When do you decide it's time to upgrade your vehicle?

My pickup that I bought new in 98 is still in great shape and would trust it to drive across the country, but alot of friends and coworkers are saying I should get a newer one just because mine is old,that got me wondering what people do to decide when it’s time to upgrade.

Before 2008 I would get a car every 3–4 years and never drive it over 50k miles.
After the recession hit I said “screw that!” I bought my current car with cash and will drive it until the wheels fall off or I have saved the cash to buy another car and only if maintenance starts to become more frequent. I won’t drive a car that’s unsafe or is breaking down often.

First I should admit that I have more than one car.. If one car isn’t working for any reason I can use another. Given that scenario…..

I like to keep a car as long as possible. I will buy one new and keep it until it falls apart. In the past 15 years every car I’ve owned has lasted more than 150,000 miles. Like cell phones, my cars get passed down to my kids. That is where cars go to die – sadly due to accidents.
I see no reason to replace a car until something catastrophic happens and it cannot be fixed at a reasonable cost.
I live in cold, wintry Western NY with roads covered in salt and sand. We don’t drive cars so they can be status symbols. They are for transportation. Driving a hot, new car is almost as dumb as wearing 4 inch heels in a snowstorm.
Keep your truck and enjoy life with the money you are saving.

@LuckyGuy Thanks I agree.

When the one I’m driving dies and the price to fix it will cost just as much as another used car.

Embrace the fact that you are so confident about your manhood (if you are male) that you don’t need a new truck as a prop. If you are female, think you are so hot you don’t need heels to turn heads.
Your confidence is all you need.

Every time I wreck it. :)~

I used to upgrade only very infrequently. I luxuriated in no car payments. My husband, on the other hand, seems to want a different vehicle every couple of years. :(

I keep my cars until they need major repairs. Usually >8 years, if I do regular scheduled maintenance.

At 50K miles we would trade them in but now I don’t think so. Too extravagant.

When the mechanic tells me it needs in excess of $300 worth of “preventative maintenance” which is another way of saying, “it’s time to trade it in on something new.” Next month, it will be $200 in “preventative maintenance” on something else, then the next month more of the same. That’s why I’m in the market for something new – I got the “it just so happens, this regular preventative maintenance cost of $550 is on special this month for $366” song, so I knew it was time to trade. What’s amazing is, no one wants to make a deal right now, so the automotive industry must be in damn good shape.

I don’t have a vehicle and don’t anticipate ever owning one again.

Unlike @LuckyGuy, I only keep one vehicle at a time. So reliability is paramount for me. When a car becomes unreliable, then it’s time to change out. Of course I try to maintain what I have, but when I’ve fixed one thing and the next thing pops up immediately, or when my mechanic won’t trust himself to predict what I might have to work on next, then it’s time to start thinking along those lines. And when I can’t trust the car to take me on a long trip without extraordinary precautions and preparations, then it’s not the car for me any longer.

That’s where I am now, as a matter of fact.

Over Thanksgiving every year I drive from Connecticut to Wisconsin to visit my sister and her family, and my daughter drives up from Madison for a few days to visit as well. On the recent return drive I experienced a series of weird electronic “issues” (the car ran fine, but indicator lights seemed to show problems – which upon later investigation were not proven to even exist) from Chicago onward. Driving 900 miles while thinking the car may break down at any moment, and having to stop every hundred miles or so to check the oil, temperature and fluids, is the very antithesis of “reliable”. (My trusted mechanic went over the car carefully the day after I returned and reported “no problems”. There was one error code in the computer which was not a major problem; they cleared that and I’ve had no apparent problems with the engine since then.)

In addition to that, there’s some leakage of water into the passenger cabin, however slight. I’ll come outside to the car after a cold night sometimes and find the doors frozen shut, and sometimes in the evening there’s a film of frost on the inside of the windshield. Water leaks and electrical problems can be hugely expensive (because they’re so time-consuming) to discover and repair, so this is the kind of unreliability that bothers me.

But I’ve gotten a good run out of this car, with around 100,000 miles (though that’s nowhere near what I expected it to last for), so I’ll find my next vehicle soon and move on.

@CWOTUS The problem you described sounds like a heater core issue ,might want to have that checked as well with water getting inside the passenger compartment.

Thanks. I’ll have that looked at. It would be nice to get some more reliable years out of this car.

When I grow bored of it, a car to me has to have a personality, as soon as that feeling wanes then our “relationship” is as good as over.

Until it needs repairs that aren’t worth doing.

@CWOTUS Wait. You drive to Wisconsin and use your own car?! You’re over 25, right? ;-)
I’m and engineer so you know I ran the numbers.
When you include the wear and tear on your car, oil, tires, brakes, and fuel economy, it is worth renting a car from Enterprise at their weekly rate – unlimited mileage when you need to drive more than 600 miles in a week. I skip all the extra insurance. You probably have that covered with some alphabet soup card in your wallet: . AMEX, AARP, AAA, etc.
Keep your old car for an extra year and smile when yo think how much you have saved. Heck, you don’t even have to get your old car inspected in your state!
Use your own car for low mileage, every day use and rent when you need to travel lots of miles. You will come out way ahead.
Break out the calculator.

I faced this dilemma 3 weeks ago…my accountant said spend some money and oddly my 6 year old SUV was showing signs of serious wear and tear. 6 test dries later I chose a Ford Taurus SHO and it is an insanely fun car to drive!

@LuckyGuy if it were just about saving money, I’d actually come out ahead if I just flew to Wisconsin instead of driving. But I drive so that Willow can travel with me (comfortably and safely), and I’d probably prefer to take my car anyway just because I’m familiar with it… and because the entertainment system is connected direct to my iPod, so I have my own tunes for the whole ride, too.

It’s a good idea, though.

I have never owned a car newer than 1994, and all but one had 145k or more miles (the exception had only 96k). I tend to drive them until they can’t drive any more; cracked block, totaled in an accident, or otherwise rendered permanently inoperative.

My current ride is an ‘86 Corolla that’s just broken in at 192k.

I don’t drive but my partner does, and we replace our car when the cost of repairs and maintenance outweighs it’s value. Our previous one (a Hyundai) was a poor choice, that lasted only five years. Our current car (a Nissan) is now coming up to five years old and still going strong.

@jerv You’re my hero. I do the same but I use GM iron. My problem is that I feel I can fix anything so it is very difficult for me to “put a bullet in it” and move on. Even for something as serious as a cracked block I start thinking I can get a GM engine relatively cheap. It is almost a sport. I have learned to pass cars along to my sons. When they are through with them the cars are only good for scrap.

@CWOTUS You can rent anything and most cars 2013 and above have connections for your system but I don’t bother. Most come with XM so you can listen to hundreds of channels. I consider a car rental like a long test drive. It is a learning experience. What did I like and dislike about it? Did it get the mileage predicted? How was performance?

When it becomes cheaper to buy a new car than to repair whatever has died on the current one!