Current Events > How often do you trade in your car?

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I have had three cars so far. The newest one being 5 year old car with 97k miles when I bought it.
I know someone that always buys new and trades it in after three years. Is there something I'm missing here that I should be doing this? It makes no sense to me.

I take care of my cars and they've never had persistent issues despite being over 200k miles on them. So I can't even get behind the idea that the person is getting rid of the car before issues arise.

Trade in? Private sale or bust.

I don't have a set length of time that I follow, but I'm on my 4th car. My 2016 Civic was priced at around $21k last year, so I traded it in for a 2022 Accord. I'll plan on keeping the Accord for at least 10 years. Have no car payments for a while before upgrading again.

depends, since I got my liscense it's been

first car - kept 4 years until the timing belt going destroyed the engine, wouldn't have been economical to fix
second car - 18 months before the automatic gearbox went, again more than the car was worth to do that repair.
third car - kept from new for about 8 years until shortly after i was in an accident in it and costly things started to wrong and frankly i lost confidence in it.
Current car - from new 8 years and counting, I don't intend to trade it in until it's dust tbh.

I usually squeeze minimum 10 years out of each car if not longer. Only someone who is in love with driving new cars and gets bored easily will do what your friend is doing. It's really expensive.

I wonder if buying new every 3 years is better than 3 year leases. Neither makes a lot of sense tho

Run it until it ends, get another one.

And I forgot to comment on what your friend is doing. What he's doing makes sense if he's buying cars that are generally less reliable.

Like if he gets a new Masarati and trades it in after a few years, he's not going to run into some of the long term problems that they have. So he gets the fun of the car, without the problems.

Gainerama posted...

It's really expensive

That's what I assumed, but didn't want to ask him

pogo_rabid posted...

Trade in? Private sale or bust.

Yeah I sold my last two in a private sale. This person always just trades in.

NoxObscuras posted...

What he's doing makes sense if he's buying cars that are generally less reliable.

Nah, they're nice cars

Never, if I can help it. I try not to get a new car if the old one works I know some people that are constantly trading them in, though I cant do that lifestyle, nor would I want to. Plus, thats too much money to waste

I drive a 2010 civic with 170k miles. My plan is to drive it until it explodes.

I pack bond with my car. Can't just go trading in or selling because I'm ready for something new.

I've never traded in a car. My mother gave me her old car (an, at the time, eight years old Honda Civic with about 200k miles on it but in good condition) as a high school graduation present. I loved it to pieces and it got me through college and for a few years after that. It eventually got to the point where it needed about $2000 in repairs and had a KBB of $900. I shared a car with my (now ex-)wife at the time, so I gave it to my cousin who was in desperate need of a vehicle and had the means/skills to fix it himself.

I actually haven't owned a vehicle since then. I imagine that whenever I do get another car, I will drive it until it's literally falling apart like my old one was. I would still drive that thing if it was safe, so I'm not the kind of guy who needs to trade up every few years.

I keep them until they die.

My odometer is sitting at exactly 197,000 right now. My check engine light came on when I pulled into work lol. It's a dumb moisture sensor though so I bought some HEET for the gas tank. All is still good.

My car had 11k miles on it when I bought it 10 years ago. Been paid off for a few years and now is almost at 100,00k.

I wouldnt mind a new car, but no car payments and $800 a year liability is pretty hard to give up.

My 2013 TL is at like 127k on the odometer.

I could get a newer car if I wanted but not having a car note is damn nice.

I always do private sales of my older vehicles. I currently have a 2017 Mazda 6 Grand Touring and a 2021 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon 392. I'll probably sell the Mazda in a few years and get something else, but I'm not in a hurry.

I've only owned 3 cars since I was 16 and the last two were totaled (I wasn't at fault either time).

Though from my experience with my first one, I won't be keeping a car once it's past 20 years old. Had too many things go wrong with it once it got that old (1991 Toyota Hilux)

I would like to update my post #16. It was a small hose that popped off at the EVAP solenoid. I'll put on a small hose clamp at work tomorrow and clear the code.

Would never. One of my old cars was a straight POS, borderline undriveable and I had some guys pick it up from me for $1500. Didnt even have to leave the house.

Used car market still going hard? Cause if so then no I'll obviously sell it. Would only consider trading in through a deal or promotion from a reliable brand like Honda or Toyota.

Topic got me thinking. So I could trade in my 2016 Civic with 41K on it and get around 15-16K. Blue book value is only 17-18 so frankly if they'll offer me 16 I'll take it just to not deal with the literal months of people asking me to discount or drive down to god knows where and get it "checked" by there friend who also recommends a discount to less then 16. MSRP on a brand new 2023 civic is about 26K. Sure there are fees but I got no problems financing 10K for a year to get a brand new vehicle out of it tbh.

I keep cars till it's too much trouble to fix them.