Ductape wrote:
Never, if you maintain it enough. Costs will escalate but seldom exceed cost of new vehicles.
Sort of depends.
One must ask themselves when enough is enough.
For me, when the monthly repairs cost as much as a new truck monthly payment, it is well past the time to replace.
For one of my trucks, it was when my DD was about 4yrs old and the first thing she did when the DW brought her home from daycare was to LOOK UNDER the truck for Daddy!
But honestly, I have a 2003 F250 that has just about 200K miles and used it for my daily commute of 100 miles round trip UNTIL it nearly stranded me at work!
Wouldn't turn over, coworker hooked up a jump pack and it started.
Bought a new battery, and a week later wouldn't turnover in my driveway..
Went to change the starter and rounded a bolt.. Had to have towed to a mechanic costing $200 for the tow and cost $500 for labor and starter..
Shortly after that brake line rusted out (hauled it to mechanic on my flatbed trailer), cost $250 for that repair.
Not long after that drove 2 miles to gas station to get diesel for my tractor and transmission line blew a hole in the gas station lot, drove it home as quick as possible just barely getting in my driveway (forgot to take cell phone with me), $50 for transmission hose and clamps plus nearly $100 in transmission fluid..
Had to repair the rusted out bed wheel wells, cut and welded in new panels, cost $200 in materials and a couple of weekends of my time..
Now, my DD is driving it, recently had to make emergency repair of parking brake cable in a store parking lot ($20 in parts), that was enjoyable doing in torrential downpours (somehow Pacific Northwest Weather doesn't realize I am on the EAST COAST ).
Muffler decided to rot out, well a piece of scrap metal and a MIG welder patched that up, recently a new hole has developed on the other side of the muffler.. Yeah, gonna get the MIG welder out again, hate to spend $500-$1000 for a exhaust system..
Oh, yeah, forgot, the A/C clutch is worn out and needs replaced or shims removed.. Been ignoring that for about 40K miles since the compressor is on the UNDERSIDE of the engine and I am not as young as I used to be and one heck of a lot less acrobatic.. Don't even want to know what that would cost to have a mechanic fix that one..
I figure that my 2003 is worth on it's best day at $4K-$5K, doesn't take a math wiz to figure out that all the work and parts I have put into it the last few years has exceeded it's value..
I only kept it because it was cheaper to fix up for my DD to learn to drive on than if I bought a 4-5yr old car and then had to fix it..
But in reality, the newer vehicles do have more powerful engines, nicer transmissions (in my case 4 speed (2003) to 5 speed (2006) and even to a 2013 with 6 speed, no tow/haul (2003) to tow/haul, no integrated brake controller (2003 to an integrated brake controller in our 2013)..
While our 2003 had be our "old faithful" for many years, it is pretty worn out and not as RELIABLE recently and the repairs often come in $500 chunks at a time..
