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Cars People Keep for 15 Years or More

thedrive.com

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Re: Cars People Keep for 15 Years or More

#81

Post by Glawen »

robomartin wrote: post #76

I wonder how things might be in Europe. We’ve owned BMW’s in the US for years. However, we get rid of them just before the warranty runs out. Cost of parts and maintenance is just too high.

There are some old bmw on the road, but there are more old mercedes. Mercedes is way more reliable than BMW.

Then it depends on where you live. In my region east of France, you can see a lot of Peugeot 205 which last forever. If you live on other parts of France, you will see more old Renault. If you are in Italy you have old Fiat :)

The japanese cars were never a thing in Europe, I don't know the reason. Maybe due high price, cheap interiors and bad diesel engines? What is sure is that they are damn expensive on the used market.

Re: Cars People Keep for 15 Years or More

#83

Post by dingaling »

syedkarim wrote: post #45
Spooky23 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. I know people who kept older German cars forever. It’s not very possible anymore. They fall apart and parts aren’t available. My 2003 Pilot was not a utilitarian transport. It was a well equipped car with 80% of the doodads of an equivalent Benz at half the cost. I got rid of it last year, because it had hit 300k miles and key suspension parts were worn out.

My daily driver is a 1994 BMW 525i; 253,000 miles. My dad bought it new. Parts are very easy to come by. It is not fun to drive, but serves its purpose. I vastly prefer our 2007 Mercury Mariner (all wheel drive). I'll never sell either. Just park it in the field for when the kids get older.

Why is it not fun to drive? I know a lifelong BMW driver and he pines for the days when they made sporting saloons like the E28 and E39 instead of today's bloated barges.

His last one, an E46, had steer-by-wire! That's the antonym of a driver's car.

Re: Cars People Keep for 15 Years or More

#84

Post by perl4ever »

dingaling wrote: post #83
syedkarim wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My daily driver is a 1994 BMW 525i; 253,000 miles. My dad bought it new. Parts are very easy to come by. It is not fun to drive, but serves its purpose. I vastly prefer our 2007 Mercury Mariner (all wheel drive). I'll never sell either. Just park it in the field for when the kids get older.

Why is it not fun to drive? I know a lifelong BMW driver and he pines for the days when they made sporting saloons like the E28 and E39 instead of today's bloated barges. His last one, an E46, had steer-by-wire! That's the antonym of a driver's car.

Are you sure about "steer-by-wire"? The only instance of that I've heard of on a production car is a recent Infiniti.

Perhaps you are thinking of electrically assisted power steering, which is not steer-by-wire - it has a physical steering column like most cars.

But then again, doesn't the E46 have hydraulic assist, not electric?

Re: Cars People Keep for 15 Years or More

#85

Post by kwhitefoot »

vanekjar wrote: post #80

I would like to see the same statistics for Europe. It would be very different. I am afraid the result is biased. Most of the people in US keep Japanese cars because most people actually buy Japanese cars at the first place and some of them keep them. I guess in Europe we could see very different brands.

Here in Norway, and even more in Sweden, I think Volvo would feature pretty heavily in the list.

Re: Cars People Keep for 15 Years or More

#87

Post by sys_64738 »

robomartin wrote: post #76

I wonder how things might be in Europe. We’ve owned BMW’s in the US for years. However, we get rid of them just before the warranty runs out. Cost of parts and maintenance is just too high.

I knew somebody with a 15 year old BMW in the mid-90s. That was a nice vehicle and he somehow kept it going pretty cheaply if I recall.

Re: Cars People Keep for 15 Years or More

#88

Post by smileysteve »

syedkarim wrote: post #45
Spooky23 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. I know people who kept older German cars forever. It’s not very possible anymore. They fall apart and parts aren’t available. My 2003 Pilot was not a utilitarian transport. It was a well equipped car with 80% of the doodads of an equivalent Benz at half the cost. I got rid of it last year, because it had hit 300k miles and key suspension parts were worn out.

My daily driver is a 1994 BMW 525i; 253,000 miles. My dad bought it new. Parts are very easy to come by. It is not fun to drive, but serves its purpose. I vastly prefer our 2007 Mercury Mariner (all wheel drive). I'll never sell either. Just park it in the field for when the kids get older.

I'd recommend new shocks on the 525i, I just changed mine on a 2004 330i for a part cost of $725 and about 4 hours of labor.

Should make it fun to drive again.

Re: Cars People Keep for 15 Years or More

#89

Post by WalterBright »

chapium wrote: post #65
WalterBright wrote: post #37

My daily driver (Ford) is 30 years old, my toy car (Dodge) is 47 years old. I've owned the Ford for 28 years, the Dodge for 30 some. I like older cars. I suppose I got it from my dad, who'd buy them new and keep them for 30-40 years.

Take a look ynder the hood and you start to see the full picture. Older cars were heavy and inefficient. Newer cars have far more complexity and a lot more plastics. On the plus side they have some great traction features and are far safer to get in an accident with (in general).

My Ford has 4WD, and is satisfactory in the snow. The safety in a collision is an issue, likely the only one for me.

The Ford is cheap to operate, and very cheap to repair compared with newer models.

Re: Cars People Keep for 15 Years or More

#90

Post by gargravarr »

My UK-model Toyota Celica Supra was owned by its original owner for 20 years. During that time, the car was pampered and treasured - I have a large folder of extensive service records dating to the late-80s. My father bought it in 2006 and gave it to me in 2013. I've sworn never to get rid of it, no matter what. Not only is it an incredible car to drive, and visually striking (classic 80s wedge shape), but no current car has my attention. Plus, even if current cars are more efficient, more powerful, etc, the amount of resources and energy used in the manufacture of a newer car quickly offsets those benefits when I could simply keep a well-engineered vehicle running for longer. Finding parts is understandably difficult, but I see no reason to chop and change cars every few years. If I could, I would have owned the car from new, but it's 4 years older than me!
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