How long will a new car last?

[Beachholidaysun]

Without given you problems?

How often do you renew yours? Do you buy upfront? Use lease? pcp? Second hand or new?

Is getting a new car every five years or less a luxury?

We by new or nearly new and keep them ten years+. Each of the last four did well over 120,000 miles and one north of 150,000.

We sold previous one a week ago at 11 years 6 months and just short of 140k. Ran perfectly well, much the same as when new. Replaced 'cos we want to tow a larger caravan and it had issues with towing weights.

It was a Citroen Berlingo!!

A few minor issues needing garage help but let us down to the point of needing breakdown assistance once.

The only new car I ever had, I kept for 16 years. Got rid when repairs got pricey.

We would normally buy a brand new car every 5yrs or so and pay cash (i.e. no finance or PCP). Rarely have to do anything other than normal servicing & tyres.
In recent years however (WFH, early retirement etc) we found that we are barely covering 3k miles/pa so have kept this one a bit longer.

We also run a MoHo, also bought new and paid cash. We tend to keep these 5-6yrs. Running costs are generally a bit more than with a car but again, only ever servicing & tyres.

I buy at one or two years old then basically keep them until the cost of repairs is excessive / they are worthless. My last one I kept for 13 years (so 15 or 16 years old) and only got rid because the chassis was pretty much rusted through. It was worth £200 on the car purchase websites at the end.

My current car is 10 years old and up to now has been reliable. I’ll keep it until that stops being the case whether that’s this year or in 10 years time.

I think replacing a car every 5 years is a luxury but there’s nothing wrong with that if you have the money. I’m not interested in cars so long as they get me from A to B but I definitely spend on other sorts of luxuries.

I mean, I've recently traded in my 22 year old car.....

As CandidHedgehog says - yes, of course it is a luxury to buy a new car every 4 or 5 years, but, if you have the money, and that is how you want to spend it, why not ?
We all have things we like to treat ourselves with, and, without people replacing their cars after 3 - 5 years, there would be far fewer bargains for the rest of us.

Thank you all. Thinking 10 years should be a good compromise?

is it better to buy cash than PCP?

If it's a used car, definitely better to pay cash (or bank loan) vs. PCP. As an example I got a £20k 1-yr old car, used a bank loan to pay for it. After 6 yrs I own the car outright and it's worth c. £14k. The same monthly repayment on PCP for 5 yrs rather than 6 would have left me with a balloon payment of £12k to pay, or start again. But now I have however many years of no car payments - I do intend to keep it for another 5-6 yrs though.

It really depends on how long you keep the car for. If you don’t ever want to have an older car, you pay the monthly amount but the balloon payment at the end of the term to keep the car is irrelevant because you go into the agreement knowing you will hand the car back instead.

If, like me, you intend to keep the car until bits start dropping off it, PCP is an awful idea and will cost far more than paying cash (whether actual cash or from a loan) at the start.

I also note that some PCP deals have mileage limits / damage clauses. I don’t know the details - as I say, it’s never interested me.

Edited to say: PCP deals are generally for 3 to 5 years. If you are keeping the car for longer you would have to pay the balloon payment so paying cash at the start is almost definitely cheaper.

We tend to buy new (or very nearly new, i.e. ex demos) and keep them till they drop which is usually in the 10-20 year range. But we look after them, i.e. have them serviced to schedule at dealership garages and are careful drivers (i.e. no bumping up/down kerbs etc), and we buy "sensible" cars, i.e. common makes and mid range models etc which are cheaper to repair anyway.

Depending on our travel/commuting, they either get to very high mileage or very old. Highest mileage was around 195k when I was doing a long daily commute. Oldest is one we currently have which is 17 years old and still going strong and still immaculate - no dents/scratches and the interior is still pristine. It actually got written off a few years ago after a moronic neighbour left her handbrake on, but we bought it back from her insurers and financed the repairs out of the insurance payout - we couldn't let an immaculate low mileage car go to the scrapyard! (We actually made a profit on that as the insurance payout was higher than the repair shop cost!).

Never really had any stupidly expensive repairs and none have been particularly prone to breaking down. Never needed any new gearboxes, clutches, etc. Usually just a new battery if the car gets to around 10 years old, then consumables such as tyres, brakes, spark plugs, etc. Occasionally, we've needed something like cheap suspension parts (boots? arms?) picked up at the MOT. I think probably the most expensive unscheduled repair was a replacement heater/cooler blower fan where the cost of the motor itself was cheap but it took the garage most of a full day to take out the dashboard to get to it - I think it cost around £750, but the car was around a decade old, so not too bad,

When we were a lot younger, we'd buy second hand cars - typically 3-5 years old, keep them a couple of years and replace, but we always chose low mileage with full service history and never had problems with those either.

For us, buying new is the most economical way of financing a car, simply because we keep them so long. Leasing/replacing every 3 years or so is a very expensive way of having a car and is more vanity than sanity.

For me the make and model are critically important. My last car, a Honda Jazz, I bought for cash at 5 years old, low mileage, excellent condition. I followed the servicing schedule and had zero engine issues in 13 years. The engine was still running brilliantly aged 18 but rust around the wheel arches eventually killed her. I was still able to part ex her for my current car, another Honda Jazz. This time, I've bought another Honda Jazz, 10 years old, excellent condition. I wasn't able to pay cash this time so I bought her on an interest free credit card (18 months.) I fully expect to have this one until she's 18 or thereabouts and no doubt rust will kill this one off as well.

If I had the money to buy a new one for cash, I probably would but I'm happy to buy good second hand.

I think cash is the only way to pay for a depreciating asset. DH recently had to give up on his beloved Freelander; he'd owned it for nine years and it had 160,000 on the clock, the gearbox needed replacing and the cost of repairs was more than the car was worth.

Another Land Rover it had to be - nearly new, because we'd never buy brand new - and the push for us to take out finance was really strong. Dealers are paid commission by the lenders if you take a loan, and some salesmen were quite "off" because we wanted to use cash. They have to pay for all those swanky showrooms somehow.

My car is 12 years old, never had a problem . Don’t see why you would get a new one unless you needed to?

mine is a Honda jazz! I keep an eye on the wheel arches!

also was bought for cash when it was 4 years old. I only ever want to pay cash really but I think I’ll have to get a loan for the next one

We are cash buyers as well and we buy very early new. The last three cars are all 6 months old cars. We kept one for 7 years only sold it when it needed big repair. I intend to keep mine for 10 years so another 3 years to go. I don't like pcp as I am not bothered about driving new car every 3 years and I like knowing the car is mine. I'm not stressed if there are dings on the door or little scratches.

I bought my last car, a Micra, when it was two years old. I had it for 16 years and it was still going strong but I fancied a change so I've just swapped it for a 17 plate Mini Cooper. I'm hoping it'll last me for at least another 10 years. Paid cash for both.

They're great cars aren't they? I did look at alternatives before I bought my second one, (Toyota, Suzuki and Hyundai) but for various reasons I decided to go with another Jazz. The wheel arches on this one are better protected than on the last one so fingers🤞

My current daily is a little Aygo, bought at 2 years old, had it for 5 years.

I've never bought a new car - I think the oldest one I bought was 15 years old and I ran it for 5 years.

I do have a vintage land Rover that's 48 years old and still mostly going strong, I think it's false economy to spend so much on a massive expensive car that'll lose vat the second you drive it off the forecourt, never mind finance costs.

Mine is very dented. I had an argument with my wall a few years ago. I don’t care about dents though really. I’d never get a new car for that reason!

I want to run it for another 5 years, until dd comes out of uni, then pass it to her and get the Renault 5 electric, when there should be some used around.

my neighbour just got rid of her 22 year old jazz

Thank you all. This is very helpful

I buy nearly new cars and run them until the cost of repairs exceeds the annual deprecation. For example if a car costs £15k and is 10 years old then the annual depreciation is equivalent to £1500. If a bill is less than £1500 I repair it, if it needs more than £1500 repairs then I replace it.

I pay for a car outright and then save the equivalent of a PCP payment each month into a separate account so when the car needs replacing I have the money.

Sounds like a Honda Jazz is a good and reliable car; may look for that one next.

Also, it seems is better to buy nearly new and cash if you can afford it

We buy (no loans) a car that has around 3000 miles on the clock. We keep it for around 10 years. Our current car is around 7 years old. It has been an extremely reliable car (Kia Sportage) and hopefully will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

@DancingFerret

the cost of repairs was more than the car was worth.

That can be the wrong way of thinking about it. You should be thinking of the cost "to you", not the resale value. After all, you've got to pay to replace it, potentially with another used car that may also have inherent costly problems.

When our old (12 years old at the time) car got written off by a moronic neighbour, it was only "worth" £1k being the we buy any car price if you only consider resale value. But for us, it was worth a lot more as we;d had it from new, it was low mileage, virtually immaculate, properly serviced, well driven etc and we knew from MOT histories that there was nothing rotting away underneath (no advisories). We paid more than that to get it repaired and it's lasted another five years to date, no repair costs other than servicing and MOTs, so it's been a brilliant "investment" to pay to have it repaired and kept on the road as it would have cost us a lot more to buy a replacement used car and then risk repair costs on top of the purchase price.

We had two bodyworks chaps out to look at it after the accident and both immediately said it wasn't worth repairing and were quite happy to just drive away again after a cursory look, but we insisted that we were motivated to keep it running and happy to pay more than scrap value, so they had a proper look and gave us proper quotes - of over twice it's "value", and were pretty surprised when we said we wanted them to go ahead anyway.

Result is a car still on the road, costing next to nothing, and still sailing through it's MOTs with no issues.

Mine is 10 years old this year - I had it from new. DHs 11 years old and we bought it when it was a year old. Both Vauxhalls. I'm expecting to replace one or both over the next 5 years.

We generally buy with HP, usually with a good deposit and part exchanging the existing car. We also tend to settle the loan as soon as we can. Not a fan of PCP/lease as we like to own our cars.

Having a new car every 5 years is a luxury, but if that's what you want then it's no-one else's business.