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My 2014 Honda Accord recently hit 99,000 miles. It’s nothing fancy to look at, but it drives well. Recently I’ve been having an issue with the starter. The push start works intermittently. Sometimes it starts on the first push, sometimes it takes multiple tries. I think the most it has taken is 6 tries. I’ve kept up with the maintenance, but I drive it infrequently, so the time between service has spread out. It was due for an oil change, so I decided to have the starter checked out.
Long story short the car needed a new starter. It also needed brake work, new calipers, and a few other things. The total cost (after some discount coupons) was about $2,500. I elected to have the car repaired and plan to drive it for a while. It’s a reliable second car. But it got me thinking about the age-old question of when is it worth it to repair an old car?
I did some research and the Kelley Blue Book private sale value ranged from about $9,800 to $11,900, depending on the condition. Carvana had similar cars for sale in the $16,500 range. So, the repairs are at most 25% of the car’s private sale value. I checked a few sources on the web and a general rule of thumb indicated that if the repair was more than 50% of the car’s value, it’s not worth it. I also found recommendations that said it was worth it if the repair cost was below the total value of the car.
Obviously, there are a number of considerations in this decision, many of them personal. Is the car generally safe and reliable? Are there likely to be other major repairs coming soon? Does your wife hate the car? Is it the ugliest car on the block? I know many in the HD ecosystem drive their cars for as long as they can. How did you know when it was time to move on?
another note on your starter for the honda accord … i have a 2013 honda accord in which i had replaced my starter as well due to the intermittent push start working … about a year after, some other honda mechanic , when i said in passing about my starter being replaced, said if they checked the starter SWITCH , a very inexpensive repair !!! ! felt like i had been had , no way to prove it.. another stealership trick !!
I think I’ve mentioned before that my daughter still drives the 2008 Chevy Cobalt that I used for nurse visits until 2015. It’s beat up, with peeling paint but runs fine, plus it’s so small that she easily finds street parking at home and work in an NYC borough. Lately it seems she and the car attract the pity of the parking ticket people – no tickets anymore for minor parking violations. Worth repairing as long as it doesn’t go above her limit ($500 or $1000, I think). And her mechanic knows the limit. 😉
my honda accord 2013 has 142,000 miles on it , yes i have replaced the starter, but it drives great , has the v6 engine in which Wards automotive named the engine a top ten award for 2013 .
There is more to consider than just $ here. My example:
Traded in my beloved 2011 Honda Crosstour EX-L NAV in 2024 for a 2025 Honda Pilot Black Edition. Cost of ownership of the Crosstour over 13 years minus trade-in value over 141,000+ miles worked out to $0.289/mile. Ownership here = cost of purchase, 60 month financing (hard to pass up at 0.9%), add-on’s like third party remote start and floor mats, all maintenance costs (usually dealer). Does not include yearly reregistration or insurance (which can be highly variable for a number of reasons-do your yearly shopping). In Michigan, the trade-in value used towards the purchase of a new vehicle saves on the new vehicle sales tax – about $450 in this example. Lifetime combined MPG was just shy of 21. Best trip mileage 28.9. It loved the highways, had to watch the speed. 2023/2024 was not a favorable period due to some expensive repairs like A/C and front axles (CV Joints worn out). I projected out the cost of ownership (maint.) over the next several years and the likely miles to be driven and the cost per mile wasn’t awful but I had concerns on reliability. Maintenance record was excellent and no accidents – clean CarFax.
What swayed me to purchase the Pilot was the features that were now available to me and the fact that I can more readily get in and out of the vehicle as it is higher off the ground. My wife’s CRV is a challenge to crouch in to. Yes, I had not planned to “upsize” at this point in my life but I have zero regrets about doing so. Mileage is not as good as the Crosstour but there’s an additional 660 pounds of curb weight with the Pilot. Overall, the driving experience is simply great. Above all, my wife likes it too!
I did do a quick check on Kelly Blue Book (my reference source) and the Pilot at 10 months of ownership has dropped about $7,000 in value for a private party sale, excellent condition. However, KBB does not take into account the add-on’s I had purchased at the dealer and third parties which generally are more personalized to each owner so their value is variable. Insurance cost (same coverage) increased $540. I’m planning on driving this vehicle for 5-10 years so I’m not worried. Might be yet another hand-me-down to one of our 4 kids or grandchild.
Honda’s, in general, tend to retain their value pretty well. Depending on if you’re a buyer or seller of a Honda, that can be favorable or unfavorable in pricing.
Best wishes in your decision making.
We own a 2002 Chevy Suburban (bought used in 2003 w/17< miles). It currently has 256K miles and is running like a top with pretty much only routine maintenance and wear/tear costs (tires, brakes, etc.). I cannot conceive of a scenario where I could operate a replacement vehicle for anywhere close to the low cost of this one. When you factor in taxes, considerably higher insurance costs for a newer vehicle, and the inflated repair costs for much more complex modern cars, there is simply no way I will rid myself of this car until it is unsafe to drive.
When I finally do, its replacement will be an older vehicle with lower mileage and, hence, lower purchase/insurance/tax costs and NO debt. This is the way we have managed our transportation costs during 36 years of marriage (and five children). I have calculated that the positive impact of this strategy to our net worth amounts to over $400k over those 36 years.
Spending large amounts of money (especially through borrowing) to own depreciating assets is a financially unsound and unwise strategy. The numbers speak for themselves.
Bruce, I couldn’t agree more. I have a 2003 Yukon XL with just 158,000 on it and four kids–well, they are all grown ups now. It still runs great and I see no reason to get rid of it. It’s so useful for towing or if we need to move some people and stuff around.
We have a 1989 Toyota 4Runner, standard transmission, 4 wheel drive. My husband’s pride and joy that he uses to “bomb around town”. We have 2018 Rav4 as well.
He purchased it used when we were urgently house hunting in a ridiculous housing market in 1999. After listening to him beg for a couple of days, I threw up my hands and said sure, it’s not like we need the money and we could probably sleep in it if we can’t find a house before school starts. We have actually had people stop us on the street to ask if we are interested in selling.
We immediately found a wonderful mechanic (Greg) and have loyally taken the 4Runner and multiple other vehicles to him. But alas, he is not a magician and we have finally had to resort to non-Toyota replacement parts. Greg recently hired a new receptionist. Last call to make an appointment for an oil change she informed us he doesn’t work on vehicles that old. My shocked husband explained that Greg had been working on our vehicles for 25 years. She quickly told him that we would be “grandfathered” in. Whew!
We (Greg, husband and I) have discussed that it might be time to sell the 4Runner. My husband’s response was to buy a 3rd (used) car.
How to decide when it is worth it to fix a car – when the car no longer brings pleasure to the primary driver, or when your husband doesn’t look like he might cry.
Here is a simple formula to use in deciding: The cost of the repair divided by the monthly cost/payment of a new car times the best guesstimate of how long the repaired car will go before needing another major repair. Example: Car is worth $4,000 – repair is $1000, new car payment is $300 (low) – car should run fine another 6 months — A new car would cost $1800 for the 6 months while the old car only cost $1000. This leaves out the higher insurance costs on new car so the break even is even shorter. I never take into account the current market value of the car – just its expected utility.
Thanks for all the responses. It’s obvious the HD crowd is serious about keeping quality, safe, reliable cars on the road. To answer a couple of questions – it was a Honda dealership that gave me the quote. I haven’t found a good local mechanic in our new home, mainly because I haven’t had the need or made the effort.
All the great comments have encouraged to spruce up the old boy. I bought a Honda paint pen to touch up some scratches, and I may splurge on a local detailer. A neighbor’s son started a summer detail business and I always like to help an enterprising youngster get a start. Happy Memorial Day.
I have a 2019 toyota highlander with a v6. Already has 83000 miles. I do the maintenance myself unless it takes special tools. I reevaluate the vehicle annually. So far the worst was replacing the front struts. Cost me $300 in parts. And 4 hours of my time. Dealer wanted $2400. Which would still have been worth it. I am planning on keeping it to around 150000 miles. At that point I worry about the electronics failing
Rick,
I am thinking that quote came from Honda? If so, have you checked with a reliable local auto mechanic. A lot of the services are just recommended, I’d ask them to fix only things that are critical to keeping the car running. Spending $800 to do brakes that may be well ok for another 18 mos based on how little the car is used can sway the decision. Personally, I’d fix what is not working and keep on driving. We own for used cars raging from 2015 – 2020 and we haven’t had a car payment since 2010! That has been a game changer.
The engine blew on my wife’s 2007 Toyota Avalon in 2022 with 190k miles. She loved that car and it had been extremely reliable. Replacement engine cost was about $3 to $4k. My independent repair shop said to repair it is a commitment to the car. Often, transmissions and rear ends fail soon after the engine. So other expensive repairs were likely in our future. Also, I do not like the fact my wife was driving a car no longer reliable.
Even though there was a shortage of used and new cars in 2022, we opted to replace it. We found a 2019 Avalon that was a certified used car with low mileage. Like everyone else buying at that time, we paid a premium for the car, but my wife was happy and I was happy that she had a reliable used car.
We have traded most of our cars with 150k to 200k miles, but we have always driven Toyotas.
When to trade in is a personal decision and there is no right or wrong reason to trade. Just my opinion.
I co-own and operate an automotive workshop, so I get a slightly different perspective. There is no doubt that the most cost effective motoring comes from good quality, well maintained older vehicles.
We cringe at the money some of our customers have spent on new cars, especially after they add all the upgrades and accessories.
Personally, our family has a 2014 Subaru Outback, 2005 Toyota Hilux, 2002 Honda CRV, 2005 Mitsubish 380. ** We are in Australia, so some of these models might look odd to those in different parts of the world. **
Thanks for that perspective. I feel better about paying to store our well-maintained 2008 Lexus even though we rarely use it.
A 2008 Lexus is right in the wheelhouse of a good quality older car to own.
I kept a Dodge Grand Caravan 25 years and 3 months. Likely I should have sold it about 2 years before I sold it to the junk yard (blew an engine bearing so I dumped it). Overall I saved a lot of money keeping it although I had to pay more several transmissions (it was the era of the bad transmissions). I knew it had been well taken care of and so it was worth repairing. I saved a lot of money overall in the long run. My kid called it the ghetto van as it was also from the era of the peeling paint and looked like crap but when she was learning to drive I wasn’t worried about a dent in the bumper (van was 18 years old at that time) from her backing into a post in the mall parking lot while learning to back up.That was worth something too. And liability only insurance is cheap.
My current vehicle is a Toyota Sienna that is 15 years old (actually built Aug 2009 but is a 2010 model). I just had to replace the transmission (expensive to rebuild but broke right on schedule for how long they last and broke how they usually do per the transmission place) but again I know it has been well taken care of, has nearly 200K miles on it and is good for at least 100K more. Many years it just needed routine maintenance and occasionally expected repairs as things wear out. Overall all it has been cheaper than buying a new vehicle or another used car where I wouldn’t know how well it was taken care of. Yes a year here and there has been expensive but the average I have spent is pretty low. And insurance is cheaper too.
I think what one does depends on the reputation of the car for longevity, repairs, etc. and taking the long view. I wouldn’t dump a car just because something that you know will break soon and is expensive to repair breaks. It if appears to be a lemon then likely it is worth dumping it sooner rather than later. I also factor into my decision both the replacement cost (and if buying a used replacement the usual things you have to immediately fix) and the overall cost per year averaging what I have spent so far.
You paid $2.5K for repairs for a car that should last at least another 100,000 miles. How do I know you made a good decision? I did the same thing 2 months ago. The mechanic told me that he and 3 co-workers would buy my car right now.
While they validated your decision, they can’t be considered unbiased – if you didn’t repair they would lose the income. However, Hondas have a great record, and for low usage it makes no sense to pay a lot to upgrade, so I would have done the same, but not for same reason.
We have a 2O15 Toyota Highlander with 126,000 miles. Last fall we spent $2700 for new brakes and the maintenance Toyota suggests. The vehicle has adaptive cruise control and the other safety features common in newer cars. It is our only car and we plan to drive it from Wi to NY in a few weeks. I expect it to run to at least 200,000 miles. All of our 3 previous cars — a Mercury station wagon and 2 Ford Explorers— made it that far with no major repairs.
It’s been my experience that when you can’t find new aftermarket parts and start resorting to salvage yards that’s the time to make a change.
I have a 96 Chevy Lumina minivan with 318K miles that I like a lot but it needs a new windshield. All the windshields that windshield replacement companies said they had all turned out to be bad, now my only source is a windshield from a salvage yard. The catch is that none of the windshield replacement shops will install an owner supplied windshield (beats me why not). I’m left to replacing it myself (youtube video’s).
I’m still keeping the van but went out and paid cash for a new 2025 Honda Ridgeline truck. The plan is to have a shop do a partial restoral on the van to have frame rust (Which is causing the body to twist and flex) fixed before I try the windshield replacement.
I like your analysis. I have one rule like yours, but I don’t use the 50% threshold. I think that is too high, because you have to anticipate the growing chance that there will be another repair you haven’t experienced yet as the car ages further. So my percentage is around 25-30%. (A substitute in the form of another currency also might suffice – for example, I won’t pay more than what would have been 2 or maybe 3 payments on a reasonable car loan for me.)
But for me, the best rules of thumb are truly subjective. First, I know it is time to think about getting rid of a car when car trouble make me fall out of love with it. And second, I know I have truly reached the next step, and it is time to sell or trade it when I simply no longer trust it not to ruin my day. (I also admit that if I’ve had a car more than six years, I will be influenced by the amount of useful new technology I’ve seen in more recent cars – though I did hate to give up that CD player.)
I am currently on my third Accord (2012 with 130k+ miles) and agree with your decision to have the car repaired. I have held on to previous Accords until they reached 150k to 200k miles. Also, great cars to pass down to your children.
My rough rule of thumb for repair vs. replace is that when the $1,000+ repairs start happening more frequently (e.g., several times within 3 to 6 months) then it is time to consider your next vehicle. Another factor would be a potential big ticket repair item that the mechanic advises you may be coming your way soon.
Did the mechanic discuss changing the timing belt pr chain with you? Not sure what the sequence is for a Honda Accord but it may be time to consider replacing it and the water pump, if it is connected to the timing belt.
every 105,000 miles
Two comments. First don’t look at the value for which you can sell the car but rather your replacement cost. The $2500 you paid to repair. It is a lot less than the replacement cost of a newer car. Second, and more importantly, the safety improvements of new cars is amazing. I purchased my first brand new car 18 months ago and I’m glad I did. The safety features of this car hopefully will save me when I do something stupid. I have no intention of being the richest man in the graveyard so this is one place where I am willing to spend some money.
That is a great point. I recently traded my 2014 Camry for a 2025 Camry. The safety features on my new car are amazing versus none on the 2014. Many other features to like. I typically trade every 10 to 12 years, always Camrys. The advances in the 2025 are far greater than any previous new car I bought.
We bought a $50K car in November to replace a car worth $5K and we received a rebate from our insurance company of about $100 for the year due to the safety features of the new car.
Yes, but post the new collision premium on new car compared to old car, if it even had collision coverage.
We’ve recently kept vehicles for up to 12-18 years. So I don’t have a lot of experience. I think personal situation is a factor as is the experience with the vehicle. Currently we own two vehicles that are 10 and 12 years old, each has about 65,000 miles.
I sell a vehicle pre-emptively before repairs get out of hand. I prefer to use independent mechanics because costs for significant repairs can be less than at a dealer. I keep good records and do all maintenance at recommended intervals. I’ve noticed that once I get above 100,000 miles maintenance costs per year tend to increase and repairs accelerate. As the car goes beyond 15 years there may be interior wear.
At one time we both worked full time and I was on the road extensively, so we had two vehicles.
Today we’re both retired so we no longer need the same degree of reliability from our cars and, in fact we now only have one. A few years ago one of our vehicles was 18 years old. In 2021-2022 the repair costs began increasing substantially and I decided that was a signal to depart with it. However, when I donated it everything worked, so who knows how long it may have run?
However, we have a class B RV which we can use as a backup should the car break. Having some kind of reliable transport is a requirement for us. Having a backup means we can tolerate having our main ride in the shop for an extended time, were that to occur.
We’re in a moderately sized city and in the resort we ride in a golf cart which has a restaurant, bar and market so we can actually get around day to day without a road worthy vehicle if necessary.
99k? I have bought Hondas and Toyotas with that and more miles. If you maintain the car, it will last, depending upon where you live. I had to trade in my beloved 2008 RAV4 with 30 miles less than 365k for my own safety because of rusty frame and undercarriage. The dealer who took it in was amazed at how well it ran (luckily never looked underneath during their test drive). I put lots of miles on every year, locally and national road trips.
Old cars are thing aren’t they! I have two; a 2009 Subaru Forester with 55k and a 2014 Honda Odyssey with about 75k. My spouse no longer drives, and since I spend most of my time taking care of her, they get little use. Most of the time the Honda sits in the garage hooked up to a battery maintainer. I do about 200 miles a month in the Subaru. Neither has any problems, but they are expensive considering how little they are used. The 7 year lifetime of the timing belt on the Honda is ticking; tick, tick, tick……Likewise the 8-year life of the one in the Subaru…I’m not aware of any good guidelines about how to maintain them.
Why do you keep both? Just considering the insurance cost ,,,
Inertia. I can afford to keep them. if one did have a problem, I’d have the other to drive……and a lot of other baloney.
We have a 2007 Honda Pilot with 220,000 miles on it. It’s been costing us a chunk lately to keep it running for our daughter. We spent $3000 in the past 9 months to replace parts that don’t fail often (radiator, power steering pump), but also for routine work (new brakes). The blue book value is around $1000. I’ve wondered if we kept it too long. But, buying a used or new car isn’t cheap either. Since we took care of the Pilot for all those years, we know that it’s been kept up. I’m hoping that the unusual replacements are over at least for a while and that she’ll get at least a couple of more years out of it.
I have read a few articles where the Honda Accord is one of the cars that historically last well over 100k miles, and often 200k. I think you made the right choice.
Genius move Rick. I’ve had a 2010, 2012, and 2015 Accords and loved them all–actually, they all belonged to my boys, however, my name was on the title before theirs so I consider myself a devoted Accord lover. One of my boys drove his 2010 Accord for over 150 miles on the interstate, on Thanksgiving eve, with a low oil pressure light on and the engine survived just fine. My mechanic says it has an “emergency” supply of oil in a sump that kept it going. The 2012 Accord was involved in a very bad collision in 2018 that caused the two front airbags to deploy. The passenger side airbag had the Takata recall, which I had completed 5 months before the accident, and that may have saved one of my boy’s friends from a ghastly injury.
That said, my wife and I just gave away a 2005 Lexus RX 330 to my daughter’s best friend after all kinds of necessary repairs this past year including a new alternator, new starter, new air conditioning condenser, and new tires. Bottom line was I wanted at least one car with all the new safe driving technology, such as adaptive cruise control, collision avoidance braking, etc. and we bought a barely used Subaru Outback. Loving it.
Nice job fixing everything before gifting it to someone. Not many people will do that.
Rick you made the right move. At 99K miles the car is barely broken in. Hondas are some of the most reliable cars on the road and the Accord is one of Honda’s best sellers. I have a 2018 Accord and it’s only got 74K miles, so at less than 10K miles a year I expect to have it for years to come. I have yet to get a brake job done which is considered normal wear and tear. Sounds like you have many more miles to go before replacing her. Our last car was a 2003 Honda Odyssey. We sold it after 20 years and 218K miles. We replaced many parts on it, which was far cheaper than purchasing a new car. I agree with your other readers. When it becomes too much of a headache then get rid of it. Of course you can always bless a college student with it. Safe travels.
Rick,
I would consider all of your repairs to be expected repairs, even the starter for a 10+ year old car.
I generally use two metrics:1) frequency of repairs other than general maintenance (only the starter in your scenario was not general maintenance), 2) reliability of the vehicle, ie if I can’t trust it, I won’t keep it.
Five years ago this month I bought a new Toyota Tacoma with all the bells and whistles. I had replaced the heat/air conditioner on my 18 year old Tacoma that I paid 13k for new. Even though it still ran well (sold it to my brother for 1.5K and he’s still using it as a dump runner). My wife twisted my arm to get a new truck with 4 WD so I didn’t have to lift a dozen cinder blocks into the bed to drive it in the snow. Also doesn’t require changing over to snow tires each fall.
Replaced 10 year old Subaru Forrester last fall. For a year kept having different warning lights go on and off. Was going to get rid of it a year earlier but the warning lights went off so it passed inspection. Then they returned this past fall, and I said enough. The three previous years we had to replace different parts of the AC, and it never seemed to work right.
Both of our children are running old cars even though they could easily afford new ones. One has a 15 year old truck, but only uses it to drive 5 miles to work. Uses his wife’s newer car for out of town drives. Daughter drives a 10 year old Hyundai, eight of those years in California, so no salt. She says she just doesn’t want a car payment.
I guess the old saying the apple doesnt fall far from the tree is true.
A Honda with 99,000 miles probably still has plenty of miles to go, and if you drive it less than 10,000 miles a year you easily should affordably get 5 or 6 more years out of the car.
A few years back had an older Buick that drove decently, but one day while opening the driver side door a strong wind gust caught the door and bent the frame of the door…this was in January. Checked with a couple of body shops about a repair and they said, no guarantees on air leaks with a fix. The car was freezing even with the heat on, so two days after this happened, dug out the car title and bought a new car immediately…a Honda Accord, runs fine.
If it’s been a reliable second car and you have a good feeling about it, then get it fixed and keep it, but I’d call replacing the starter a non-typical failure. Assuming your shop is a good one, confirm the ring gear/flywheel is still OK, too.
Interestingly, I will soon post a Forum piece on my latest vehicle story. Other recommendations for checking brakes, hoses, and belts are good ones. If it were me, I would also ask your shop to do a compression check on the cylinders.
Thanks Jeff. I look forward to reading your post.
In true HD fashion, I’ve still got my 2001 Toyota Avalon and do a lot of my own maintenance. At 262,000 miles, I call it my “gold-digger repellent.”
We’ve had a couple of Avalons. They go forever. I was disappointed when I learned Toyota discontinued making them.
In addition to some of the excellent considerations in other comments, one thing I consider is whether I have a trustworthy repair shop I can rely on to find a good balance between effective preventative maintenance without excessive spending. Eight years ago I was approaching retirement and I was using a small owner run shop that I had been using for several years and was very happy with. I discussed this topic with the owner one day and based on his assessment and recommendation of preventative work to do on my 2003 Tundra, I invested about $2,500 in some serious preventative maintenance (water pump, timing belt, thermostate, all new hoses, serpentine belt, brakes, plugs, front seal, and a new alternator). That was eight years ago and I haven’t had any expenses since except routine maintenance, so I think I made a good decision. Another reason I’m glad I did was that shortly thereafter he also retired and sold his shop. Done piecemeal, I’d guess that work would have cost me at least double what I paid, without even considering the inconvenience of breaking down on the side of the road. So for me access to a trustworthy shop can influence the wisdom of when to repair versus replace an old car.
It is time to move on when the headache isn’t worth it anymore. Rick, If you are interested in selling the Honda let me know. I have a college student in need of a used car. I am in Philly area. bmchale27@verizon.net
Good read, Rick, and commenters. We are down to 1 car now that we are retired. We have money set aside for a second car, but haven’t done anything yet. We talk about it occasionally, but so far we don’t feel like it is a necessity. Would encourage others to consider doing this.
Rick, I would have fixed your Accord also, 99k miles is nothing for them. Chris
Rick, the analyses in the comments are all great. I would also have paid for those repairs for a reliable second car.
Just for fun, track the cost of repairing the car over the next few years, as well as the earnings–or loss–you would not realize had you bought a new car from investments sold. It would make an interesting comparison.
I have a 2011 Versa. Worth about $2000. I do not want a new car so I keep spending money to take care of it. We go on long road trips and it’s been perfect once repairs needed are made. Some sample repairs are new clutch assembly, new brakes and not a repair but new tires. All this cost a few times the value. But did I say I do not want a new car?
The cost of repairs needed to get a car up to a reasonable safety standard is always foundational in my fix or replace decisions. I expect I would have made the same decision to repair that you did given the repairs were of a routine nature.
The average age of cars in the US is around 12 years and with 99K miles on your Honda I would expect there are a lot of years of use left as a secondary car. Our 2006 van needs some new shocks and I expect I will soon repair rather than replace. Also, as a van that is driven under 4K miles per year, I am able to haul some large items on the infrequent basis when I still have that need. I try to exercise the van by driving it weekly.
One unwelcome surprise with a long held car can be a radiator hose blowout. If you have never replaced the hoses you may regret not doing so as I have experienced when my failure to do that maintenance ended up with us on the side of the interstate and needing a tow.
One additional thought regarding a long lived second car is that vehicle can easily become a much appreciated gift to an adult child when their life circumstances result in an immediate car need or to a grand child who has just reached the driving age.
I bought my first car, a lightly used 1950 Plymouth, from my paternal grandmother in late 1965 for $50 which I had earned cutting grass in our neighborhood. I learned a lot about hands on car care and maintenance with that car and even more about about family generosity from my grandma.
My mechanic tells me that the anti-freeze that is used in newer vehicles is formulated differently vs that in older vehicles and helps prevent hoses from drying out, cracking, splitting, etc. But I agree it’s prob good insurance to maybe do the hoses when a coolant flush is being done. Maybe 100K? Having said that, he didn’t recommend ours at 100K.
I agree with you and your mechanic. I think it is a best practice to always consult your owner’s manual for fluid recommendations for your specific vehicle and purchase accordingly. I know our 2018 vehicle has a different antifreeze type from our 2006 vehicle. I have not yet had to deal with antifreeze for the 2018 yet due to extremely low mileage. I expect that if you are not doing a full system flush for antifreeze that it is best to match any needed top off to what is already in use in your vehicle. I have the same fluid matching criteria when thinking about oil. I watch for sales on auto fluids but always buy the same top recommended fluids. When I bought the 2018 car new I also was able to negotiate a good bulk deal on oil filters from the dealer as I bought 10 of them which covered the first five years of changes which I do myself on my twice a year schedule. When that original purchase of filters were used up I bought another six pack of OEM filters online for our 2018 vehicle. I now expect that I should have bought even more oil filters as those prices appear will continue to rise.
My wife’s 2015 Accord just hit 110k. Still lots of life in there. Especially since you like it, keep it! We’re going to see if we can stretch it to be our oldest kid’s first car in about 5 years.
If it’s second car, I’d definitely keep it. My 2006 Accord and 2002 CRV, both of which I sold to friends years ago, are still going strong. Depends on the State you’re in, but your insurance and personal property tax, aka, the gifts that keep on “taking”, also rise significantly once you dump the beater. My daughter’s 2015 Civic is rock solid w no major repairs approaching 110K. My sister just put over $3K into a 2011 CRV and will just use it locally to keep additional mileage and repairs down and rent something else for any road trips.
I brought my 2014 Mercedes with 126,000 miles in for routine maintenance and when they inspected the car the issues were $8,000 to repair. The book value was $5,000. I bought a new one off the showroom floor and they gave me $3,500 for the old one.
I don’t know if this is an option for you in your situation, but for me I do all the regular maintenance myself (oil and other fluids, brake calipers, rotors, pads, lights, any minor repairs) and I can tell you those parts are dirt cheap on a regular car like my Sonata, so for me a repair or maintenance is generally worth it, even when my car is at 160k miles. My rule of thumb is if the vehicle is making me more money than it costs then I’ll try to keep it, but I’d say any chronic issue or major repairs ($4k+) will be the end of it. Cars are such a hassle.
Usually repairs (esp when you consider the insurance on a newer vehicle) are the cheapest most cost effective way to create that 2nd vehicle. My checklist include:
Also, is the top car a good candidate to become #2. If top car is a big SUV and the 2nd car mainly gets driven by the spouse in a pinch, do they like or hate driving that car. It’s not a good switch if you demote a car that will then need replacing for other reasons.
Well Rick, I think you should scrap the Honda and get yourself a Crosstrek; the apparent car of AARP Taxaid Volunteers!
Seriously, I’d have fixed the Accord as well. Most of that expense is standard maintenance stuff, it still has a lot of life left in it.
Bbbobbins analysis below is also interesting, and I believe it also indicates the repair was warranted.
Here’s my story. Chris’s 2010 Prius needed a repair that exceeded what it was worth, so we got rid of it. Truth be told, I never cared for it that much anyway.
Thanks Dan. I may test drive a Crosstrek for fun. I drove my last Accord for almost 150K miles. I would have gone more but it was totaled by State Farm after a minor fender bender.
Cost the bill against expected continued utility of the vehicle on a cost per month basis. So if you valued having a car at $300 per month and you expected to get another year out of it you could wear a repair bill of up to $3,600.
If you want to be even more bangernomics about it (and you don’t care about intangibles like whether you’d like a newer vehicle) cost it against cost to change e.g. fully paid off banger vs lease payments (or depreciation) on desired replacement.
You have to be mindful of the sunk cost fallacy though.
Thanks bb. I tend to think of the cost of another year of use as a good metric. Replacing it with a similar car would be at lest $10k, if not more. I did some looking and I could buy a used BMW like that one I bought(??) recently in the UK for about $33K.