I have a weird attachment to my car. I hate driving anything else. HATE. It.
I assume that most people think I’m crazy for it. Like, when I pull into the school parking lot to pick up my kids and a good 80% of the people have a vehicle that is newer, shinier and certainly nicer than what I have. The fact that my car is older, stained up, and always a wee-bit dirty (I blame the driveway) doesn’t take my love away.
In fact I think there are many benefits to driving an older car. Here are the main reasons I’ll drive my car until she dies.
# 1 – No Car Payment
Let’s state the obvious first – if you buy a car and keep it for years and years you (hopefully) shouldn’t have a car payment. Even if you buy an older car and get a loan on it you should be able to pay it off much faster than a new car.
I financed my car when I bought it in 2008 and after being stuck with a $325 car payment I swore to never have a car payment again. So far, so good.
I just don’t value cars enough to pay on one each and every month.
# 2 – Cheap Insurance
While there are a ton of different factors that go into calculating your car insurance premium the cost of your vehicle is one of them.
If you have a vehicle valued at $30,000 your full-coverage insurance is going to be a lot more than full-coverage on car valued at $8,000.
Since our insurance is so cheap (around $600/year for full coverage on two vehicles and liability on the other) I decided to just keep full coverage. (I’m afraid not to have at least comprehensive with the amount of deer running around.)
# 3 – No Use Crying Over Spilt Milk
Literally.
This probably sounds crazy but one of the main reasons I love having my older car is because I don’t freak out if something is spilt in the car or if someone has mud all over their boots. While I’m certainly not asking my family to intentionally make messes I’m not going to stress out over it either.
I bought my car before having kids so it’s now made it through 7+ years of little kid messes. I keep my car clean but it is stained…badly…..everywhere. Sippy cups have been thrown, juice has been spilled, and crayons have melted on the seats.
Now if someone has an accident I brush it off rather than flipping out that a mess has been made in my precious vehicle.
Also along these lines I really wouldn’t care if I backed into a pole or put a scratch on the car. It just doesn’t matter.
# 4 – It Does It’s Job Well
I’m not a car person. All that I require is a running vehicle that I feel comfortable driving. My car gets the job done. (Well, other than getting stuck in snow. Thank God winter is about over!)
There will come a time when fixing the car costs more than it’s worth but for now I’ve got my fingers crossed that I can get at least another five years out of what I’ve got. An additional benefit of driving an older car is once you are done with it, you can still recoup a portion of your costs. As an example, you can use a service like Junk That Car that buys scrap and damaged cars to sell it once you’re done with it.
Do you like driving an older car or you do prefer newer vehicles? (It’s a personal preference, no judgement either way!)
I’m so with you on this! We like to buy cars that are 2-4 years old, with low mileage for their age, maintain them well and keep them as long as we can. I believe that not having a car payment and having lower insurance rates are a major part of our financial agility: We don’t have money to burn, but we can weather most of what life throws at us without too much difficulty. That wouldn’t be possible if we had several hundred dollars a month committed to depreciating assets.
Thanks so much for the reminder of how great it is to keep an older car!
I like that strategy. When I first got my car is one year old with really low miles and has served me very well so far.
I don’t know if anyone in my family has ever bought a brand new car. My “normal” is an older car. In 2013, my Bro in Law found me a 1990 Honda CRV with 84k miles and a clean body. Because I never go anywhere, it’s now at almost 90k miles and is 15 years old.
I really can’t fathom families with two car payments plus insurance, gas, etc. It would be so much money Easily 10k a year. Yikes.
~ C
My family always buys new cars. I am the odd one out (And happy to be lol!)
And it is pretty darn amazing that he found a 1990 with only 84k miles on it. That’s impressive.
Same here. I have a 2006 Pontiac G6 and what’s great is that with my very quick commute to work, it doesn’t even have 70,000 miles on it yet.
I thought I was doing good! Mine is 2007 with around 90k miles on it. I got it when it was a year old and had around 12k miles on it.
You know I think it goes both ways. I drove a car for 15 years and it did it’s job. But after i sold it to a family member they told me something was wrong with it that could have been dangerous. I think i kept it too long. Also depends on if you have someone to help fix the maintenance problems with a older car too. That can be expensive. I know someone that has a 2015 new car and i have to say i love driving in it and driving it. There is something to be said for reliability but that definitely comes at a price. 🙂
I completely see your point. Right now I still consider my car to be pretty darn reliable (knocking on wood!) I’m hoping it stays in good shape for at least another several years since I’ve taken very good care of it engine maintenance-wise. If it got to the point where it cost more to fix than what it was worth I’d definitely upgrade. Although that’d be a sad day 🙁
My Dad bought a new car (2015 too) and it is a pretty smooth driver but I’m just so used to my car I hate to drive anything else!
I didn’t mean that buying a new car is the solution. I have a 2012 now and am trying to pay it off. And i will keep it for a long time I’m sure. I just meant if you don’t have anyone to fix your car at a low rate or for free, , a newer car might be more tempting. 🙂
I have a 2001 ford Winstar with almost 150,000. I hope to have another 2 years, but I’ll drive it as long as it makes financial sense.
After that I plan to do the same as some of you have said. Get a vehicle that’s around 2-3 yrs old. I don’t desire a new car, the payment, or insurance.
I am 100% with you on this one. All my life I have driven cars with no payment books and several years old. Then, when I was 7 months pregnant, I lost my mind and bought a newish car with a payment. Oh what a fool I was! It was a hard lesson to learn. Never again! she is paid for now and I’m driving her into the dirt and will from this day forward buy older cars unless I become a millionaire. Then I will buy a new car with cash!
I totally agree with you. Had a 10 year old car that I loved! Only 130 k miles & it got totalled.no one could understand why I was upset about having to buy a new car. I HATE car payments
I bought my 1998 Toyota Camry new…it has been my only new car in the 40+ years I’ve been driving. We still use that car and it almost has 250k miles on it! That’s great, but it gets better. My Mr. has a late ’90s Ford truck that also has nearly 250k miles logged.
Granted, Toyotas will live longer than most humans if you give them a little care. But the real reason these two oldies are still goodies is because my Mr. is very handy mechanically and he’s meticulous about upkeep. I’m a very lucky girl.
Being willing to drive older cars is partly what enables us to spend money on other things we enjoy. For example, last year we purchased a 2007 RV. We’ve been driving all over the country and having a blast! I love old, well-maintained vehicles!
My car was a new purchase and 12 years old. She’s barely hanging on at 180,000 miles and over the past year I’ve spent a decent chunk on issues. It seems like every month there is something wrong and it’s all safety related, which totally freaks me out. I’m at the point where I have to decide how much more money is worth investing in her or come up with a new game plan.
I agree with all of these points. I drive a 2010 vehicle and I now that I’ve paid the loan off last year, I just want to drive it until the wheels fall off and save up to buy my next car in cash hopefully. I don’t care what other people are driving and like you, I just don’t value cars that much to spend a crazy amount of money on them.