After how many years of ownership did you upgrade your car?

[Anonymous]

and how much money ( as a percentage of original value ) did you get for the old car? Thanx

[Anonymous]

Look up Blue Book values - it's pretty straightforward. If you trade in, they will sometimes offer more than value, I believe it's a write off. We keep cars 8-10 years.

[Anonymous]

I just came to the realization that I'm a "lifetime" buyer. My second car is going on 12 years (honda civic), I had my first for 10 (used volvo sedan). I don't see any need to trade it in, it runs great, maintenance is still affordable and there's obviusly no payment. Our second car is a SUV we bought 5 years ago, we paid off the loan in 2 years and will probably keep it until it dies.

Dont see any need to trade in a perfectly good car, not get much for it, only to start over with new payments.

[Anonymous]

Last two cars we traded in were 13 and 11 yo. Got 1500 bucks for each.

[Anonymous]

Got my first car in 1998, donated it to a charity in 2006 when it needed more in repairs than it was worth.

Replaced the 2006 a few months ago because we needed something a little bigger to accommodate a new baby and our dog. We were hoping for $10k on trade in, they offered $8k and we got them up to $9k. probably could have got more on a private sale but we didn't want to deal with the hassle.

If we hadn't been able to just buy the new car, we probably would have made due rather than take on payments again.

[Anonymous]

Duh, forgot to say the first car was used, so probably 9 or 10 years old when we donated it.

The $9k we got on the trade in was about 35% of original value.

[Anonymous]

I traded in a six year old Civic to get my current car. I got $5,000 for it (with 150,000 miles on it). I originally paid $16,000 for it. Considering the high mileage, I was very pleased with the trade in value.

Now I only put about 10,000 miles per year on my car and hope to keep it 10 years or so. At that age, I don't expect much for a trade-in at all.

[Anonymous]

We replaced a 7 yo car and got $4000. Look up NADA values. The dealers always try to give you a low price. They originally offered me $2000. And I saw my model year car reselling at dealers for $7000 so they still were making a profit.

[Anonymous]

I traded in an 11-year-old Grand Cherokee for $2500 a few months ago, but it wasn't even in fair condition.

[Anonymous]

I'm hoping to get 300,000 miles from my car. Currently has about 140,000. By then, it'll be worth basically nothing.

[Anonymous]

My first died after ten years, and we had to replace the alternator ourselves to get $500. We went to one car, my husband's civic. We were planning to keep it forever but three weeks after the kid was born, we traded it for a highlander. We got $10k, and it was about 7 years old. I hope to have the highlander for a total of 15 years and it should be in pretty bad shape by then as it is a roughed up city car.

[Anonymous]

I've only had 2 cars in my entire time driving and I turn 35 next month. My first car was 9 years old when it started to die on me - I think I got $1K on it when I bought my current car in 2002. My current car is still going strong - I don't drive a lot, so it only has 70K on it. I expect to keep it until the wheels fall off. I wish we didn't have a car payment at all, but my husband drives a LOT and decided to sell his previous car last year and buy a car off our neighbors who were moving out of the country. Honestly, I may just buy a used Corolla next time around for $5K - I just don't drive enough to justify paying $20K for my next car.

[Anonymous]

We maintain the car as long as possible then donate it. Our second car is a '97 Subaru Impreza. Works fine for short trips where parking is tight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just came to the realization that I'm a "lifetime" buyer. My second car is going on 12 years (honda civic), I had my first for 10 (used volvo sedan). I don't see any need to trade it in, it runs great, maintenance is still affordable and there's obviusly no payment. Our second car is a SUV we bought 5 years ago, we paid off the loan in 2 years and will probably keep it until it dies.

Dont see any need to trade in a perfectly good car, not get much for it, only to start over with new payments.

We are the same. We buy cars and don't get rid of them until they are at least 15 years old - well so far the only 2 cars we replaced were 15 year old cars which we sold for a very low price to someone who needed a car that was cheap and ran well (we had a honda and a toyota and despite their respective ages, they were in tip top shape). We only replaced them because we had kids and the safety features on the old civic and tercel were not wonderful as those cars were both from the early '90s. We expect to keep our current cars long enough to give them to our kids when they learn how to drive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just came to the realization that I'm a "lifetime" buyer. My second car is going on 12 years (honda civic), I had my first for 10 (used volvo sedan). I don't see any need to trade it in, it runs great, maintenance is still affordable and there's obviusly no payment. Our second car is a SUV we bought 5 years ago, we paid off the loan in 2 years and will probably keep it until it dies.

Dont see any need to trade in a perfectly good car, not get much for it, only to start over with new payments.

Same here. I'm driving my 1996 Geo Prizm - still! - and it's just fine for me. I bought it before marrying and having children.

When I do replace it, I'll buy whatever kind of car we need, whether or not that means an "upgrade." Fancy cars are a colossal waste of money IMO.