[quote=Anonymous]It's great to keep a vehicle for years and years after it's paid off. But does that make you happy? I hate payments but it's also a great feeling driving something that's reliable and having all the buttons on the dash work as they should.[/quote]
Meh, money in the bank or put to other uses makes me happier, but I see your perspective. It’s not a good feeling to wonder what could go wrong next.

It's great to keep a vehicle for years and years after it's paid off. But does that make you happy? I hate payments but it's also a great feeling driving something that's reliable and having all the buttons on the dash work as they should.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our car is 18 years old. Small repairs. It’s worth about $4K. Transmission will need replacing. When that goes, this car will go also. Until then, it keeps chugging along. It’s been paid off 15 years ago. We’ve done repairs under $800 so far. It keeps surprising us. We are hoping for 1 more year till 2025.

$800 in repairs over 18 years? That is super low. How many miles? Which make and model?

I wasn't thinking they meant $800 total, but maybe? I would also like to know make and model and how many miles it has. Guessing the mileage is fairly low if it's still worth $4K.

DP. My 2010 Honda Fit is, allegedly, worth about $4,000 (according to Carvana), with about 80,000 miles on it. So far it's mostly just needed to have the battery replaced every five years.

Very low mileage for the age!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our car is 18 years old. Small repairs. It’s worth about $4K. Transmission will need replacing. When that goes, this car will go also. Until then, it keeps chugging along. It’s been paid off 15 years ago. We’ve done repairs under $800 so far. It keeps surprising us. We are hoping for 1 more year till 2025.

$800 in repairs over 18 years? That is super low. How many miles? Which make and model?

I wasn't thinking they meant $800 total, but maybe? I would also like to know make and model and how many miles it has. Guessing the mileage is fairly low if it's still worth $4K.

DP. My 2010 Honda Fit is, allegedly, worth about $4,000 (according to Carvana), with about 80,000 miles on it. So far it's mostly just needed to have the battery replaced every five years.

After 10 years, we replace a car if it needs to be repaired often, consuming a lot of oil, electronics malfunctioning or has an issue that makes the car risky to drive like frequent stalling.

Anonymous wrote:We keep ours until they need a major repair which is too expensive. Usually we get 20 years out of a car.

Impressive. Which cars have you bought?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our car is 18 years old. Small repairs. It’s worth about $4K. Transmission will need replacing. When that goes, this car will go also. Until then, it keeps chugging along. It’s been paid off 15 years ago. We’ve done repairs under $800 so far. It keeps surprising us. We are hoping for 1 more year till 2025.

$800 in repairs over 18 years? That is super low. How many miles? Which make and model?

I wasn't thinking they meant $800 total, but maybe? I would also like to know make and model and how many miles it has. Guessing the mileage is fairly low if it's still worth $4K.

Anonymous wrote:Our car is 18 years old. Small repairs. It’s worth about $4K. Transmission will need replacing. When that goes, this car will go also. Until then, it keeps chugging along. It’s been paid off 15 years ago. We’ve done repairs under $800 so far. It keeps surprising us. We are hoping for 1 more year till 2025.

$800 in repairs over 18 years? That is super low. How many miles? Which make and model?

We drive our cars into the ground. When our trusted mechanic says it's time to stop putting money into the car, we stop.

Our car is 18 years old. Small repairs. It’s worth about $4K. Transmission will need replacing. When that goes, this car will go also. Until then, it keeps chugging along. It’s been paid off 15 years ago. We’ve done repairs under $800 so far. It keeps surprising us. We are hoping for 1 more year till 2025.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say all of the new safety features are a huge improvement and can be worth the price especially if you have teen or elderly drivers with slow reaction time. There is also the comfort issues. Old, dirty, worn seats are not great to be stuck with.

"Old, dirty, worn seats are not great to be stuck with."

We have two old cars neither one have dirty and worn seats in fact they look new. Not sure why your seats are so dirty and nasty. Perhaps you should invest in some seat covers that can be removed and washed.

You are SO much better than that PP.

I kept my last car for 15 years and my current vehicle is going on 9 years. As much as I don't like car payments and like to drive my cars into the ground, I say replace your vehicles when you no longer enjoy driving them and when you can no longer trust them to drive long distances like cross country if the need arose.

You all are making me feel guilty about trading in my 15 year-old vehicle. It did have nearly 300,000 miles on it, though, so there is that. I really wanted to reach that 300K mark before trading

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is very rare that EVs need a battery replacement— the idea that it will happen to every EV at the 10 year mark or whatever is FUD

Ok, you win. Not EVERY ev will require a new battery at the 10 year mark.

This has been the experience with Nissan LEAFs unfortunately. But they have poor battery tech and no heat pumps to handle the temp changes. Small batteries that eventually dropped from 100 miles a day of use down to 40ish after 10 years. So, most had to retire them rather than get new batteries.

Newer lithium ion and iron phosphate batters have better conditioning systems so seem to last longer. Even with reduced capacity dropping from 200 miles to 100 still makes them useful as commuter cars. Instead of changing the whole battery you can change out the individual packs. Still costly at $1500 a pack, but better than replacing the whole battery. This business has not taken off though. For one it voids the manufacturer warranty. But more interestingly is that because batteries are more reliable there are very few that have been able to taken out of old cars for reuse.

We keep ours until they need a major repair which is too expensive. Usually we get 20 years out of a car.