My 25 year old RAV4 died on my way to work at the end of May. We’d been together for 18 years and so many road-trips all over the country through multiple relocations. I really loved her and it’s been hard to move on. Her engine went despite diligent oil changes; she only had 213k miles on her but lived in extreme weather conditions outdoors over the years and I’m sure that put more stress on seals and such over time.

I’ve actually just purchased a replacement, a 21 year old Infiniti.

I’m not saying that I wouldn’t buy a shiny new thing if I was flush with cash, but living on a budget as I do, I have a penchant for maintaining what I have and driving every last bit of life out of a vehicle. I haven’t had a car payment or high insurance costs in more than 15 years and that’s very nice. I guess I don’t care as much as some people do about driving something newer and shinier. I keep a AAA membership in case poo occurs on a road-trip.

I’m getting ready to replace my 2015 Chrysler T&C minivan. I’ve poured a ton of money into this thing. Half the engine was replaced, rebuilt the transmission, but the last thing was the radiator cracked so I lost all the coolant and it nearly died on the highway. It’s just not reliable at this point and I’m ready to move on. 110k miles.

Anonymous wrote:Power steering went. It was a very old(15 years) 2000 Honda Accord V6 Coupe with 70,000 miles on it.
Instead of fixing it we donated it. Guy who came to tow it couldn't believe it. It auctioned for $2300.
Loved the car, no regrets

Haha, 15 years is not very old!! Is that a typo 70k miles??? Very surprised

Honda. 20+ years old. Rear ended by someone else. Frame was bent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a Dodge minivan with 196K on it. Bad cats, burns oil, notorious 3.6L ticking. Just running it til it dies. Expecting cam wear/misfiring to commence anytime given the ticking but its not worth fixing imo. Last 2 times had to waiver through emissions. Getting tiresome but no way I'm putting 3000$ in cats on a car worth 3000$, never mind the cam/lifter issues ($1500+), so...here we are

Too bad because it still drives great and is very comfortable.

How do you “waiver through emissions”?

Not the PP but most states have some form of waiver process. In Maryland, you can get a waiver if you're over 70 or have disabled plates and don't drive more than 5000 miles/year.
You can also get a waiver if you have receipts showing you've done $450 of emissions repairs. The waiver is good for two years.

+1 I also think if it’s old enough to have historic plates you can get a waiver.

Anonymous wrote:At what mileage is it considered too risky to be reliable? Mine at 200K now. Last one made it to 300K. I got rid of the one before that at 170K. I’m making long drives at all hours and getting nervous but would love to get a couple more years from it.

We just called it at 150,000 because we drive 400 miles almost every weekend with kids and dogs and needed it to be reliable. The day before we were going to trade it in the windshield washer fluid sprayers stopped working of all the weird things. Last car, same make and model, called it at about the same mileage.

DH has an 18 yr old Chevy Blazer he is still driving. He works on it himself for the most part. If you do your own maintenance and do it well, your car can last a very long time.

My 2004 Accord drives nicely, is the quietest of all 3 vehicles and needs replacement parts here and there but it has not left us stranded yet. Still kicking but boy is it ugly and needs a paint job.

We had a 2005 Odyssey that we donated with 289k miles. It drank oil like a fish and leaked every other fluid except antifreeze and we called it "grey wind".

A 2016 Chevy Equinox that died at 6 years and was a total POS. It stalled, shook, and broke down constantly and once we actually spent money fixing the issues it flipped its chain and gave us the last FU.Never again!

1999 Accord with 345k miles and was an absolute work horse. No problems but it was getting very tired. We donated it.

1996 Dodge Dakota that literally had 300k miles and drove from Texas to Maryland and back twice!!! One day it started overheating and could not seem to solve that issue. Sold.

Anonymous wrote:Still driving my 17 year old Saab 9-3 with 85k miles (and with stick shift) and hope to keep it another 5-10 years…..

Love it! How is its reliability?

Anonymous wrote:It’s not always cut and dry whether to pay more in repairs than the car is worth. If the repair will make the car safe and reliable for some time, that’s generally going to be far cheaper than another used car.

We got rid of car after the 5th 3K repair in less than two years. Each time it was like, well 3k is less than a new car.... 15K into that we decided we were in lemon territory.

Still driving my 17 year old Saab 9-3 with 85k miles (and with stick shift) and hope to keep it another 5-10 years…..

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a Dodge minivan with 196K on it. Bad cats, burns oil, notorious 3.6L ticking. Just running it til it dies. Expecting cam wear/misfiring to commence anytime given the ticking but its not worth fixing imo. Last 2 times had to waiver through emissions. Getting tiresome but no way I'm putting 3000$ in cats on a car worth 3000$, never mind the cam/lifter issues ($1500+), so...here we are

Too bad because it still drives great and is very comfortable.

How do you “waiver through emissions”?

Not the PP but most states have some form of waiver process. In Maryland, you can get a waiver if you're over 70 or have disabled plates and don't drive more than 5000 miles/year.
You can also get a waiver if you have receipts showing you've done $450 of emissions repairs. The waiver is good for two years.

Anonymous wrote:We have a Dodge minivan with 196K on it. Bad cats, burns oil, notorious 3.6L ticking. Just running it til it dies. Expecting cam wear/misfiring to commence anytime given the ticking but its not worth fixing imo. Last 2 times had to waiver through emissions. Getting tiresome but no way I'm putting 3000$ in cats on a car worth 3000$, never mind the cam/lifter issues ($1500+), so...here we are

Too bad because it still drives great and is very comfortable.

How do you “waiver through emissions”?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting rid of a car because it cost too much to fix is different than keeping it until it died.

My in-laws just recently got rid of a Honda they had been driving since the early 90s. I think the issue is that they couldn't find parts for something that old anymore.

This reminds me of how my dad is still driving his car from the 2000s because it has a cassette player in it that plays all of his mix tapes.

Anonymous wrote:Getting rid of a car because it cost too much to fix is different than keeping it until it died.

My in-laws just recently got rid of a Honda they had been driving since the early 90s. I think the issue is that they couldn't find parts for something that old anymore.