How do you decide when it's time to get rid of your vehicle?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I generally drive my vehicles until they die (engine or transmission failure), but the first sign of computer or electrical issues will make me look long and hard at if the vehicle is worth the trouble and I’d be seriously inclined towards “no.”

I do think safety is something people don’t consider enough. There can be a dramatic difference in the ability of a 20 year old car to keep its occupants safe in a car crash vs even a 10 year old car, let alone a new one. So the 20 year old car might be ticking along just fine but I would be looking for a replacement. I still regularly commute, so that may not be as big of a factor for someone who’s vehicle is much more rarely driven.

22

My husband is driving a 2008 Honda Civic and his radio doesn’t work but he refuses to get it fixed because of the expense and knowing it could go at any moment. That’s the only issue he’s had so far.

I’m fully capable of being extravagant, but cars aren’t more than a tool for us. Point A to Point B. And Honda loyalists run in my family. They are the perfect car if you don’t want to think much about your car.

ETA: Sorry, I’m not sure that had to be a direct reply.

23

Or time. Sometime around the 15-17 year mark, stuff starts to fail due to age, as well as use.

Basically there’s a sort of sense you get when keeping an older vehicle starts to be more trouble than it’s worth- when you start having multiple repairs required and the interval starts being much more frequent. It’s not so much an exact financial calculation, as valuing your own time and estimating the value and probability of being inconvenienced is difficult. But it’s something you get a feel for if you’ve had several long-tenure/high mileage vehicles.

24

If it’s worth something to someone else, surely it’s worth even more than that to you, given that you know better than a stranger would how well it’s been maintained?

25

When the cost of repairs needed to pass state inspection exceeds the value of the car, it’s time to at least consider replacing it. However, I don’t hold fast to this rule. I had a Honda Civic that had 305,000 miles on it when I finally gave it up, but at that point the car was 22 years old and the cost of repair was twice the value of the car.

26

When our cars hit 100,000 miles, they are usually 9-10 years old. I think one of the last nine cars we have owned hit 100k in 7.x years.

At 100k miles my wife will want to get rid of them. And o’clock course we do. All have been Japanese brands (Toyota, Honda and Subaru) except one Volvo. Which crapped out at 70k miles. Started losing oil very slowly. Repairs were over $6000, I sold it to a dealer for $6000 (there was a car shortage at the time).

The last three cars we have bought (2018 Subaru Forester, 2025 Honda CRV Hybrid and aforementioned 2015 Volvo XC60) have had more trouble in the combined 16 car-years we’ve owned them than all the nine cars we have previously owned did combined (48 car-years).

From our personal sample it seems like build and/or design quality might have peaked ten years ago.

27

We keep our cars as long as we can.

The first one that went over 100K miles was a 1985 Mazda 626. We gave it to a family member, who got a couple more years out of it.

Our minivan was 10 years old and had about 120K miles on it, when it developed issues with the electrical system - nearly stranding us in Canada (Thank You, CAA / AAA!!). One problem after another, 500 bucks here, 300 there, and I just didn’t trust it any more. There’s a finance columnist whose general advice is “pay cash, buy used, and keep it until your mechanic is on speed dial”. Well, the day I called the shop without needing to look the number up, we knew it was time.

The car we replaced it with, a 2006 CRV, is still in the garage with over 180K miles. I wouldn’t necessarily take it on a long trip - it makes funny noises sometimes - but that’s what rental cars are for!

Our newer car is a 2020 CRV. We bought that when our 1998 CRV (230K miles) needed about 2500 dollars in repairs to pass inspection. We’d previously decided that the next big repair bill would mean it was gone - but when the alternator failed, my son had it towed and authorized the repair before we could stop him.

Anyway, my general thinking is that when you get to the point where you don’t trust it any more, or the repairs start to add up to more (on average - a 1000 bill in one month anod nothing for another 4-5 months would be okay) than a payment on a replacement car.

And of course if the ashtrays get full….. (we don’t smoke, so that has yet to happen,LOL).

The old CRV isn’t driven that much. The new one has broken 45K miles after nearly 5 years - we don’t commute, so we don’t drive much locally, but we’ve been on some long driving trips.

28

When I tell you that my current car is exactly 20 years old you can tell immediately what my position is on this issue. I’ve always kept my cars until the cost and/or inconvenience of repairs became prohibitive, or until they were no longer driveable.

On the matter of repair cost, I do not subscribe to the fallacy that a car shouldn’t be repaired if the repair costs more than the book value of the car. That’s completely irrelevant. What matters is what the car is worth to me. If, other than the needed repair, the car is fully functional, safe, and reliable, then I’ll opt for the repair. What this car has going for it is that’s it’s been exceptionally reliable, in part because it’s always been low-mileage and well maintained.

29

That’s my main criteria.

30

I think this is also a part of it, nothing absolutely wrong with the car, but just more things failing due to the age of all of the components, not just the ones normally replaced on a schedule.

I’m in the rare situation of having just replaced two loved used cars in the last 11 months with brand new ones. And as to be expected it wasn’t JUST age, milage, or condition (though they all applied) but circumstances as well.

My 2002 Subaru Outback sport (147k miles, as I drive less than many) had developed it’s second set of leaking head gaskets at about 142k. I’d replaced them at 90k, but this was going to be about another $3.5k repair, so I figured I’d drive it into the ground. For the record, when we traded it in 11 months ago, it was still running and driving, with a very slow leak of oil that I’d been replacing.

The wife at the time wanted a PHEV/BEV (I had a thread on it), and prices were down from the worst of the Covid highs, so we traded it in. Because when it failed (and it would, sooner or later) it would have cost money to tow it away, the $500 token value we got for it wasn’t much, but it was a help.

I took over my wife’s car (2007 Rav4 6cyl with under 140k) and intended to drive it into the ground, but with the upcoming loss of Federal EV incentives, the wife was pushing to get a new BEV/PHEV before they were totally gone. So we got another new car for me, and are in the process of selling the '07 to a coworker of my wife’s who needs a more dependable vehicle than their beloved 1998 (!) Corvette that he keeps pouring work into. We could have gotten more money from the open market, but my wife likes the guy so as long as he’s willing to pay the $3k Carvana would have offered on a no hassle sale, it’s a minor mitzvah.

TL;DR: Age is a factor, milage is a factor, condition/needed work is a factor, value is a factor, IRL complications both political and otherwise are a factor. It’s better to see all of those as guidelines, not bright line rules (kinda like the board!)

31

The way I see it, the question is “Would the repair cost more than it would cost to buy another car as good as the one you currently have will be once it is repaired?”

32

Exactly why I decided to pour $5k into a 30-year-old Volvo - I would never find anything as comfortable, reliable, safe, and dorky for that kind of dough.

33

This is a good point. I was just thinking of driving to visit my mom, but she’s over 100 miles/2+ hours away and I don’t think I trust my car for such a trip. I’m OK in my county, but heading to the other end of the state is starting to feel risky. I’m probably overreacting, but I’m too old to be standing on the side of the road alone waiting for AAA. So I need to convince one of my sisters to drive Mom to a restaurant halfway between there and here…

Another really good point. On the other hand, with advanced age comes the reality that all the parts are old and many could be close to failure, despite regular maintenance and servicing. And that’s the tightrope I feel like I’m walking now and I walked once before with a van that I sold at 235K miles. Even when you do everything right, there are no guarantees. I’m just lucky that I have options. Once upon a time, I’d have been in real trouble without a car since we’ve never lived in a place with public transportation.

Lots of good things to consider in this thread. And then there’s always the chance someone will total my car - it happened to my husband a few months ago (hence the new Santa Fe.) But in that case, the decision to keep or junk is kinda made for you.

34

To address this question, consider two hypothetical scenarios (based loosely on my experience).

Scenario 1: You buy a vehicle new for $36,000 and drive it for ten years until the mileage reaches 200K. Then sell it for $8,000, ideally before a bunch of major issues happen (like the examples I give above, like a head gasket repair at 207K miles for a Subaru Outback). Ignoring routine maintenance costs (like oil changes and brakes) and not taking inflation into account, your net cost is $36,000 minus $8,000 equals $28,000, or $2,800 per year (for 10 years).

Scenario 2: You buy a vehicle new for $36,000 and drive it for twelve years until the mileage reaches 240K. Two or three major things go wrong between 200K miles and 240K miles, costing a total of $5,000. Then something really expensive goes wrong, like a major engine failure, transmission failure, frame rot, etc. The cost of this repair is prohibitive, and the vehicle is no longer driveable, so the value is just $200 from a junkyard. Again, ignoring routine maintenance costs (like oil changes and brakes) and not taking inflation into account, your net cost is $36,000 plus $5,000 minus $200 equals $40,800, or $3,400 per year (for 12 years).

So in these two examples, with made-up but reasonable figures, your cost of ownership goes up by more than 20% because you held onto the vehicle for too long.

In addition, you are out the full difference in cost between these two scenarios right at the end of ownership. So in this example, you are nearly $13,000 poorer right when it’s time to buy a new vehicle, between all the expensive repairs and loss of sale/trade-in value.

35

Yes, the risk of pouring really serious money into an aging vehicle is the possibility that some other expensive component is just about ready to go soon after. The counter to that is that you don’t know the full history and reliability record of any used car you buy, whereas you know the history of your own vehicle.

Even at 20 years old, I’ll place my bet with my faithful and reliable current vehicle rather than risk anything on the used market, which is probably for sale for a good reason, and not a reason I’d necessarily be happy knowing about. At current prices, a new vehicle is not in the cards for a retired pup on a fixed income.

36

So maybe the Amish around here have the right idea with their horse-drawn buggies… :wink:

It seems to boil down to - you just never know. I could get another 100K miles out of this car as long as I keep doing what I’m doing. Or it could drop its front end in the driveway next week.

Anyway, I’m not worried in that if my car goes up in flames next week, we’ve still got 2 more vehicles. And even if the old pickup self-destructs, we’ve got a 2024 that’s still under warranty. I just want a magical answer for how much longer can I expect my ride to last. FWIW, my car guy thinks 250Kmiles is easily within the realm of possibilities. He wouldn’t lie to me.

37

This is exactly why we held onto that ancient Civic for so long. We knew its history. And we did indeed get bitten by the two-big-repairs scenario. Well, the one big one (700 or so for an alternator). When the emissions test failed, we had our son take our “new” car back with him to college while we car-shopped. Then we donated the old Civic to the high school auto shop training program. It was worth nothing, if we tried selling it, and I didn’t trust the local “Donate Your Car!!!” places.

We’ve owned a total of 3 used cars in our lives. One is a Subaru, that we bought last December for our daughter to drive. It’s had a couple of repairs since then, aside from a reliability problem that turned out to be a recall item. The other two…. were what our parents could afford for us when we were in college. Both were really, really, really bad cars.

Friends of ours spent thousands replacing the engine on their old car. They said “We couldn’t get a reliable used car for that much money”. That bit them in the behind, as I recall the replaced engine failed soon after. Had it not, their investment might have been worth it.

When we got rid of the Civic, the repair needed was MANY times the car’s value - something like 2500 dollars for the repair, and 500 dollars value for the car. And at nearly 22 years old, we knew there were other issues down the line.

It’s amusing that these days, cars going over 100K miles is not unusual at all. Back when I was growing up, VERY few lasted that long.

38

Exactly. To be honest, being an eternal optimist, I generally go with holding on to a vehicle and hoping for the best. If that catastrophic breakdown holds off a little longer than my example figures, the cost difference is not as stark.

But the exercise I’ve presented here is the counter-argument for what I’ve done with my last two vehicles, which is to hold onto vehicles “too long.”

With that said, in a couple of earlier cases, I did successfully sell at the “right” time. For example, I sold a ‘92 BMW 325is I had bought new right as things started to go wrong when it was 12 years old, managing to get $5,000 for it because it was still running even though the A/C had died.

39

Replacing the entire engine, or the transmission, is where I might draw the line. Those are inevitably going to be “rebuilt” components, and how well they’re rebuilt is anyone’s guess. My guess would tend toward “probably not well”.

I’ll make allowances for more minor components. My “new” alternator is rebuilt, and it’s just fine. In fact with the new battery they put in under warranty because the old one had gone completely flat has now given this old heap an unprecedented new level of starting reliability. It can sit for a week or more more, and, bang, it starts instantly!

40

Who is offering you $8000 for a car about which this is true? Why is the car worth $8000 to them, if it is not worth $8000 to you?