What he/she said. When I was young, I was poor. I couldn’t afford anything that wasn’t high mileage. Now I’m old and financially successful. New, though not expensive, for the last twenty years. I drive a 2013 Toyota Tacoma. Manual transmission. I haven’t had a car payment since around 1999.
Not enough choices. I’ve seldom owned a car with less than 75,000 miles.
My last car I bought brand new. All other cars I have bought second-hand. I do object to paying 20% VAT (sales tax) on new cars. But until very recently a car with 100k miles on the clock would be considered a banger, fit for the scrapheap.
No matter how much money I ever have I will never buy a new car. It just seems like a waste of money, particularly since now you can buy a recent model used car that still has years of warranty left. And modern cars aren’t like the pieces of junk I drove in the 70s and 80s. They very rarely have serious problems with normal luck and care.
I’ve only ever bought one vehicle that had less than 100,000 on the clock at the time of sale. A well-taken-care-of vehicle should last 200,000 miles easily, even up here in Maine, where the weather (and road salt) really takes its toll.
My current car has over 185,000 on the odometer. If I had the time and the desire, I’d drive it cross-country tomorrow without a worry. I fully expect this one to last to 250,000.
I won’t consider automatic shift cars, though. When buying high mileage cars and hoping to get any significant life out of them, I feel the automatics are too much of a gamble in terms of reliability, so I’ve never bought one. I can stomach a potential $700 clutch job a lot easier than a transmission rebuild or replacement that, if needed, would likely cost me more than I paid for the car.
I might’ve misunderstood the poll. I voted for the 3rd option. I assumed it meant “never owned a car that didn’t eventually log > 100K miles”.
In our salad days, we bought used and I maintained them. I learned how to do almost everything including rebuilding an engine. As we’ve grown more wealthy, we only buy new, but always run those past 100K before replacement. Our current fleet only has one vehicle with less than 6 digits on the odometer, because it’s a recent replacement of its predecessor who had well over the 100K. Our oldest Corolla either is, or will soon pass 300K.
I purchase 2-3 year old cars with less than 20,000 miles (32,000 km) on them and then usually drive them over the 100,000 mile mark.
For commuting, I purchase ‘beater cars’ with over 80,000 miles (120,000 km) and drive them about two years; I break the 100,000 mile mark with them, and then sell them for about what I purchased them for (works with some brands only), and I will only do this if the service, brakes and tires are pretty fresh when I purchase them. The goal is to do nothing more than change the oil and wash it during my time with it.
YMMV
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Oddly enough, I used to buy new when I couldn’t really afford it. Now that I can, I fully intend to drive my solid (so far) 11-year old vehicle as long as it will let me.
I expect/hope to get another 5-10 years out of it.
mmm
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My opinion also. I want a vehicle that starts every time and gets me where I’m going. Buy brand new, put 20,000 or so miles on every year, trade in around 120,000, rinse/repeat.
Seldom owned a car with fewer than 100k. Two exceptions: 1990 Nissan Pickup bought new after my 197? MG Midget shit the bed, and 2016 Subaru BRZ which is a long story nobody wants to hear about a saintly wife who caught her ascetic husband staring longingly at a little coupe while they were at the dealership working on buying her a new WRX. Everything else was either a hand me down or something purchased in desperation (cheap, high mileage, last legged) because of the sudden death of it’s similarly unreliable predecessor.
I bought a brand new car once, about 30 years ago when I inherited some money. I haven’t been able to afford a new car, or a car payment since then, so every car I buy has been cheap, and over 100K, Current vehicle, which I just bought has more than 200K on the odometer. I realized some years ago that I will be the end user on any vehicle I own. I have three large dogs, and sometimes a foster, plus the boyfriend’s dog, and often take them places with me. Nobody is going to want to buy my rolling doghouse when I’m done with it.
The flip side is why pay for someone else’s depreciation. Last car I bought was maybe 18 months old, had under 20k miles and was purchased for half its original cost. Still under warranty, etc. Would a year of driving the car around been worth over $12,000? Certainly not to me, but I guess it was to someone. In the 18 months since I’ve purchased it, it hasn’t had any problems except one – the gas door button stopped working a year in, hardly “someone else’s problem” and fixed in a day under warranty.
Not saying anyone is wrong for buying brand new if they want, hey I need to get my 20k cars from somewhere, but there’s good reasons to buy lightly used instead of worrying about new car smell.
I’ve mostly bought new cars and drive them well over 100K mark. My current car I bought at 60K and am well over double that. Not sure how to vote in this poll.
I have only owned two cars in my life. The first was a used car with 55,000 miles when I bought it. The second I bought brand new and have driven that one for almost 15 years now. As I outlined in another thread I am getting rid of that one soon and will try just not owning a car for a while. We will see how it works.
As far as the poll, other than a teenager or someone who just doesn’t have a lot of money but really needs a car, who would want a car with over 100,000 miles? People buy cars like that because they have to, not because they want to (collectors and hobbyists aside).
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I buy used.
A car loses about 40% of its value within 3 years, so you can get a 2015 car with maybe 40k miles for 12k, vs 20k new.
A car that is 7 years old with 100k miles is about 60-80% less than new value. With decent care, you can get another 7 years and another 100k miles out of it.
I personally don’t see the appeal of buying new. Most cars if you take care of them will live to 200k miles and 15-20 years.
My last 3 vehicles were bought new. I drove the '97 Aerostar for 235K miles, then sold it cheap. My '06 Scion xA had about 106K when I sold it to my sister for cheap. My current vehicle is a '12 Sonata that’s creeping up on 150K - I fully intend to get at least another 100K on it. When it starts costing too much to maintain, it will be replaced.
My husband’s last 2 cars were older, low mileage vehicles. He traded in the Porsche because it became painful to spend much time in it. His current ride is a Chevy HHR - '08 - that had under 50K miles when he bought it a few months ago. He should get a long run from it.
We also have a Chevy pickup - '09 - that we bought at a year old with about 13K miles. It may rust away before we hit 100K miles because it’s just used for hauling. Sometimes it goes weeks without moving.
I haven’t owned a car in a long time (one of the advantages of NYC region = good public transportation) but I did 1976-1983 and again 1988-1992. My pattern is (was) to buy cars on their last legs for very little money and then keep them patched together with my shade tree auto mechanic skills. The most I ever paid for a car was $500. ETA: I honestly don’t know what the mileage on them was, odometers used to max out at 99,999 miles so who knows how many times they’d rolled over by the time I got them?
My only issue with buying used is not knowing how well the vehicle was cared for. My cars go in every 5K miles for service - sometimes just an oil change, sometimes they need more - but I have a mechanic I trust and he’s taken good care of my vehicles for the last dozen years or so.
No matter how well-detailed a car is, you can’t tell by looking whether it’s been serviced at recommended intervals or by competent individuals. That’s why I’m more inclined to buy new. If I’m going to drive the vehicle for 10 or more years, it’s worth it for me to start from scratch.
Fair enough, but many mechanics will do a 100+ point inspection on a used car to look for signs of abuse and misuse.