Until the wheels fall off . . . keeping older cars

Source: Survey: Motorists Plan To Drive Their Cars Into the Ground - Driver's Seat - WSJ

This has been our practice with one exception. We sold a 2001 Echo with 30,000 miles a couple of years ago when we bought our 2010 Prius. Other than some hail damage, there was nothing wrong with the Echo other than our new Prius would need the parking place. Curiously, in just three years, our 2010 Prius has passed 30,000 miles, the same mileage it took nine years with the Echo.

We had a 2003 Prius, same size as our Echo and it remains my primary commuting car. The 2010 Prius has become our cross country and backup car. But I also use it in extreme heat and cold where it has a better air conditioning and heating system.

Bob Wilson

I drive a car until it tries to kill me...

That has worked out to about 200,000 miles and 12 years each.

I go one step farther. I drive it until the wheels fall off, get out, put the wheels back on and drive it some more.

For those of us old enough to know how cars were in the mid-to late 20th century, it is easy to see why people keep cars much longer now. They are massively better in almost every measure I can think of (except cost of course). Once those older cars passed 50,000 miles (with some exceptions, like Volvo), most people saw a massive decrease in reliability. The last couple of cars I have given to my children at about 50,000-80,000 miles, so I really have kept them for my own use for about 5 years, but I expect them to last at least another 5 years beyond that. My 2011 Prius, however, I intend to keep for at least ten years or until some moron destroys it (hopefully not the one behind the wheel).

I feel the same way; I plan on keeping my Prius for as long as I can, but my viewpoint may be a bit different from most. I think some of it is because our cars are taking up more and more of our income, partially because of the higher technology that is being built into them. This is not a bad thing per say, but let me put it another way, a Chevy Volt for example costs just $2,000 less than my house. So people are having to take out longer term loans to buy their cars in the first place. As a former field technician in radio, where I drove, at one time, 1,000 miles a week, I was always upside-down on my car loans. So every time I bought a new car, I had to roll the left over balance of the previous loan into the new loan; I hated it! My wife and I are finally caught up. This loan is only for the Prius, our little truck is paid for, and I no longer drive those insane miles. People are finally learning that all this debt is bad, and they are responding by planning for their longer running cars to outlast the loans used to buy them, in the end I think this is a good trend.

I find that most cars start whispering threats to you a few weeks before they act.

Yes older cars, if over 100k miles and still running good should keep using it until it dies. But if you can afford a new toy,why not?

Nobody forces you to take out a loan for a car. A $500 car that runs may not be pretty, but if that's what you can afford, then OK. A new car is rarely an investment.

But it does raise a good point. When new cars last longer, the used car market gets less new inventory and prices will rise to meet supply problems. There will always be the beater than runs but nobody wants to be seen in, but the cars that are in the sub $10K range will start drying up in the coming decade probably.

I keep my cars until the end of their useful life. Like many, I often refer to it as "whenever the wheels fall off." Nobody, however, wants to be in a car when the wheels fall off, so I sell / donate / junk whenever it becomes obvious that repairing the vehicle is a losing battle.

We had a '98 Accord that I was hoping to take past 300,000 miles. I was in the car when my dad drove it off the lot brand new in '97 and took possession in '08 at 200,000 miles. Unfortunately at 295,000 the car developed a radiator leak (although we could still drive it by topping off the coolant every 20 miles). A month ago we gave it to a family who needed a car and had a mechanic friend, and bought ourselves a used 2011 Prius. We plan on driving the Prius until the end of it's useful life as well.

High-mileage cars (200k +) are perfectly fine if maintained. In fact, I think there is a lot of value in purchasing a car on it's last legs. You can often pick them up for practically nothing, or very little. And if you can drive them for a year or 2 reliably, it's sometimes very cost-effective. I once bought a '79 Cadillac Coupe deVille for a grand (throw away money at that point) that had almost 200,000 miles on the odometer. Despite leaking every kind of fluid imaginable, it was reliable, fun and comfortable.

Anyone have a 200,00k+ prius they'd like to get rid of for super cheap?

I tried that once but my wife threatened 'Bob-icide.'

Not like the days before I met her and had a VW MicroBus that always carried my tools and a box of spare parts, gaskets, and stuff.

Bob Wilson

I almost passed on the 2010 but I had occasion to see it 'up close and personal.' The key technologies were:

• cooled exhaust recirculation - although there is a risk of 'carbon up' the cooler, it means the engine doesn't have to go into fuel enrichment mode at high power.
• exhaust coolant heating - this shortens the engine warm-up so we don't need the coolant tank of the NHW20 nor the HC converter of the NHW11. It also means we won't have to pay as much of a cold-weather fuel tax.

At the time, my NHW11 had over 100,000 miles and is now passing 150,000. It is a fine commuting vehicle but I've towed 1,700 lbs with the 2010. I will probably outlast the NHW11 but the ZVW30 would make a fine coffin. <grins>

Bob Wilson

I did drive used cars for many years. As an on-call emergency tech, employers don’t like you saying; “I’m sorry your station is off the air and bleeding money, but my car broke down and I can’t come right now”. It is also not fun to be caught 500 miles from anywhere in a used car with no warranty, so there were important reasons for going to a new vehicle. I could afford the payments too, but I certainly didn’t have to like it.

i used to feel that way when cars were basically the same year after year. but the change from the gen II to the pip made it impossible to decline and i suppose in another 4-5 years, the same thing will happen. only thing for me is, i only drive 5-6000 miles a year.

When did I start to think my 1989 Toyota Corolla All-trac wagon might need to be replaced? I drove for 175 miles without passing a house, and I decided that a car that was 'drinking age' was not safe for my daughter.

OR-140 E/Warner Hwy to NV-140 - Google Maps

I'm in the same place for a different reason. I used to run cars at least 200k miles, but someplace around my 65th birthday when I had two cars with under 25k miles on them, I realized I would never have another new car if I didn't start replacing them earlier.

This is exactly where my current is at. Just over 200K and 12 years. tranmission is starting to slip so i bought a Prius in May which I expect to keep at least as long. Now that we are a 2 car family again, I expect I'll keep the clunker until it really dies. I expect to get a few more years out of it.

I generally have driven 30000 mpy since the early 90's. Sometimes it's gone as high as 40000+ mpy. I aim for 200K and let the vehicle tell me when it's going to be too expensive to keep it. With the modern vehicles, Toyotas especially, 200K is a very reasonable expectation. And barring unforeseen circumstances there's still value in a 200K TM product.

Currently the '05 is pushing 225,000 and going strong. I think 300K is very very likely. Then I'll be looking for a used Gen 3.

Cars are a huge waste of money whether bought with cash, leased, or financed.

My current two cars I got new, leased. Previously all my cars were bought used.

To be honest I am somewhat opposite this article. I appreciate the longevity of vehicles these days but I also see that resale on used cars has sky-rocketed in the past 2-3 years to outrageous levels; cars are holding value more than they should--more than even their strong reliability should hint at. Even a super-duper vehicle is still going to go through brakes and still run out its warranty eventually.

What I'm saying is when my current leases end if I can lease similar cars at $200/month again I will. A leased car has zero repairs, essentially zero maintenance as well, not just money wise but also time-wise. I've done a lot of work on cars in the past, but I eventually tired of it. I would rather spend an evening building something out of wood than cursing at a frozen bolt underneath the car. New cars are also invariably safer and carry with them safety features that old don't.

Remember also that most people who say they will "drive the car into the ground" don't mean it. Most people get gun shy after a large repair or two on their vehicle and suddenly run off to the dealership in a panic.

my father just bought a new car at 90 years old. claims it's his last one.

Life is uncertain, eat desert first.