How long do you keep cars

[attrapereves]

How long do you keep cars before you trade or sell?

I generally try to keep a car for 80-100K before selling. If I start having constant problems, I will sell sooner than that.

Now that I have two Sonics, I'll probably keep the 5spd for as long as I can (to use for driving around town and to work) and have a newer car for road trips. There's nothing worse than driving a clunker on a trip and having a break down. Been there, done that.

 

[ahtoxa]

Eh, historically I've never kept a car past 3 years. That was financially detrimental. There were a number of beaters I've bought over the years the keep nice cars away from snow. Those cares I sold for more money than I paid for them - ha.

The plan with the Sonic is 4-5 years minimum. I'm 2 years into the ownership now and no plans to get rid of it.

As time goes by, I'll likely drive it less, because I plan to buy a motorcycle next year.

 

[Fempunk]

Till it dies. Lol. My sonic is my third car. First one got totaled when an asshat turned right in front of me, my second one i still have, may was 6 years. Let my mom use it . Still going strong. I think as long as you take good care of them they will last you a good while, and since i take good care they are my babies

 

[SuperFudd]

My '75 Vega came with a 60,000 mile warrantee. I sold it cheap when it reached it, after 4 years.
My '94 rustic green Plymouth Sundance went to 150,000 and 20 years.

 

[5.0]

I try to keep my cars for as long as possible. My previous vehicle was a 2000 dodge Dakota 5.9 R/T which I only had 4 years. I would have liked to have kept it but is was to hard on fuel. I plan on keeping the sonic until it dies. I'm not one of those people that needs a new car every couple years. It's such an waste of money. I'm a backyard mechanic so fixing the car as it gets older isn't a problem for me.

I've owned my corvette for 8 years and have no plans to sell it anytime.

 

[davecerv]

I'll have my Sonic till it dies. I would love to have it for 10 years. I will try my best to make it that long opcorn:
My old 01 civic made it twelve years until I needed a $3,000+ repair...I said nope...then in comes the Sonic

 

[RobbyS]

I plan on keeping mine throughout college and keeping it afterwards. It won't get driven all that much in those 4 years, so the miles will be fine. After that, I will just buy a new car and keep the Sonic in a garage.

 

[Yosemite Sam]

In my 39 years of driving I've had 41 personal and 6 company vehicles. The longest I've had a car was 8 years until it was stolen and the shortest was 3 days. I'll probably be selling or handing down my 2012 by this time next year. A 2015 Sonic is in my future!! And I will be modding it from day 1. :banana:

 

[ss2000slp]

I seem to have the habit of buying a car (or truck), dumping a bunch of money into it to make it faster, then selling it. Not a great financial plan. I think at this point I'm at 18 cars in 12 years. My current truck is the longest I've owned one vehicle (little over 3 years), and I'm trying to sell it now. Sonic's been 2 years now, but no intentions of getting rid of it yet.

 

[Swordsmith]

I keep my cars until they die, or I need something else. I went through a number of crappy used cars that I drove into the ground, to the point where the repair bill would be bigger than the cost of the car.

I bought a new F150, drove it for ten years, traded it in for another new F150, solely because my son was growing and the new one had three more inches of leg room in the back seat. Nothing really wrong with the first one, just needed to upgrade.

I still own that second F150, 10 years of use there and again, nothing really wrong with it and no reason to think I will get rid of it any time soon, particularly since I now put about 90% of my driving miles on my Sonic.

I have no plans to get rid of the Sonic anytime soon, in fact I am still modding it. But when I'm done modding (if ever) I still don't expect to trade it in, after all, I will not only be losing the "drive it off the lot and the value drops" you do with any new car, but I also don't expect to get an extra penny for the thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of modding I've added.

I'm more likely to get a third car; my Fiance currently drives one of my vehicles and I get the other, which means the F150 is getting used to do things other than the "carry large lumber" type jobs that explain why I am hanging on to it. Get a second little DD and we can nearly retire the gas guzzling beast! I am thinking perhaps a Leaf or some other electric, since we would still have two infinite range vehicles...

 

[sonicboost14]

I'm 36 and have owned 49 cars and 13 motorcycles so.........I don't keep cars very long. I also come from the "buy high sell low" school of thought.

 

[ChrisJ]

I'm 36 and have owned 49 cars and 13 motorcycles so.........I don't keep cars very long. I also come from the "buy high sell low" school of thought.

I'm 33 and I've owned 6 cars including the first sonic that got totaled in front of our house and was my first car with less than 170,000 miles on it.

49 cars? What is that, an average of 3 cars a year since you started driving?

EDIT : Actually I'm wrong, my 06 GP I bought with 20,000 on it right before the first Sonic. But my first 3 cars had over 170K on them when I bought them.

 

[mitdr774]

I have had my 98 Z24 since 2006, 96 K1500 since 2008, and even though it is a total and still needs stripped down I drove my 02 Z24 from 2004 till 2011. The 98 Z24 and 96 K1500 were purchased new by my parents. When they upgraded to newer vehicles I purchased the car and truck from them.

 

[ahtoxa]

I'm 33 and I've owned 6 cars including the first sonic that got totaled in front of our house and was my first car with less than 170,000 miles on it.

49 cars? What is that, an average of 3 cars a year since you started driving?

EDIT : Actually I'm wrong, my 06 GP I bought with 20,000 on it right before the first Sonic. But my first 3 cars had over 170K on them when I bought them.

I have two friends that are like this. Each has owned at least 50 cars in like 15 years. They flipped monthly on occasion.

Now, we are talking all used cars. They were quality rides and they hardly lost any money flipping them. Didn't make money, but didn't lose much either.

 

[Evict]

I am horrible at keeping cars around, but this one is definitely a kepper.
Starting at 18 I've owned these:
96 Saturn SL2
99 Monte Carlo
04 Mazda Rx8
07 Pontiac G6
13 Mazdaspeed3
13 Chevy Silverado
Then to my current vehicle, 13 Sonic.
2013 was a bad year for me with vehicles... but all's well that ends well and I'm happy with my sonic.

 

[94383Z71]

I come from a family that keep cars up until ~250k. My truck was my father's for about 210k, then mine for about 50k and we still have it. I imagine most of my personal cars will be that way.

Of course we like to buy/fix/sell cars on the side, so that's a different story. My SO isn;t nearly as comfortable in the same car for a long time, so I'll end up buying and fixing cars for her much more often than myself.

 

[Jcordo93]

Forever!

 

[Dogz]

I'm 36 and have owned 49 cars and 13 motorcycles so.........I don't keep cars very long. I also come from the "buy high sell low" school of thought.

I was exactly like this.
I'm 43 now & have had 53 cars & until my mid 30's, probably about 36, I changed cars quite regularly. Since then, I don't buy cars as often & some cars I just don't sell anymore. My MX5 (Miata) is the car I've owned the longest, bought it in 2000.

 

[Eric Smit]

I'm a drive it until it's dead kind of guy usually.

 

[Swordsmith]

Buying my fiance a 2001 Durango with 227K miles on it. Assuming we get a couple years out of it we will be happy, and in a position to buy a much newer, or even new, car to replace it.