to spend, and you don't want to be in a position where you are forced to buy a new car because the other option is to sink thousands into a new car.

I have a 16 year old car with 180k miles. It's cost me basically nothing to maintain up til now and then a month ago I had two separate issues pop up that were either "fix it" or "buy a new car TODAY" type of things. I spent $2300 and am hoping that will buy me a year or two of no more maintenance so I can be thoughtful about buying a new car. Probably not the best approach and I should have bought the new car a few months ago but hopefully the gamble will pay off and I won't have another $1000+ repair in the next few months.

[Anonymous]

2004 with 190k, 2005 with 95k, and a 2009 with 135k. We set aside about 2000$ per year on repairs. No plan to replace them yet. All 3 are Japanese cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2004 with 190k, 2005 with 95k, and a 2009 with 135k. We set aside about 2000$ per year on repairs. No plan to replace them yet. All 3 are Japanese cars.

$2000 per car or $2000 total?

I am the PP and my car is also 2004 with 180k. I have spent about $250/year up til now, when I spent $2300 last month.

[Anonymous]

I would consider the older car officially run to the ground since you are restricting it to low speeds and local driving - meaning you don't trust it at all. Get rid of that thing!

I would keep driving the other car, but not put more money into it. The next time it dies, it's dead to me.

I don't think your issue is more that you don't know when it's the end of the line, not a problem with running cars as long as possible. I would buy new or almost new replacements (I haven't looked at used cars lately, a few years ago they cost nearly as much as new) and run those until they become unreliable. So what if you have to replace them at the same time again in 10 years? Presumably you saved money during that time and have it in reserves and ready to go!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2004 with 190k, 2005 with 95k, and a 2009 with 135k. We set aside about 2000$ per year on repairs. No plan to replace them yet. All 3 are Japanese cars.

$2000 per car or $2000 total?

I am the PP and my car is also 2004 with 180k. I have spent about $250/year up til now, when I spent $2300 last month.

2000 per total. Some years will be more, some less. I think it evens out.