Comments on: When to replace a car http://www.bluntmoney.com/when-to-replace-a-car/ Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:57:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: Brian http://www.bluntmoney.com/when-to-replace-a-car/#comment-15007 Brian Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:51:44 +0000 http://www.bluntmoney.com/when-to-replace-a-car/#comment-15007 I have been operating a much older vehicle for a long time now and one difficulty with applying a straight cost estimate to the car is that I don't make most repairs on the car - because "needed" is a relative thing, and because of part availability. The dents don't make the car unusable, just less so; the paint is deteriorating but there is no special reason it needs new paint, the A/C doesn't work but that is usually not a problem where I live. So when I am considering a new(er) car, I am also considering that as a way of getting many of these little problems fixed that aren't possible (because of parts) or I haven't felt are worth it on my older one. There also seems to be a lifetime to most car parts; after a while they break, and the older the car, the more likely parts are going to expire on you and simultaneously be hard to find or more expensive. So I have felt in one case that I needed to get rid of a car even though the cost to fix it was less than the car's value because of all the little stuff I wasn't fixing and the trend I saw of increasingly more frequent and more expensive repairs. I have been operating a much older vehicle for a long time now and one difficulty with applying a straight cost estimate to the car is that I don’t make most repairs on the car - because “needed” is a relative thing, and because of part availability. The dents don’t make the car unusable, just less so; the paint is deteriorating but there is no special reason it needs new paint, the A/C doesn’t work but that is usually not a problem where I live. So when I am considering a new(er) car, I am also considering that as a way of getting many of these little problems fixed that aren’t possible (because of parts) or I haven’t felt are worth it on my older one. There also seems to be a lifetime to most car parts; after a while they break, and the older the car, the more likely parts are going to expire on you and simultaneously be hard to find or more expensive. So I have felt in one case that I needed to get rid of a car even though the cost to fix it was less than the car’s value because of all the little stuff I wasn’t fixing and the trend I saw of increasingly more frequent and more expensive repairs.

]]> By: Debbie http://www.bluntmoney.com/when-to-replace-a-car/#comment-14523 Debbie Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:17:15 +0000 http://www.bluntmoney.com/when-to-replace-a-car/#comment-14523 Wow, you're the first person I've heard of to have a philosophy that means having a car longer than I would. We actually have about the same philosophy (when all the required repairs add up to the price of a new car, that's when I get a new car), but my idea of a "new" car costs only $3000 - 5000 (I buy ten-year-old cars). I wonder how long a car lasts before it starts costing $641 per month. (Well, some cars are expensive, but yours must be fairly reliable with fairly reasonably priced parts.) My sixteen-year-old car costs me $150 per month to maintain (gas, insurance, maintenance and repairs). (My last car was only costing me $100 per month until the accident. It lived twenty years.) With your philosophy, you might get into issues with part availability. Wow, you’re the first person I’ve heard of to have a philosophy that means having a car longer than I would. We actually have about the same philosophy (when all the required repairs add up to the price of a new car, that’s when I get a new car), but my idea of a “new” car costs only $3000 - 5000 (I buy ten-year-old cars).

I wonder how long a car lasts before it starts costing $641 per month. (Well, some cars are expensive, but yours must be fairly reliable with fairly reasonably priced parts.) My sixteen-year-old car costs me $150 per month to maintain (gas, insurance, maintenance and repairs). (My last car was only costing me $100 per month until the accident. It lived twenty years.)

With your philosophy, you might get into issues with part availability.

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