I often wonder whether its better value with today's modern cars, that are becoming harder to work on by ourselves, to change towards the end of warranty or run them into the ground and taking a chance one doesn't get to many expensive repair bills, seeing that some car manufactures are giving quite lengthy warranties the latter may be more appealing.    

It isn't what the car is worth, but what the replacement cost is. We always run SWMBOs car into the ground, or until big bills start appearing. My car is a lease so replaced every three years

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After paying the rent/mortgage the next most expensive purchase is often the car.

 

Keep it as long as you can - until it dies.

 

If something is desirable, it'll end up being expensive. A new car every three years is desirable and therefore more expensive than running a brand new (or better still a nearly new) car for 10+ years.

Edited 7 April, 201412 yr by silver1011

Cars don't suddenly fall apart out of warranty. You can always use man-maths to justify changing your car at three years old but you'll definitely save money by keeping it for six or seven years (assuming normal mileage).

Sensible people just keep them and look after them.

What a lot of us seem to do is fund the largest depreciation drop the car will ever have, then change it so we can go through that again.

^^^

I often wondered why you do that Richard, 

presumably to stop the old wallet getting too heavy

I have an alternative proposition.  

Please send any spare cash to the grr666 Motorcycle fund.

I will make sure it's spent (not at all) wisely for you. 

Boredom mostly.

But I'm starting to change my mind as the 22 year old Skyline is just so much fun.

 

The difference is, I know it's not sensible.

Unlike a lot of people that keep buying new cars and make up reasons why it is to justify spending so much money.

Are cars really more difficult to maintain on a DIY basis than they used to be? I don't recall struggling to set points recently, or trying to get a carb mixture right by guesswork , or crawling around under a car with a grease gun, or adjusting tappets, or having to spray plug leads with wd40 every time it rains, in the last few years.......I reckon modern cars are easier to service at home than ever.

People moan about having to change things like cambelts every few years, but it's not so long ago that a car would have needed a complete engine replacement/recondition about every 100k, and probably a new bodyshell too!

I think holding on to a car makes sense for the private buyer. Back in 02 I bought a mk1fl focus estate 1.8tdci for 9.5k (9 months old) kept it until 09 and sold it for 2.5k. I only changed tyres and wiper blades apart from yearly service although the glow plugs needed looking at when it went. Depreciation over the time was around 1k per annum for a reliable, decent driving, motor. That car was replaced by a mk2 fl focus for 10.5k (9 months old 5000 mls) and I hope to keep it for at least as long as the first.

You can spend your money on correcting niggles on an aging car or spend it on the depreciation of a new car. It's up to you.

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