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I have only bought a used car twice in the last 25 years (hard to find model, both were 1-2 years old at time of purchase).
I prefer model year leftovers, so I tend to buy in fall but post Covid those don't exist much anymore.
The day just arrives, I'll do some looking around/reading reviews and send a few emails to surrounding dealers and if we can ink a deal I'll buy it. I've got one on order now (February production date) but I ordered it last year but that is a once in a lifetime car/trip etc.
When I know a car is time to go:
Big ticket repairs! I have a 93K mile truck right now, 10 years old. I feel that is a sweet spot for unloading it. Bought it new for 18,300, I'd probably ask $8500 so I drove a brand new truck for 10 years/ $1000 a year in depreciation. Its got a coolant "smell" but not leaking anywhere and the rust is starting to catch up to it so I can still get good money for it so its time to go. Brakes/batteries/tires/fluids have been my only repairs, one mass air flow sensor too ($120). New one will likely cost me 27K so I got to find a deal on that before commit to selling the current one.
My "good" cars I keep for years, usually a decade or more. They don't get driven much, maybe a couple thousand miles a year, so I either get tired of them around the 10 year mark and just want something new to try, or they hit around 50-60k miles and I sell while there's still a bit of a premium attached to a comparatively low mileage car.
Our daily drivers and beater cars we keep so long as we're still getting value out of them. My wife's SUV we put in about $6k of repairs over the last 3 years, so I'm looking to keep it for another 3 to get our money out of it then sell. Our Jeep we will sell as we no longer have a use for it after selling our rural property, but for now we need it for the trailer hitch as we have things to tow this spring.
My 98 Integra GSR has been reliable and I have had it a long time and have fixed things that commonly go wrong with them. But it's 25 years old and I'm getting old and fear a breakdown.
My insurance has free towing but I have had 3 nightmare experiences with this, one with this car. I don't want anymore.
I bought a '94 Acura Legend Coupe new, and kept it for 25 years. Only sold it when a truck threw up a rock that cracked the windshield clear across. We were already planning on moving to TX at the time, and decided to get something newer as repairs were becoming more frequent. Found a '07 Honda Accord EX-6 Coupe at a great price and bought it. We've now moved to TX from CA, both of us retired, and found we don't really need two cars. Thinking of trading it the Honda Accord and my wife's Honda CR-V on a Honda Pilot, but am shocked at the prices they're asking. Wife wants something 4WD and I want something that can pull an 18ft boat. I want to take my Grandsons fishing and waterskiing on the nearby lake.
I usually keep a car for many years. I am very good with preventive maintenance and I like to do most of the work myself. I take pride in keeping my car in top shape.
Two years ago I decided to 'upgrade' and traded in my beautiful 'cream puff' 2006 (sporty) car for a 2000. My main motivation was that I decided I wanted to 'get with the times' and have a vehicle that had (just about) all the bells and whistles of the 'newer' technology and safety features. There was certainly a learning curve with all these newfangled things, and some of them I thought were really excessive and unnecessary. But now that I've figured out how to use these new features, I will say that I am happy with most of them, and believe that they are worthwhile. Here are some of these 'newfangled' features:
1 - Adaptive Cruise Control - I discovered this on a rental a few years ago and liked it from the get-go. YES, there could be a downside, but like everything else - if you know how it works and use it properly it is a very useful feature. I use it all the time!
2 - Parking (assist?) - When you park your car and you get within inches of the wall the display will beep and show you a visual of appx. how close you are. Helps prevent you from actually hitting the wall !
3 - Heated seats - Never thought I'd want it. Ya know...on a blistery cold day when you put your fanny down on a cold seat, there's something nice about it warming you up fairly quickly with this feature!
4 - Kick-to-open rear hatch - Without touching the rear hatch, you simply kick your foot underneath the rear bumper quickly, and the hatch will open itself. Same for closing. VERY useful when you come to your vehicle with handful of packages or when you take out stuff using both hands.
5 - Lights and warning in side-view (outside door) mirrors - alerts you to when a vehicle (or oncoming) is getting kinda close. A decent safety feature.
6 - Lane assist warning - let's you know when you're getting too close or over your lane line. Sound beeps and/or steering wheel shakes. Another decent safety feature I use all the time.
7 - Current road speed limit displayed on dash - I really like this one. It detects the current posted speed limit and displays it on your dash. I try to not speed and so this is good for me.
These are just a handful of the new features I have that I am happy with.
+1, on all points!
To that list, I can add two other features on my new car that I really like.
Heated steering wheel: I wasn't sure that I even needed this feature, but on a cold day it allows you to drive w/o gloves, which is much more convenient.
Lumber support that can be adjusted upward and downward, as well as in and out: Most cars (with the possible exception of low-end econoboxes) have lumbar support nowadays, but that support is not necessarily in the right spot for everyone. By experimenting with the placement of that support, I found that elevating it to its maximum height relieved the backache that I always got after 30 minutes or so of driving my old car.
I would like to get something with 4 wheel drive and a bit of ground clearance, just to get out on some of the unimproved dirt roads around here. Nothing hard core. Right now I have my 2003 Saturn Ion that can go on some dirt roads if I am careful.
This thread got me thinking now. I have a 63 Corvette Grand Sport and a 71 Plymouth Hemi Cuda convertible that have been sitting in the garage at my family's estate in Lloyd Harbor for about 30+ years now. I inherited them from my wealthy uncle who passed away many years ago. The corvette has more than 30,000 miles on it, and the plymouth has just under 15,000. But the corvette has a broken headlight that won't turn on, and the plymouth has 2 really old tires in the rear. Neither of them get good gas mileage.
My family wants to sell the property and so I'll have to eventually take the cars out. I was thinking that perhaps I should just sell them, along with my daily driver, and buy one of those 2020 or 21 toyota Priuses which will have more updated technology than those 60s/70s cars. And then I woke up
After watching a video describing the Tesla safety features, I want one. Safety to me is the number one priority, above style, comfort, performance, and driving range. The Tesla has most of that. Waiting for them to come down to $30K or thereabouts.
Yes, Tesla cars are very safe, but you need to separate 'safety' features that prevent you from getting into an accident from those that help you once accident happens. All the 'assist this, assist that..." features are useless after the fact. Probably the safest feature you have in a Tesla is quick response, low COG, driving dynamics, etc. which will help you get out of the way in the first place. A bit of weight in EVs helps too. Even model3 is almost as heavy as a Toyota Highlander and heavier than RAV4, I believe. Doesn't look like it though. Other models are way heavier.
Force equals mass times acceleration in most US states.
Nothing wrong with older cars either, if not taken to an extreme.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,225,683 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NewAmsterdam
This thread got me thinking now. I have a 63 Corvette Grand Sport and a 71 Plymouth Hemi Cuda convertible that have been sitting in the garage at my family's estate in Lloyd Harbor for about 30+ years now. I inherited them from my wealthy uncle who passed away many years ago. The corvette has more than 30,000 miles on it, and the plymouth has just under 15,000. But the corvette has a broken headlight that won't turn on, and the plymouth has 2 really old tires in the rear. Neither of them get good gas mileage.
My family wants to sell the property and so I'll have to eventually take the cars out. I was thinking that perhaps I should just sell them, along with my daily driver, and buy one of those 2020 or 21 toyota Priuses which will have more updated technology than those 60s/70s cars. And then I woke up
I'm glad you woke up. Back in the early 2000s I had a 1972 El Camino SS and had to sell it in the recession. Just about a year ago I bought a 1974 Nova, and have had a lot of fun working on it and driving it since I got it running well and new tires. It had been siting in a garage too, but only for 2-3 years. I don't know how you could manage this long knowing those are sitting there waiting for you.
I think the answer is “it depends on the situation.”
My most recent vehicle is a 2016 RAM 1500 I bought in 2016. While my previous Toyota Tacoma wasn’t giving me any problems, I wanted something that was more comfortable for towing.
So, in that regard, had nothing to do with reliability of the Tacoma or even something like the amount of space. Just wanted something more comfortable. The technology packages on the RAM were also a selling point for me.
Edited to add: GENERALLY I keep my vehicles for a long time, but I kept the Tacoma for only 3 years.
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