I drive a '93 Grand Am, and it has been the best car I have ever owned. I bought it used in '95 and it was a former rental car to boot.
Anyway, it’s long been paid for and although I really like some of the newer cars I am seeing, this particular one just has been such a pleasure to drive, that I am reluctant to trade it in. (I also wouldn’t get much for it, I know;) ).
So that leads me to ask y’all: for whatever reason, are you finding it easier to hold on to your ride these days, and if you are, what sort of mechanical stuff are you doing to it to keep it running sweet? I never miss an oil change/tune up, and I use 89 octane gas, and whenever it does act up, I immediately have it attended to. The last time that happened was last year, and it needed an alternator.
Thanks,
Quasi
PS: My Dad always bought Pontiacs, too! He never explained it to me, but he always thought they gave the best performance!
I have a 98 Kia, and it’s done me good. It was paid off a few months ago, and my wife wanted to trade it in for a nicer car. I pointed out to her that we’d be better off keeping it and waitng a year or two to buy a new car. That way, we can put the money we’d been paying towards the car in the bank, drop the full coverage on the insurance, and put that in the bank also. In one year, we’ll have a much larger down payment than the car would be worth as a trade-in, resulting in our having two cars and a much lower payment on the second car.
I don’t do anything special to keep it in good condition. I follow the recommended maintenance proceedures in the owner’s manual (oil change every 5,000 miles, regular gasoline), and take it for service as soon as anything goes wrong. It has just short of 30,000 miles, and I expect it to last another 70,000, ie another 6-8 years, long after our next car is paid for.
I have a 94 Suzuki Swift with something like 105,000 miles on it. I love this car. It gets great gas mileage, it’s easy and small to maneuver (I’ve avoided many wrecks because I could swerve into a smaller space when someone tried to place their car into the same space as mine). I bought it used in 96 with 6900 miles on it.
The only drawback to this car is that it’s small and black with a dark interior, I live in Atlanta and it has no air conditioning. I’m used to it though. Plus, I get that great left arm tan.
Nothing special has been done to keep the car in good shape - the regular maintenance and such, but it’s just a great car. Sometimes I look enviously at new cars, but I’ve decided to spend 2 years in grad school and not having a car payment will be a huge help.
I drive a 1996 Peugeot 306 that I bought in early '99, with 26K kilometers on the clock. After 3 years, it’s only done 77K now - about 13,000 a year. Peanuts.
It gets one servicing per year, in October. That’s when it needs the recertification too (mandatory on all Dutch cars older than 3 years), so I tend to combine it.
The engine’s never failed me, but in the last year I did have to replace a wheel bearing and, one month later, a drive axle. Both front right. Hmmmm.
Oh, and I crashed it once, too.
Seeing that I don’t drive that much, and given its current # of clicks, I intend to drive it for at least another 2 years or so. I’ve recently acquired a motorbike as well, so the usage of my car is going to be even less, if anything.
I’ve got a '97 Aerostar that we bought new and paid off a couple of years ago. I change the oil every 5K miles or so, and I just had the battery replaced, the transmission and differential oil and cooling systems flushed and refilled, and I’m about to take it in for a “Check Engine” light. It’s got 108K miles on it. Since I drive it most of the time, it’s perfectly molded to me. I’m hoping to get at least 5 more years out of it.
My last car I drove for about 102,000 miles, until I needed more cargo capability, and bought a light truck from my dad. That now has about 65,000 miles on it, and I don’t plan to get rid of it any time soon (meaning at least a few more years).
I take pride in having high-mileage vehicles in this day when it seems people put only a couple tens of thousands on them before trading in, for as far as I can determine NO REASON.
If the car still runs fine, just get it repainted if you must. Much cheaper than buying a new one.
Going on 220K miles on a 1985 Dodge Omni and 190K on a 1989 Toyota Corolla; both good, reliable cars.
Hate to take enough money out of the bank to buy a new one, and would hate even worse to take on payments, since I try to stay out of debt. Besides, it’s hard to see how a newer car would be better; newer cars tend to be more complicated (=more equipment to keep in repair), heavier, and get worse mileage. And new cars depreciate like crazy. Currently the Omni’s at the flat part of the depreciation curve. Toiday it’s worth $800; next year it’ll be worth $800.
So my current plan is to drive them until something goes Bang.
Actually, we did buy a newish car last summer: 1995 Miata with 40K.
My first car was a beat up old '85 Grand Am that only had “about two years left” when I bought it and it ran for four years. It still runs, but there’s a problem with the ignition. So I got a '93 Grand Am and it’s got over 113,000 miles and runs like a top, but I just bought a '00 Grand Am just to upgrade (and because my brother sold it to me cheap). I’m on my 3rd Grand Am, and I have nothing to complain about. Never needed anything beyond rgular maintenance.
You people are lame*: '93, '98, '94, '96 (tho extra points because Peugot), '97, '85, '89 and '93. I currently have an '83 which I bought in '00. Previous was a '76 which I bought in '79 (and which I’d probably still have but for the stupidity of of someone else who should NOT have been driving).
My SIL bought her Nissan Sentra new in 1990 and it presently has 1,200,000 km on it. It got a new engine about 40,000 km ago and recently had the original clutch replaced. The car still looks fairly new with barely a speck of rust.
I’ve got an '85 T-bird that I bought 8 years ago. It’s still waiting to get a new clutch but once that happens I intend to keep driving it indefinately. Replacing it with something comparable would cost me a huge amount of money and being that it’s a turbo-coupe it’s a fairly rare model.
Trading a vehicle in every couple of years just doesn’t make good economic sense and if that vehicle is maintained properly it should last a very long time.
94 Saturn SC2 with 56,000 miles…bought new and long since paid for, it is my “second” car that I only use to drive to work M-F.
So far, only had to buy 3 batteries (in first year), new tires, new brakes and just had airconditioner repaired. Grand total of about $600 in repairs in 8 years. Great gas mileage and still looks great inside and out.
Unless I come into some big money to buy that Mercedes two seater (hahahahaha), I will probably use this as my work car until it dies out.
I’m planning to keep my 1990 Camry for quite some time. I got it in 1997 and fortunately, the previous owner had been gentle with it, racking up a mere 108000km. In half the time, I’ve almost doubled the mileage.
I’d like to keep this Camry for another 5 years or so, at which point I’ll seriously consider getting my first new car: a hybrid Prius.
That’s nothing compared to a friend of mine who recently bought a 1985 Ford Tempus from my grand-aunt. This is literally the car driven only by a little old lady on Sundays. She sold it because she was tired of paying the garage fees. This car had a mere 38000km on it (!) and it had been well cared-for. There’s some rust, but I can’t see why this car couldn’t be used for another 5 to 10 years.
I have a 1991 Acura Integra, which will get its 180,000 miles maintenance in the next month or so. Runs great, and I attribute that to the afformentioned regular maintenance.
I love the car because it’s been so reliable, but there’s a part of me that thinks it deserves retirement – it’s certainly not in pristine shape, and fixing it up to be gorgeous would be more than the car is worth. But then I remind myself that I can’t afford a new car at this time, and the feeling goes away.
'88 Mercedes SL here, about 130,000 miles. It doesn’t have a scratch on it and is very tight and rarely in the shop so I’ll probably keep it for another dozen years if I can. A real pleasure to drive too.
I change my oil on time and pamper the car so it’s lasted well. Like you, matters that crop up are addressed immediately. Plus, the darn thing’s paid for and I like not having a payment.
We have 4 cars. Of the 3 regular cars we have, the newest is over 7 years old so we keep our cars for awhile. We have:
A 1983 Toyota Celica that I bought new in March, 1983. I still like driving it as much as I did 19 years ago. It has 132,000 miles on it now and is mostly used for commuting to work and back. It is pretty rusty but it still runs fine. My wife hates it, but she hasn’t driven it in over 5 years. I don’t really understand why she doesn’t want me to drive it.
A 1990 Honda Accord with 143,000 miles on it that we bought new. It also runs well but is starting to rust. This will probably be the first one that we replace.
A 1995 Dodge Grand Caravan with 53,000 miles on it. We bought that one new because we outgrew the Honda for camping. Since we don’t use it for commuting we have kept the miles down, and most of the miles it has have been on the highway. It is in great shape and we plan on keeping it for quite a while longer.
(The newest (most recent purchase) car we have is a 1950 Plymouth, so that doesn’t really fit into this question very well.)
I keep up with the maintenance on our cars but am not super diligent with it. Oil changes vary from 4,000 to 7,000 miles, depending when I can get to them. We haven’t had a car payment in over 4 years now, which is nice.
1965 Ford, 1969 Ford, 1973 Jeep, 1980 Fiat, 1988 Ford. (the rest of the fleet is too new to even consider for this list.)
I just change the oil and fix what needs fixin’. the secret to keeping a car running past 80,000 miles is to not buy a Chevy! The Jeep is the only one on this list that is a constant pain in the ass to keep running. The electrical system is a joke, the timing gear is a weakness and the fuel system has “misc. strangness”. That adds to the adventure of off-roading. (actually it runs great as long as your not driving it! )
I have a 1983 model car, but it’s a Volvo, and they’re famous for lasting a long time. I plan on driving this car until it collapses, although it does have some problems. The paint could look a lot better, it needs new interior tie-rod ends, the electrical system gives me near-constant fits, and . . . I guess that’s it. The things I really love about this car is that it’s a very simple mechanism, so I can get it fixed anywhere, or even work on it myself if I’m feeling brave. It’s also built like a tank, like all Volvos from this period. The body is the size of a small pickup, and the entire vehicle weighs more than 4,000 pounds. It has outstanding trunk space and head room, but only gets about 20 mpg.
One thing this vehicle has taught me is that power windows are just one more thing that can break.
I drive a '93 Mercury Villager and hubby drives a '91 GMC truck. We’ll drive 'em til they fall apart. Frankly we couldn’t make ends meet right now if we had to make payments on a vehicle.
The Jeep is the only one on this list that is a constant pain in the ass to keep running. The electrical system is a joke, the timing gear is a weakness and the fuel system has “misc. strangness”. That adds to the adventure of off-roading. (actually it runs great as long as your not driving it!