How long do you keep a car/truck? Do you get the itch for a new vehicle every 2-3 years? Do you only buy one when it's 'needed' or at least justified somehow? Do you buy new or used, based on the intended ownership time?
I grew up in a family that kept their vehicles until the wheels fell off. Okay... not really... but 10 years wasn't unheard of. And even then, there had to be a reason. It's not that we were cheap... we just took care of our cars. At least that's what my Dad taught me to do. To this day, I'm amazed at the amount of people I meet that don't know anything about taking care of their cars! If you take care of your car, believe me, it'll take care of you!
My Baby Bleu is a perfect example. Might actually need to call her Ol' Bleu, now... I bought her 12 years ago today. She had less than 20 miles on her and I had every intention of keeping her for as long as humanly possible. She now has over 192k miles on her. I always took care of all the regular preventative maintenance and she's always taken care of me, in return, and never left me stranded. We've come close... but it wasn't her fault. It was my stupidity in those few cases (I won't go into them, here). Most of those years were spent with her being garage kept, and I do account a lot of the well being she's has due to that. It wasn't until she was no longer a garage vehicle that she started having issues... but I think that was more due to age than the elements. She didn't have her first major malfunction until about 2 years ago. But she didn't leave me stranded. She got me home the nearly 100 miles we had to go, where I took her directly to the mechanic and dropped her off.
It wasn't until the past few months that more issues are popping up. Eric and I have started justifying repairs... you know how it goes..."That repair is less than a car payment" or "It just means we'll drive her for two more months before we get another car." Just last Friday, she got four new tires (was going to just get two, but I'm good about rotation and, quite frankly, they were all worn the same and needed replacing). Tomorrow she goes in to get her A/C fixed (leaking hose I was told about during her last check-up). But it'll still balance out to be less than a couple of car payments and keep me happy with her for more than a couple of months.
But it definitely gets me thinking... when will it be time? She's a Nissan... she'll go forever if I keep up with these little bits of maintenance. Eric was ready last year and I talked him out of it... which I don't regret one bit! But 12 years is quite the life for a 'new' car.
My goal is to get to 200k miles. Just because it'd be cool to say I drove a car that many miles. Not that I bought a car with some-thousand miles on it and hit that milestone... but that *I* drove it that many miles... all those miles are mine! Should be doable. Maybe then it'll be time for a new car.
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