Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire New vehicle, when and why?

Used to be when the ash tray got full, but nobody smokes anymore.

When the one yer drivin' begins to 'thousand-dollar-you-to-death'.... In agriculture, it's called the 'law of diminishing returns'...

Rust problems in Michigan a pretty much are a thing of the past. Best way is to run it through a $5 car wash a few times each month in the winter.
As to when we buy new vehicles, usually when they get 60-70K on them (around 5 years). I find they are much easier to sell or get a much better trade in than those with 100K + on them. Last year was my time, 17 Explorer, this year wife got her new 18 Terrain.
We make car payments to ourselves over those 5 years, so when it's time for a new one it's a cash deal.
Oh ya, just love the smell to a new car

When is a judgment call, when the current one needs more money put into it than I want to. Last one was a GMC Sierra, my son borrowed it and rear-ended a truck, $2,500 to fix the minor damage to the bumper and grill. Plus, it needed new tires. Then, it started burning oil at a pretty good clip. The transmission went out within the warranty period so that was a free fix but did not bode well. I took it to a few dealers to see what they'd give for a trade-in and got $18K so traded it in on a new long-bed crew cab Tacoma and didn't look back.

We sold the wife's Jeep four months ago, and she's been driving my truck since then. She has her mind made up on a new Lexus, so if the stealerhsip still has the one online when I get home for R&R next month, I've promised her we would buy it. When I return home for good next summer I'll need my truck so I can drive back and forth to work there. I wish I was paying cash for it, but I'm not. I do have a nice down payment though for it. Come September, I'll probably be buying the youngest his first car. I refuse to finance a car for a kid, so it will be a cash buy.

I refuse to finance a car.......

Best reply so far. Live your life without worrying about a bunch of money you can't take with you. I have great medical insurance, life insurance and I'm way ahead on my house even though I still make payments. I do what I want but don't do stupid. Life is good.

When mama wants one.

I just drive whatever junk is sitting around the house.

The short answer is whenever I want, I have owned more than 35 vehicles in 40 years, mostly because I bought old vehicles, repaired and drove them and I just like cars, trucks and hotrods.

My 2005 Frontier was bought knew, 10 years and 200K miles and before I traded it I replaced the timing chains and tensioners but it was still running good. I wanted a fullsize again and traded it for 2010 2500HD with 82K miles, half as old, half as many miles, twice as big and half the fuel mileage and 6K to payoff. Love it and don't foresee selling it.

After several year of running a GM TBI/AMC 360 in my 1978 Cherokee I am In the middle of a 5.3/4L60/NP241 swap, reliability, better mileage, part-time 4WD and I don't foresee selling it, it's fun as hell to drive, gets a lot of compliments and very capable off-road.

When the HD is paid off in the fall of 2019 I will buy a 2018 5.0/10spd Mustang, my goal is for less 30K dollars and 25K miles, I have not owned a car (not including now EX wifes wheels) since my 77 Nova around 2000, I just want the option of a car again. Considered Camaro, Cadillac CTS-V, the last of the air cooled 911's and Challenger's but the 5.0 to me is the best bang for the buck.

It's just money, my goal is for the money to run out when I die, until then I will have fun.

That's as good as it gets right there.

Sometimes I wish I didn't have 4 miles of a nasty limestone gravel road that would beat a car like this to pieces, then I come to my senses.

Me too!

I financed a new truck in 1993. I quickly decided that once I got that thing paid for, I'd never make payments on a vehicle again. So far this has served me very well.

I believe car payments are responsible for keeping more broke people broke than all other bad decisions put together.

If I could cut the deal, I would throw in one of Smokes nuts for this one....





As far as when: Right about the time I get tired of looking at the same old insides, which is usually around 70K, and takes a little +/- 3 years. I still work for a lot of reasons, one of which is to drive something I like.

Just had new brakes and rotors put on the 2016 4 runner and it needs new tires soon. 57K on it as of now. Money I will never get back when it comes time to trade it.

You have a vehicle, owned outright or financed, you make payments.

If I can afford it....pretty much when I feel like it.

Or in your case...every time you go to the dealership.

Lots of food for thought here, thanks. Dad use to trade his American Mortors Ramblers every 50,000 miles because those carburetor, automatic choke motors put a lot of fuel dilution into the oil and the rings were about shot at 50K. My buddy was the sales manager at a big local dealership and he said that the 3.0 Ford, 4.0 Jeep, 4.8 Northstar and the 3800 Buick were routinely the only engines that came in with a quarter million miles on them. My winter beater Buick has that 3800 V-6 in it and it just keeps going like the Energizer Bunny. My work Buick with that engine did the same thing, so I'm embarrassed to even mention the age of the "Classic" daily driver, but it still starts, runs well, does what I need and isn't rusted. They don't change the body style of the new ones every year and they can't hang any more options on a vehicle than they had ten years ago, so if they work for you, they work for you. As mentioned the salted roads eat up a car here anyway and you can't store something nice or the condensation will get it too. The wife's aunt just willed her a pile of cash and that might be entering into her thinking. With my Scottish heritage I've been accused of being tighter than the skin on a wiener, so I don't spend for unnecessary things. With that mentality though I'd be driving my '95 for ever.

I have a rule that is a result of experience in my twenties. If the vehicle has been relatively trouble free and shows no signs of radical change, and it is capable of doing what I currently need - best to stick with it until one or the other changes. Sure as I "upgrade" just for the sake of it, the new(er) vehicle will turn out to be less reliable. Seen it even with new vehicles. Just because it's new and has a warranty, doesn't mean it won't be a headache. I guess this comes under the heading "if it ain't broke - don't fix it".

I make a point of researching a potential new-to-me vehicle so I know its rep for reliability and maintenance cost. I don't care how cool something looks. If it ain't got a good track record, I ain't buying. That also means I generally won't buy new. Models can be great one year and suck the next. I'd rather wait and see how they're doing first. Buy one a couple or few years old with low miles and then drive the wheels off it if it will let me. That's been working pretty well for me, but I don't mind fixin' minor things myself.

That's mighty white of ya. If you let me drive it, I might give you the left nut but never the right.

Hmmmm. Let me get with the seller. She may insist on the right.

It’s always something.

The reliability of my 260,000 mile '09 and 350,000 mile '02 Corollas has been a friggin' lifesaver these past two years as I have done nothing but clear debt. Each is a backup for the other in case one needs fixing but so far so good. OTOH driving either one cross-country with that many miles would be a calculated risk, fortunately too I commute by bicycle most days.

All goes as it has done and in 2020 I'll be in a position to buy another Toyota or Honda (possibly my last vehicle), I actually ain't looking forward to that with all the computerized crapola on cars and trucks today. A need rather than a want.