Why I drive an 11-year-old car

1989 Ford LTD Crown Vic 5.0L V8
Been driving it for 11 years. 157,000 miles and still going strong. Paid $2500 for it, drove it for a month and the transmission went out, $1100 to fix it. After fixing the transmission the thing just keeps going and going and going other than little things here and there (Alternator, belts, starter, radiator) most of the work done by yours truly. Sure fuel economy isn’t great (15ish mpg in the city), but a different vehicle would have to have damn good gas mileage for it to make financial sense for me to switch (unless I got a screaming deal on a nice super fuel efficient car that is cheap to insure) Hint… Doesn’t exist.
So in the mean time I’ll just keep saving for a rainy day and keep chugging along and laugh all the way to the bank at all the snooty Pruis drivers out there with their noses in the air as I float on by in my battleship.

Rollin’ like a G in Portland, OR

Mark, did you Photoshop this image? 😉 Your car is in immaculate condition. Now that is a great investment – no need to buy a new one unless you need to. Buy and hold is also a good strategy with a good car!

But the best deal, though not always the most wonderful ride is public transit. I lve very close to work, and my employer has a payroll bus pass program. No gas, no parking fees, and best of all no insurance! That means my commute costs me under $70 per month.

My Toyota Corolla is almost 10 years old. I drive it for mostly the same reasons as you as well. Especially the “cheap” part – save on car payments, insurance, and it seems to get better mileage than newer ones. My friend has a 2010 Maxima that seems to always be out of gas.

Last year we junked our 1993 Nissan Sentra because the body was going. That car cost us $12k and was 17 1/2 year old when we junked it. Great deal (the AC had gone on it years earlier, though). My daughter had been driving that one so now she drives our 2001 Pontiac Aztek, I drive our 1999 Honda Odyssey (both run great, including AC) and my husband bought a 2-yr-old Hyundai Elantra for 2/3 of the price of a new one.

The Honda was pricy and I think it will end up costing us close to $200/month over its lifetime (though likely less because Hondas last so long), but it’s a workhorse, having moved kids to and from university and college, workterms 6 hours away, etc. And we still love having room to move lumber, appliances, etc. So it’s saved us money that way. I drive very few kms so I’m the one who drives it (it gets worse gas mileage).

We’ve only ever bought 2 new cars–the Sentra because of a great deal and the Odyssey because 1999 was the redesign year (bigger, fold-in back row seat). I’m not in a rush to buy new again unless I find a great deal. And we generally do run our cars into the ground. The hard part is figuring out when to retire them.

@Andrew Hallam

I’m not sure what we’re going to do Mark. Shelling out $56K to keep the car on the road hurts…the idea of it hurts. And that doesn’t include insurance!

The process is a bit complicated, but if we sell it, we could buy a car that’s good for 3 or 4 years. I say “good for 3 or 4 years) because if the car is 6 years old, we would only be able to get three years out of it, before having to shell out $56K (which could be higher or lower by that point). The COE is based on supply and demand. If the gov’t wants fewer cars on the road, they reduce the number of COEs, pushing the price for them up! Clever and brilliant, I think!

I look at the capital cost of a car slightly differently. I decide what I am comfortable with as a “capital cost” for the car and then view any purchase (or repair/replace) in that light.

Best car I ever owned was a 1991 Camry that I kept 13 years. Paid $13K for it slightly used (only 1500 km on it). So it “cost” me about $1000 per year. I round that to $100 per month.

So if I want to purchase a new car (say, a Civic or Corolla) that costs about $18,000, then I have to keep that car for (18000/100 = 180 months, or 15 years). Now I think these cars are workhorses, but 15 years may be stretching it a wee bit. 12 years is OK, so now my “cost” is $125 per month. Anything beyond that is bonus.

If my alternative is to buy a used car for say $5000, then I expect that used car to operate for (5000/125 = 40 months), or 3.5 years. Can I buy a used car for that price with that expected reliability? Maybe. But it is a starting point.

I did exactly this 3 years ago and decided to buy the new car, figuring that a new one is good for 250K (20K/yr, 12 years), with a bit less risk than the time and hassle of finding and inspecting a used vehicle. Time will tell.

And the only reason I got rid of the Camry is that my folks put a lot of pressure on me to get rid of it… their only grandchild came along and it didn’t have air bags or ABS. It had a bit less than 300K on it. I still see it around town occasionally.

I just took the plunge, I was driving a 10-year old Grand Prix (actually held up really well for a GM vehicle, but I really babied it). I had made up my mind to buy used, but the used car market is so competitive right now, and the subsidized financing so low, I ended up buying a new Hyundai Elantra. I have been incredibly happy with the vehicle and plan on making at least a decade with it, hopefully more. I like to think it is not to “un-frugal” because it is such a fuel efficient car and was relatively cheap to buy new. I figured I paid about a 3-4K more over a used corolla or civic (what I was looking at) once you factor in all the costs of owning a vehicle, I’m fine with that.

Although I like my cars up to date and flashy — I can definitely see how an 11 year old car works for you. It is the smart thing to do, and those Protege’s are great cars!

Our car is seven years old and I really hope we can keep it going for another five years. Even more if possible.

Even beaters are expensive, so if your car turns into one – it’s best to try to make it last as long as possible. New or newer cars are crazy expensive.

I think every reason you’ve provided is valid other than “I’m cheap”.

You’re not cheap, you’re being smart. I can’t recall if the the figure is correct, but I remember reading somewhere that vehicle expenses often average out to account for 35% of a household’s total expenses.

This is an astronomically high percentage, and by the looks of things, you’re doing a terrific job keeping the numbers low and to your advantage.

My wife and I own two vehicles.

One of them is a small Chevy Optra that we bought about 5 years ago at a price tag of about $17k. It has a foreign engine and we only drive it from point A to B. It’s one of those cars we want to keep forever. Like your mazda, it has no bells and whistles, and has accumulated only 14,000 km to date!

Our other vehicle is a 2010, 4×4 pickup truck, and we did spend a chunk of change on the beast, but I paid it in cash – no borrowing. Given the amount of snow in our region, we really need a truck (for safety reasons alone). And now that we have a newborn, we want a bigger vehicle for longer trips and when we decide to go on vacation.

I think a poorly planned approach to transportation can end up being a financial nightmare. I have friends that fork out $800 a month on brand new vehicles as if it’s the norm, and have done so by changing in a vehicle they had only bought a few years ago.

I think many people fall under the illusion that an expensive vehicle is an investment such as buying a house. These assets are ‘bad debts’ and lose considerable value the moment you drive one off the lot. The depreciation that gets applied to these assets is not something that should be ignored!

Great post. 🙂