There used to be a saying "Buy at 2 sell at 5" when it came to buying a car. (Maybe that still applies, maybe not.)

The reasons I change my car are:-

 

1) I sense big bills incoming for an older vehicle.

2) My wife crashes the car.

3) A highly desirable car becomes available. (Only happened once)

4) I get bored with the car. (Normally requires reason 1 or 3 to prompt me actually changing the vehicle.)

 

I bought by Octavia because of a combination of 1 & 4.

I'm curious to hear how long other people keep their cars, and what prompts them to change.

6 minutes ago, EnterName said:

There used to be a saying "Buy at 2 sell at 5" when it came to buying a car. (Maybe that still applies, maybe not.)

The reasons I change my car are:-

 

1) I sense big bills incoming for an older vehicle.

2) My wife crashes the car.

3) A highly desirable car becomes available. (Only happened once)

4) I get bored with the car. (Normally requires reason 1 or 3 to prompt me actually changing the vehicle.)

 

I bought by Octavia because of a combination of 1 & 4.

I'm curious to hear how long other people keep their cars, and what prompts them to change.

I've changed 3 cars after the wife crashed them and although they were repaired to a high standard it still bothered me when I washed them. She doesn't drive the beast now because I really like it and don't want to risk the same happening again.

14 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

I've changed 3 cars after the wife crashed them and although they were repaired to a high standard it still bothered me when I washed them. She doesn't drive the beast now because I really like it and don't want to risk the same happening again.

My wife wrote off two cars within 12 months.

An earlier Mondeo, which I rather liked, and a Seat Ibiza FR TDi 130PD which went like a rocket and I adored.

As a result, I made her drive a punishment car for about 5 years. This was a 1.2 Skoda Fabia which had no radio and wind-up windows.

It was quite slow, and it forced her to have to think ahead, and not just floor it "To get out of trouble".

The Fabia was actually quite a nice little car to chuck about, but she hated it with a passion. (It was surprisingly bad on fuel economy, and would run the battery flat if left unused for a few days. Always good for a laugh. )

She's now in what she regards as a probationary vehicle, a 1.4TDCi Fiesta, which she actually quite likes.

I'm not sure about letting her drive Billy.

 

Coincidentally, we once had a car we'd ironically named "The Beast". It was a 1.3 Vauxhall Chevette.

 

Edited 21 August, 20205 yr by EnterName

3 hours ago, EnterName said:

I'm curious to hear how long other people keep their cars, and what prompts them to change.

 

 

A pal of mine bought his wife a Lada after she wrecked so many of their vehicles, eventually he resolved the recurring problem by divorce, cars dont crash themselves.

I like to use older cars, from say year 10 of their life and more or less until scrapped.

When I do change pre-scrappage it's reason 3,  where desireable = price in hundreds rather than thousands. 

4 hours ago, EnterName said:

There used to be a saying "Buy at 2 sell at 5" when it came to buying a car. (Maybe that still applies, maybe not.)

The reasons I change my car are:-

 

1) I sense big bills incoming for an older vehicle.

2) My wife crashes the car.

3) A highly desirable car becomes available. (Only happened once)

4) I get bored with the car. (Normally requires reason 1 or 3 to prompt me actually changing the vehicle.)

 

I bought by Octavia because of a combination of 1 & 4.

I'm curious to hear how long other people keep their cars, and what prompts them to change.

 

When wife no. 1 went to work for Ford, we bought new cars (at employee discount) & changed @ 1 to 2 years. In her Motability years, new car every three years & after she passed away I bought almost new used cars for myself. I've owned 2 used Mk.3 V6 Mondeo estates, 1st for 3 years, the 2nd 3.0 litre for 5 3/4 years. ( I really liked that car.....) 

Now I have a new wife, she was running a 2.0 TSi Eos which prompted me to buy a 2nd car for fun, (Octy Mk.2 vRS) which was replaced with a 2012 2.0 TSi Superb, which I still own (& use). 

Madam traded her Eos for a Octy vRS Mk. 2 facelift, (261ps after an AMD remap) & she now owns a Golf R wagon.

(I'm not too worried about her driving skills........)

 

Whilst owning my Superb I've bought (& sold 4 years later) a 4 year old, but low mileage, one owner, etc. Eos & a 15 month old R hatch,

it's been with me for approx. 28 months. I quite like it but I'd like a change, just can't find something suitable. 

 

I'd want it to be a VAG product, but an Audi S3 isn't a real improvement of the Golf, a Leon ST is too cramped for me, never fancied a Mk. 3 vRS,

& the Mk. 8 Golf is just a cheap joke. (IMVHO) 

 

I've even considered an Arteon, a Passat Estate (probably a 272ps R-line edition) or a decent Superb 3, but they're all a tight fit in my garage.

 

We've thought about a quick SUV, but they don't make sense as a Golf replacement  

 

Still, at least we can, & do, enjoy what we have.........

4 hours ago, EnterName said:

My wife wrote off two cars within 12 months.

An earlier Mondeo, which I rather liked, and a Seat Ibiza FR TDi 130PD which went like a rocket and I adored.

As a result, I made her drive a punishment car for about 5 years. This was a 1.2 Skoda Fabia which had no radio and wind-up windows.

It was quite slow, and it forced her to have to think ahead, and not just floor it "To get out of trouble".

The Fabia was actually quite a nice little car to chuck about, but she hated it with a passion. (It was surprisingly bad on fuel economy, and would run the battery flat if left unused for a few days. Always good for a laugh. )

She's now in what she regards as a probationary vehicle, a 1.4TDCi Fiesta, which she actually quite likes.

I'm not sure about letting her drive Billy.

 

Coincidentally, we once had a car we'd ironically named "The Beast". It was a 1.3 Vauxhall Chevette.

 

Passed my test in February 1983 in a Chevette and it was the worse car I have ever driven. Somehow passed first time despite the car making me look like a wally.

Very tempting but I shall resist the bait

11 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Passed my test in February 1983 in a Chevette and it was the worse car I have ever driven. Somehow passed first time despite the car making me look like a wally.

The Chevette was my wife's first car. We saw it up on a dodgy car-dealers pitch for £129, and I knocked him down to £125.

It needed about £60 of welding to pass an MOT, but it ran well and we both really liked it.

The brakes were appallingly bad, with no servo assistance, so every time you braked you mentally crossed your fingers too.

My wife delighted in telling me she could get 80MPH out of it, which was frankly horrifying.

With a dual wishbone front suspension setup, I found it drove really nicely. Rear wheel drive meant a nice gear-change and tail-happy fun in the wet at quite low speeds.

Eventually my wife wrote the car off by drifting over to the wrong side of the road driving back from the vets, while trying to catch a pet rat which had escaped its container.

She hit a centre refuge kerb with her nearside front wheel, and caused enough damage for me to scrap the car.

 

She didn't get a replacement car for some time.

 

Happily, the rat was unharmed.

 

Any men going to own up to writing off vehicles after their idiot years once they became married?

 

All the single girls that I have ever known that dont have a man to moan at and clear up after all their actions never seem to crash their cars, sieze engines through running out of oil or driving without coolant, ignore flat tyres and MIL lamps, only complain about the brakes when the both the pad material and the metal carrier have all worn through and the piston is contacting the disc, or get into debt and come begging for money.

 

Just saying.................

 

The last one is an outright lie though

Edited 21 August, 20205 yr by J.R.

12 minutes ago, EnterName said:

The Chevette was my wife's first car. We saw it up on a dodgy car-dealers pitch for £129, and I knocked him down to £125.

It needed about £60 of welding to pass an MOT, but it ran well and we both really liked it.

The brakes were appallingly bad, with no servo assistance, so every time you braked you mentally crossed your fingers too.

My wife delighted in telling me she could get 80MPH out of it, which was frankly horrifying.

With a dual wishbone front suspension setup, I found it drove really nicely. Rear wheel drive meant a nice gear-change and tail-happy fun in the wet at quite low speeds.

Eventually my wife wrote the car off by drifting over to the wrong side of the road driving back from the vets, while trying to catch a pet rat which had escaped its container.

She hit a centre refuge kerb with her nearside front wheel, and caused enough damage for me to scrap the car.

 

She didn't get a replacement car for some time.

 

Happily, the rat was unharmed.

 

You should write a book titled "She hasn't written this one off ...........yet".

3 hours ago, shyVRS245 said:

Passed my test in February 1983 in a Chevette and it was the worse car I have ever driven. Somehow passed first time despite the car making me look like a wally.

Wow, I passed my test in Mark 1 Viva, one of the best driving-school cars at the time. (4 on the floor, all syncromesh, light steering & lots of glass.) 

Better than Anglias & Triumph Heralds, IMVHO.

I passed my test in 1976 in a Ford Escort - which was changed just two weeks before my test, previous my BSM instructor had a Triumph Toledo which had a much "friendlier" clutch pedal so it took a while to adjust to.

I passed in a 1976 Toyota Corolla in Berlin. I then bought this for DM4000 =£1200

5 hours ago, shyVRS245 said:

You should write a book titled "She hasn't written this one off ...........yet".

She's much better now she's realised she isn't the best driver and drives within her limitations.

No crashes since she's been in less powerful cars.

4 minutes ago, EnterName said:

She's much better now she's realised she isn't the best driver and drives within her limitations.

No crashes since she's been in less powerful cars.

Wife is getting better, 2009 Kia Picanto, 2015 Rapid Spaceback and 2016 my Superb (argument with static multi-storey car park pillar). The car was too big for the parking space apparently.

1 minute ago, shyVRS245 said:

Wife is getting better, 2009 Kia Picanto, 2015 Rapid Spaceback and 2016 my Superb (argument with static multi-storey car park pillar). The car was too big for the parking space apparently.

It is a big car.

 

My first car was a chevette...   1.3L in mushy pea green with a similar green interior!  It then had a black and red stripe put down the side and some big speakers in the side panels at the back with an upgraded headunit.   Not sure I could get 80 out of it though but I do recall it got very floaty on the A38 above about 65mph..

 

I kept it for a couple of years then bought my sister's Nova of her.  That was kept for a couple of years and followed by a Mitsubishi Colt that I had for 8 years before buying my MX-5 that I've had for 22 years now.  The Mitsubishi was bought by my girlfriend (now wife) so stayed with us until it was 13 after which we got a Fabia TDi estate as we needed more space and more economy for my wifes long commute across the Pennines.  The Fabia stayed for 13 years as well as I had it when my second daughter arrived and my wife wanted more space and we got the Octavia 4x4 to help with the commute in winter.  The Fabia was only changed as my father in law got a new car so we had his Civic 2.2 diesel off him.  That only stayed for 4 years though as bits started to fall off it so I got the swift.  We've had the Octavia 13 years now but are thinking of changing it...

 

PS reading that back it looks like 13 years is about right for us and cars...

I remember recently having to pay more for my car insurance to subsidise the fact that men crash and damage cars more than women   . I won't post the countless links to threads on the subject, most backed up by official data. Just saying  

1 hour ago, Lady Elanore said:

I remember recently having to pay more for my car insurance to subsidise the fact that men crash and damage cars more than women   . I won't post the countless links to threads on the subject, most backed up by official data. Just saying  

 

Lots of data/articles on the subject.......  https://www.trafficsafetystore.com/blog/who-causes-accidents/

 

Men

Men get more DUIs, traffic violations and are deemed responsible for a greater portion of car accidents.  But they also drive more miles than women—a lot more. Although a recent study indicates there are over one million more licensed female drivers than licensed male drivers, men drive about 40 percent more miles per year.  Some subject experts hypothesize that men – particular men under 25 – get in more accidents because they’re more prone to aggressive behavior and risk taking.

But let’s look at the numbers:

• Men cause 6.1 million accidents per year and women cause 4.4 million per year (National Highway Safety Administration)
• 105.7 million women and 104.3 million men have drivers licenses (University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute)
• On average, men drive 16,550 miles and women drive 10,142 miles per year ( Federal Highway Administration)

So men account for roughly 1.73^12 miles driven per year, while women drive a combined total of 1.07^12 miles per year.  That means men drive about 30 percent more miles than women. Yet, they’re implicated in slightly less than 30 percent of car accidents. Men do cause more accidents, but they are actually less at-risk than women, by a small margin.   ( per mile)

 

So exactly as I said. Men cause more accidents! Thank you for showing my post was correct. The mileage is not relevant as it is the accident rate I quoted. Also, as is quoted in several studies, women suffer greater injuries when involved in accidents-which as you have shown is mostly caused by men. Several bodies suggest that owing to the different nature of female physical form, that crash safety design does not help them to the same degree as it does men. 

 

And now I have to pay for all these men having accidents. . 

 

Btw I too looked at the overseas figures, but didn't quote them as they are not particularly relevant to my insurance payments. The USA figures and facts do come up first in a search on the subject however (thank you Google  ), so any one looking to see UK figures will have to scroll down the page a little to find them 

Edited 22 August, 20205 yr by Lady Elanore

 Who cares about statistics, that's going to be the last thing on my mind if a car comes hurtling at me on my side of the road. From several recent experiences on my motorcycle and in the car, the idiots who force their way through against oncoming traffic in underpowered cars, risking everybody's lives, are just as likely to be young women as they are to be young men. 

6 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

I remember recently having to pay more for my car insurance to subsidise the fact that men crash and damage cars more than women   . I won't post the countless links to threads on the subject, most backed up by official data. Just saying  

Feminist activists campaigned long and hard for women to be charged the same as men for car insurance, so that's just a case of giving feminist activists what they demanded, not necessarily what women wanted.

 

10 minutes ago, Redboy said:

 Who cares about statistics, that's going to be the last thing on my mind if a car comes hurtling at me on my side of the road. From several recent experiences on my motorcycle and in the car, the idiots who force their way through against oncoming traffic in underpowered cars, risking everybody's lives, are just as likely to be young women as they are to be young men. 

The mother of stupidity is always pregnant, and the offspring can be male or female.

I care about statistics because they can provide me with vastly more data on any given subject than my own personal experience. Not much to do with the topic though.

4 hours ago, lol-lol said:

 

Lots of data/articles on the subject.......  https://www.trafficsafetystore.com/blog/who-causes-accidents/

 

Men

Men get more DUIs, traffic violations and are deemed responsible for a greater portion of car accidents.  But they also drive more miles than women—a lot more. Although a recent study indicates there are over one million more licensed female drivers than licensed male drivers, men drive about 40 percent more miles per year.  Some subject experts hypothesize that men – particular men under 25 – get in more accidents because they’re more prone to aggressive behavior and risk taking.

But let’s look at the numbers:

• Men cause 6.1 million accidents per year and women cause 4.4 million per year (National Highway Safety Administration)
• 105.7 million women and 104.3 million men have drivers licenses (University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute)
• On average, men drive 16,550 miles and women drive 10,142 miles per year ( Federal Highway Administration)

So men account for roughly 1.73^12 miles driven per year, while women drive a combined total of 1.07^12 miles per year.  That means men drive about 30 percent more miles than women. Yet, they’re implicated in slightly less than 30 percent of car accidents. Men do cause more accidents, but they are actually less at-risk than women, by a small margin.   ( per mile)

 

Pro-rata is something a lot of people seem to have trouble with.