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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]In early 2005 I bought a gently used ‘99 RAV4 with 37k miles on it. I am still driving it 19 years later. In late 2019 I replaced much of the suspension and bought 4 very good new tires, spending around 2k total. She had basically no rust and only around 200k miles at the time so given Toyotas routinely go 300k and I’ve changed oil and maintained her religiously, it seemed a wise decision even though her paint is shot, she’s dented here and there and upholstery has seen better days - no car payment, very low insurance and registration fees etc. goes a long way.

Had I known about the pandemic to come and the bonus federal UI, I would have skipped that work and bought a very inexpensive used car when all the rental companies offloaded the majority of the fleet during lockdown. But alas no crystal ball here!

Given the price of both new and used cars at the moment, I intend to drive this car until the engine seizes and dies. Yes she’s got no frills (electric windows!) and is ugly as sin, but she’s also very unlikely to ever be stolen and I don’t worry about her getting dinged or scratched. She’s reliable like nobody’s business and we have been literally all over this country together (okay not to Hawaii, Alaska or Florida) and somewhere embedded in her upholstery are hairs of nearly all the dogs I ever loved. I’m very fond of her and will be sad when the day comes . . . just the other day I was thinking if I won the lottery I’d get her refurbished like a classic car.

I do really think it’s wise to drive a car until it dies, at least from a financial standpoint- assuming it’s a decent car that you once liked enough to buy. But I recognize that some people really love a new shiny thing every few years or so, and that’s okay for them if they don’t mind the higher costs of operating a new and shiny car. To each their own.[/quote]

But what does it mean when a car dies? You can almost do a Ship of Theseus and replace everything many times over — but at a cost that could have bought a new car or two.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus?wprov=sfti1

For us it’s when reliability is compromised— if we have to worry about breaking down in middle of nowhere it’s done. I work in a sketchy neighborhood so I really don’t want a car that will leave me on the side

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