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Why do you change cars?

James

Lord of the Erg\o/s
I realise there is a raft of reasons ranging from needs to wants. I'm more curious about wants i.e. there is nothing wrong with what you already have, but there is something else you think you'd rather have.

In my case and for the last couple of decades, I have adopted a buy new and keep for 8-10 years, then buy another. Rinse and repeat. I figured that with proper maintenance, most cars should offer trouble free motoring for a decade and its first 200,000 km. By then, there will be new tech, new safety systems and better efficiencies. Now, I'm not so sure.

How often do you change cars, and what's your rationale for doing so?

What do you drive now, and what are you contemplating next?
 
I tend to hold onto cars for quite a few years.

The Alpina, I think is now going on five and half years.
The Jag, is now going on three, coming up to four years.

No intention to change those.

Prior to that the M3 was in my curatorship for thirteen years.

Previously other cars came and went in shorter time frames other than a Celica which I had for perhaps six/seven years. There was a 318 which saw service for quite some years. There were also some shockers which were stop gaps. Although I did have an XJR40 for three or so years, loved that but it was so dogged with electrical gremlins it had to go despite best efforts of a couple of Jag specialists.

The Z cars were fab, but I was too young to then be earning enough to keep them sound, the dreaded rust.

I don’t really feel the need to change too often these days.
 
Mazda 3, could be followed by Hyundai i30 Caravan. But the Mazda is at 130k kilometres which is nothing, so it'll be okay for another 5-6 years. But I am slowly joining the target group for an automatic gearbox.

A Jaguar F is my dream vehicle, one Coupe and one Convertible for good measure, but I couldn't afford them. Even then, I'm a pretty average driver (at least I say it) so why should I buy tools with which I'd put myself and others at risk.

One thing that never crossed my mind is to lease a car too big for me, just for impressing the girls. First of all they are not dumb, they can see on your face whether you are worth the car or not. The nice ones among them will leave you alone, the others will jump onto your wallet (and good on them if you ask me). There's a third category of girls, they will not see whether you are worth the car or not, and fall into your trap, but there's a whole lot of other daily life problems you will face with them. Currently I am particularly well served with the girlfriend I have, so even an old Fiat Multipla will do.
 
I run a car until the repair costs are getting to be a bit much. My current car is a 2012 Ford. Next march I qualify for my bus pass and being an ex British Rail employee enjoy some free and reduced rail travel, I'm seriously considering giving up the car.
 
Depends which car: when the kids were younger the family car got changed when it had done about 100k and started requiring maintenance. I figured the wife and kids were everywhere in it, so I wanted that to be reasonably young. My daily commuter was various cheapies but normally something moderately interesting up to £2k. (I'm talking 15-20 years ago now.) That got changed when I wore it out!

Now the family wagon is no longer needed but it's only 4 yrs and 72k miles. I'll just see how it goes. Car number 2 has been my hot hatch indulgence for the last 6 years or so: Fiesta ST, Renault Megane 275, another Fiesta ST - just because I like fun little hatches. Current one must be good (to me) because I've had it for 2 and a half years and still love it. There's nothing else I particularly want and its cheap and practical. Again, just see how it goes for now.
 
I change cars about every 12-18 months in the hope that I'll get the right model that eventually makes me happy.

Of course, it's not the right car I need to make me happy and it's quite an expensive way to go about things but it saves having to address any real issues.
 
Mainly driven by the 4 year company car lease renewal. Our own car driven mainly by my wife we change about every 6-7 years. Kids have their own cars now. My daughter bought a fiesta and intend keeping long term. My son has the learner fiat 500 and really likes it despite some ribbing from his friends and is still at Uni so can’t afford to change it.
 
I run a car until the repair costs are getting to be a bit much.
That is my rationale too, until I realised that it'd cost me a whole lot more to buy a new car of similar quality.

How do you decide when (actual and anticipated) repair costs are not worth it, but buying another is.
 
We buy a 1 year old car, from a main dealer, so the big depreciation has gone and many/all warranty issues have been fixed but we still have 2 years warranty. We run it for 9-10 years and repeat.
 
previous car was too low to get into easily (Octavia Vrs) so changed it to something taller - Yeti.

We will run it into the ground.
 
Our own car driven mainly by my wife we change about every 6-7 years.
That's about the same time-frame for model life-cycles. Is that coincidental or the main reason for change i.e. you want to have current model only?
 
Reliability. That means Japanese and petrol. Current one is 2019, should be good for 20 years.
Changed the 2019 VW camper for a 2009 model to increase long term reliability. Will keep until it’s taxed off the road.
 
Habitually change every 3 years or so but not doing the mileage I was so current car is coming up 5 years. May keep it a bit longer, just depends what’s out there.
 
I did not realise older cars are taxed more in the UK. It's not the case in New Zealand. Well, not appreciably so anyway.

The current ‘new’ camper is a Euro 5 diesel. The tax will go up on these until it becomes ridiculous. The problem is the Euro 6 models have too much expensive stuff to go wrong and are less economical. It’s not progress.
 


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