Trade it or drive it

all the best!

 

Smart choice! We just paid our 2010 off, it has a little over 100k miles, and we'll be driving it as long as possible payment-free. We've already done some of the long-lived wear items (brakes, wheel bearings) and it's got fresh tires on it. Conceivably, it should cost us very, very little to run for a few more years. The older I get, the more frugal I am—I'll be happy to drive this into the ground.

 

I know what you mean. I used to drive a new car every 4-5 years. Pretty much once I have no more car payments, I suddenly think I have money to buy a new car. I stopped doing that a few years ago and just drove my existing car as long as I could stop my itch to buy new. The Prius was the first car I could purchase without any payments because I drove my previous 2 cars seven or so years each and continued saving the monthly payments.

I'm glad the 2016 is so butt ugly. Should be no problem resisting the Gen 4 and move onto the Gen 5 once I have the whole amount saved up.

 

I paid $3,000 cash for my first car; a 1996 Subaru Legacy. Then I paid $6,300 cash for a diesel pickup at auction. After that I financed $17,000 on a used 2006 Acura TSX since the rate was only 2.5%. Finally, I paid $13,000 cash for my 2012 PiP. The Subaru is the only vehicle I no longer own, and that's because it got rear-ended and totaled.

I'm currently paying cash to put my wife through med school.

As the saying goes, the rich live as though they were poor, and the poor live as though they were rich.

 

Sadly, there's a big assumption there, that somewhere in the next 4~6 years there's going to be a big swing-around in the Prius design department. Who knows if that will happen, or even if there'll be a 5th generation. This is the raison d'etre of PriusChat. too.

 

I don't think it's a big assumption that there will be a Prius 5th Gen. I see expansion in the Prius name. There might be a 4th Prius model released in the next few years.

For me personally, the overall shape of the G4 is the same ugly wedged shape as G2 and G3. I've grown used to it. That's not what bothers me. What bothers me are the sharp lines. The star trek insignia headlights and tail lights are especially egregious. I can see the mid-model change for 2018/2019 modified into something else. Bumpers and taillights are what gets changed. The MMC on Prius c and v are huge improvements to my eyes which shocked me when the G4 design followed the Mirai instead of the corporate spindle grill.

 

Just to put in one more opinion in favor of keeping it.

My last car was a 1998 Ford Explorer. I inquired about trading it in back in 2012 with 155000 miles on it. The offer, 750$. I decided to keep it. I just traded it in back in November of 2015 with 200000 miles. It was burning about a gallon(it happened instantly, cracked head) of coolant a day so I decided it was finally going to be time to buy a new car. Trade in amount, 500$.

I kept it for 4 more years with no payments and no problems other than a 125$ alternator and a 100$ water pump. I only lost 33% trade in value, and I saved the 400$ or so a month for 4 years.(and the 9 before that) It was in fact one of the greatest financial decision I ever made to keep that car for 17 years.