How many miles on your vehicle before sell or trade?

[pmsmechanic]

1990 Cummins 466K/750000 km. Is rusted out and needs to be replaced. Engine is still a good starter.
1998 Cummins 267K/430000 km. Will be used for a while yet.
2001 Jetta 257K/414000 km. Used as a dd to save money and miles on more expensive vehicles.
2001 Jetta 194K/313000 km. Spare car.
2014 Jetta 137K.220000 km. Wife's driving to work car.

Generally don't sell or trade. Wear out and then replace. I have $1500 plus parts into the two 2001's. They will be used to keep the miles off of the other vehicles.

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

I realized long ago unless it's a company/work truck that tax right off is substantial buying new is just a money loosing proposition then trading (another money looser) every three years or so you might as well just send the money to me. I have three, 2 4runners and one 3500 dodge. No rust and all run very good except the old 1994 4Runner which is my go to for parts and grocery getter. Trans needs a little attention. Truck is a 2002 4x4 6 speed and a 5.9 cummins. It's almost in as good as shape as the day it was built. It only moves if there is a dollar sign attached to the trip. It has 160k miles and I'll rebuild it from one end to the other before I'll ever buy new. Work is all it knows and every mile and gallon of fuel is a tax deduction. Also repairs.

Can't tell you how much money my kids wasted on cars and trucks. The first car my oldest had he had well over 30k into it and sold it for 6k. I told him for that 24k he lost I could have a whole field full of cattle that would have made me money for many years. That was 20 years ago and he still doesn't get it.

 

[4570Man]

US brands, 100k about the max.
Honda - i keep till they have no value left, which is over 300k.

Maybe if rust eats it first. Otherwise it's good for way more.

 

[Thomas]

About 6 years Mrs. starts looking to replace my pickup.

 

[travlitt]

Looks like your 3/4T GMC might benefit significantly from an air bag suspension kit.

I just need to take up one more link on the chains on the equalizer lift bars.

 

[terryknight]

i 2014 i bought my first vehicle with under 100K on it., had 71,2xx it is also the newest vehicle and it's an 04. it now has 107xxx. my daily driver pickup has 320, the other spare/plow truck has 150K. i have bought several vehicles with over 200K. sold several too.

 

[aczlan]

Ours get sold soon as I have any real reliability problems or we just plan get tired of them. So far it has always been because we just wanted something new. Normally under 80K (mostly Toyotas) and it seems we get a good amount back out of them at that point. We been very lucky to never have any car problems that caused a break down along the road and hope too keep that trend up!

This, we currently have vehicles with 203k miles (1997 Dodge 1500, the farm truck), 183k miles (my daily driver, 2008 Ford Taurus X) and 156k miles (my wife's 2005 GMC Yukon XL).
My last car was a 1997 Volvo V90 which I sold at ~160k miles because I was bored with it. I plan on keeping the Taurus X until it stops being reliable, then I will sell it off.

Aaron Z

 

[tlj87]

For you folks with over 250k miles on your vehicles, do you end up replacing the drivers seat cushion, fabric, knobs, switches, headlight lenses, etc? I’ve never kept a vehicle beyond 170k mi (yet) but those are the items that I notice starting to wear after about 100k (particularly on my 07 Silverado). Don’t all of the interior plastic panels etc. rattle, crack or otherwise decay?

On my last truck, a ‘94 F150, I had the bench seat reupholstered with new foam at about 130k mi. Dash was cracked on the passengers side and it rattled because one of the plastic mounting tabs broke off. Vinyl floor had some tears in it due to dry rot and wear.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I realized long ago unless it's a company/work truck that tax right off is substantial buying new is just a money loosing proposition then trading (another money looser) every three years or so you might as well just send the money to me. I have three, 2 4runners and one 3500 dodge. No rust and all run very good except the old 1994 4Runner which is my go to for parts and grocery getter. Trans needs a little attention. Truck is a 2002 4x4 6 speed and a 5.9 cummins. It's almost in as good as shape as the day it was built. It only moves if there is a dollar sign attached to the trip. It has 160k miles and I'll rebuild it from one end to the other before I'll ever buy new. Work is all it knows and every mile and gallon of fuel is a tax deduction. Also repairs.

Can't tell you how much money my kids wasted on cars and trucks. The first car my oldest had he had well over 30k into it and sold it for 6k. I told him for that 24k he lost I could have a whole field full of cattle that would have made me money for many years. That was 20 years ago and he still doesn't get it.

So, Mr. Kentucky "accountant"... what I chose to do works very well for me. I have never lost money on my trucks, to the contrary... my truck makes me money, a lot of money. It is a "tool". My wife's truck, not so much, as it is not a write off. Haven't really thought about it's cost. So why not make her happy once every three years...

 

[firemech]

Buy off lease Toyota Tacoma's 4X4's with about 50,000 miles on them then put about 200,000 more on them then sell to high school kids. All are clean highway driven units (I drive about 60,000 miles per year). The vehicles cause very few problems and the kids love to get a clean, mechanic owned vehicle about 5 years old for about $3000. Have been doing this since about 1982 and it seems to work well for everyone. Note: I know most of the kids buying the trucks from me and they are happy,,,,,, even have a waiting list of those wondering when my current ride will being replaced .