At what point do you decide that a car isn't worth maintaining, that you've figuratively driven the wheels off of it and it is time to move on?

Let's say you bought a $40,000 car and drove it over the past 10 years and put 100,000 miles on it. You've taken care of it along the way, but it's only worth $5,000 now.

Then let's say a $2500 repair comes along that makes the car undriveable and that regular maintenance wouldn't have prevented.

Would you repair it?

I've seen arguments for both repairing and not repairing the car. Where do you sit?

To me it really depends on if I have straight up cash to get a suitable vehicle to replace it, I don't finance anything anymore...

Depends on my financial status.

$2500 in one-time repairs is still better than $600/month for 60 months for a new car.

OTOH, if I'm in a position to afford a new car with the attending warranty, I'm all for avoiding the hassle of repairs. Especially when there are likely more on the horizon.

^
Yes, but how long until the next big repair comes along?

Also reliability is an issue. Is this a vehicle you need to get to work? Are you screwed when it doesn't work?

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Depends on my financial status.

$2500 in one-time repairs is still better than $600/month for 60 months for a new car.

OTOH, if I'm in a position to afford a new car with the attending warranty, I'm all for avoiding the hassle of repairs. Especially when there are likely more on the horizon.

This is where I'm at logically. It also depends on the situation. If for example everything else mechanically looks like it is fine, then perhaps I'd spend $2500 on it...Like a ford powerstroke truck with 130k miles and just the tranny goes bad, but everything else is solid I'd fix it.......but if it looks like the first shoe to drop out of many. I'd get rid of it and buy new......I'm at that point now.......I have a 2008 expedition with 93k miles, had it since new, maintained it, and no issues.... but probably going to get a 2018 because I'm simply tired of it.....I can afford a new one and the 2018 is new body style so wth.

Is it rare, special or likely to become so in the future?

What is the scrap value?

Consider donating for a tax write-off also. Here's the logic on that. You receive a tax break (assuming you need one) for the retail value of the vehicle. The receiving charity get's it for next to nothing, puts $2500 into it (or quite possibly can do it for less), and then has a $5000 vehicle to sell or use. Not all charities will accept the vehicle in this condition, but some will.

I was in a similar situation about 2 years ago. I bought a truck that was going to be a relatively easy flip from a couple who couldn't manage the manual transmission. It had some easy repairs needed that they were qualified or prepared to do. Shortly later I was in the middle of a major vehicle swap (sold 3, to buy 2 new ones), and needed to use the truck to shuttle one of the sold trucks to Fairbanks (550 miles North of us). It was moose season, so I threw my wheeler in the back and made a hunting trip out of it also. While in the middle of nowhere on the hunting trip the hydraulic clutch went out. It somehow developed a hole in the throw-out cylinder boot/actuator, and dumped all the fluid. I was stuck without a clutch. I managed to get it started down a hill in first, and power shift back to town, but now I was stuck 550 miles away from my garage and tools.

Since we were buying a new vehicle anyway, we just found one at the local dealership. That actually worked out well. But then what to do with the truck. I already had a buyer down south, but paying someone to make that repair would have eliminated not just the profit but would have meant a considerable loss.

Instead, I found a member of the local church I was supporting who needed a vehicle desperately. He was a retired heavy diesel mechanic, and he worked on vehicles when he was able (physically). He gave a lot to the community, but lived on a very tight fixed income. I sold him the truck for $500 (which he paid over time, with my prior permission). About 6 months later he had it up and running, and it's his daily driver now. He now has reliable transportation, and it's greatly improved his quality of life.

I didn't utilize any charity, it wouldn't have helped my tax burden any that year.

When it seems like there's no financial win situation for you in these old vehicles, look for a situation where you can bless someone else. That's my advice.

If it's not nickel and diming me otherwise , sure I'll fix it . Every month without a car note is money in the bank .

Well, we're a drive it forever or at least a long time family. First car, which my wife owned when we got married, we drove for 15 years, second for 19, third is 15 and still going strong. Regular maintenance, occasional big repair like a transmission, but overall, we drive em as long as confident they can drive cross country and we still like the vehicle. Remember YMMV.

Depends on the vehicle for me.
I had a 2000 Acura TL with about 250k on it. Was a nickle & dime here & there on minor DIY repairs. Tossed it when we bought our Flex, due to us needing something bigger with 2 kids & my wife's business.
Moved into my wife's 2004 Civic, car was fine for a commuter, nothing special & the only major repair was the engine jumped timing & needed a water pump (2 repairs). Gave it to my sister when we bought my truck.

In both cases, the cars weren't really worth much. About $1k trade-in on the Acura & on a good day $2-2.5k on the Civic.

Would've kept driving the Civic if we hadn't needed something bigger than our Flex for our business.

I used to figure that it was time to replace a paid-off car when the monthly repair bills (averaged) exceeded a monthly payment on a new car. Now, being on fixed income, I'll be setting aside the same monthly payment amount towards a down-payment once the Cruze is paid off next year, and trade when I have enough put aside. ACV of the Cruze will figure into the downpayment, of course.

I'm praying the car will hold together during that time and I don't have to spend much on repairs.

I'm more of a fix it than buy new person.

As an example..my current truck is a 1986 F-150 I bought for $600 almost 10 years ago smashed up. Stuck approx. 1500 into it to get body, paint and drive train up to par. This past summer I built a new engine and trans for it. This year is fix up the body some more and a repaint.

I considered buying a new F-150, but can't justify spending 30k+ on something that isn't a daily driver, and can't get/omit options I want/don't want.

For me, I enjoy turning wrenches and building vehicles, so really don't mind the work. And, for 30k, I can build a heck of a nice truck and have a bunch of money left over for gas and toys.

That truck would have to be smashed up pretty bad to warrant it being replaced.

We used to figure 100,000 miles was the life of a car. Now a lot of cars go 250,000 miles or more. Times are changing.

I am a huge fan of driving cars until they are not "worth the repair".

I assume you are financially savvy and can probably afford to purchase with cash (no financing) the car you've likely been eyeing.


Go for it.

My point comes when supporting the mechanic is more than the banker

100k is barely broken in. Unless there are a bunch of other issues with it, I'd pay the $2500 and drive it another 100k. My 16 year old truck has 205k on it, and our 14 year-old Suburban has 315k. Both original motor and trans. I'd jump in either of them right now and drive them across the country...I've actually done that a couple of times.

I bought a 2004 Hondar CRV with 40k-ish miles on it in 2007.

In 2015, the AC system failed, due to an implosion of the compressor, with 90k-ish miles. This followed a two year period it was in storage while I was overseas. Replacement of the AC system was 5k.

Given the overall reliability of the Honda brand, I decided to spend the money to replace the system instead of purchasing a new car. I owned this car completely, and expect to get at least 50k more miles out of it.

Just a thought....The tax on a new one could exceed $2500.

For me it would depend on whether or not I still liked and wanted the car.

I am firmly convinced that speaking only financially, that it would never pay to buy a new car. Whatever you have, it will be cheaper in the long run to keep paying for repairs, practically forever. The only problem is the reliability issue. If you have a second (or third) vehicle to drive, and it's not a big deal if you get stranded somewhere temporarily, then keep it forever!

I say this because if you compare the cost of repairs to the depreciation that you will suffer from buying something new (or even newer), the repairs will be less. In your example of a vehicle worth $5000 needing a $2500 repair. Lets assume that the $2500 repair will last only a year, and that in addition you'll need to spend another $500 in repairs over that year. That's $3000 you'll spend over one year. If instead, you ditched it, and bought something new or newer for $15,000. The strong likelihood is that the newer $15,000 car at the end of the same one year will be worth less than $12,000. That's depreciation of more than the $3000 you spent on the older car.

Of course the $2500 repair will likely last you several years. And the new or newer car will likely be more than $15,000, since you spent $40,000 on the last one. Any change in those numbers makes the analysis come out substantially stronger in favor of keeping the older car.

I own a 2002 Tahoe, and have since it was new. It has around 220,000 miles on it. Needed a new A/C compressor, around $800 repair. I didn't blink twice, because as long as I drove it another couple of months I got my money's worth. Transmission went out, and I spent $1100, and drove it another year.

I finally bought a new VW Touareg, diesel, and love it, because it's faster, better gas mileage, and because I no longer wanted to drive the Tahoe on trips. Having a problem in town is a lot different than in another state.

I basically keep vehicles 10-15Yrs mileage between 150,000 to 200,000 miles. The maintenance cost is not prohibitive.

Another comment on your "hypothetical car"

If you bought a car for 40K and 10 years later it's only worth 5K then it is probably a piece of junk and you should dump it.
Case in point, I bought an '06 F-350 new for 40K and sold it last year with 160K on the clock for $20,000 a much better investment and I would have kept it but needed the write off or so I was told.