Best time in years and mileage to change

kala85

What is peoples opinions on when is the best time to change a car that was bought from new.
How old and what mileage makes the most sense and best time when changing a car.

Should it be every 3 years or 5 years or hold onto it for good for 10 years and not trade it in again?

If a car is held on for too long the value of the trade declines. Just wondering what is peoples opinions on when is the best time to change a car?

ednwireland

im probably not typical

car 1 cost 5k owned for 11 years, 16 years old sold for 200
car 2 Cost 2.2k owned for 10 years, 16 years old scrapped got 200
car 3 Cost 4.8 owned for 6 years, 14 years old traded for 1000


latest car cost 8k 6 year old

colm_mcm

Depreciation is bigger the newer the car is, so economically it’s best to drive it till it stops.

It’s pretty much always cheaper to maintain a car properly than trade up.

People would rather have a new car, so this logic isn’t applied.

Mad_Mike

My father changed cars every 2 years most of his life, normally spending about 10k to 12k for each change (CAR VALUES OF APPROX 35-40k)

In 2005 he bought a BMW for €56k, drove it for 12 years, and although he was offered €2k for it, he held on to it (as a spare, cos you never know when you might need it )

He basically agreed with me at that stage, that no matter how often you change, or if you keep it and drive it into the ground, it will still more or less cost the same money per year


He finally gave up buying brand new cars after that and bought another higher spec BMW automatic, newer than his one for 2.5k including 6 months road tax on it, and 2 years later, he is still driving it and it just passed another NCT with nothing on the fail sheet!

One of the BIG factors here, as Colm rightly points out, is if you want to drive a new/newish car or if you're happy to buy an older car, as new cars have huge depreciation regardless of how long you hold on to it

terrydel

Depreciation is huge first 3-5 years, but as others have said, if you shell out on a new car, it's nearly always cheaper to just keep driving it til it dies.
I like to work out what a car is costing me per year, and I'd factor it's current value into that.
I've an 04 a3 now, had it just over 7 years. Cost me 6100, it's worth effectively nothing now, and I'd reckon I've spent on average 300-400 a year max on it. I've all the receipts so gonna work it out properly some day.
So I reckon it's cost me a 1000-1200 a year or thereabouts.

Which I think is great value.

roosterman71

I bought a brand new car in 2012. Still have it. It's now worth 24k less than when I bought it (figure arrived at by looking online for similar cars, and an offered trade in), so about 3k per year loss on average. To run, it costs me approx €3,600 per year (service, tax, insurance, NCT, tolls, diesel, etc). So the cost of ownership is over 6k per year since I bought it.

I've no issues keeping it on the road for a long time yet, but would love a new car! I'd see the change as not impacting any more financially to have brand new in Jan. vs an 8 year old car. What am I missing?