How long do you keep your car before replacing it

[sbwertz]

A note on trailer pulling. One of the best investments I ever made was putting a front receiver on my 1 ton diesel truck. I had to park a travel trailer on a narrow side yard with only about two feet of clearance on one side between the trailer and the roof, and about the same on the other side between the trailer and a retaining wall. Our driveway is uphill and curved! Sometimes I would spend fifteen minutes jockeying the trailer back and forth before I got it exactly where I wanted it. With the front receiver I could park it right where I wanted it first try!

 

[TimS124]

I keep them until there's a compelling reason to replace them. The longest so far is 10+ years (my current truck). It's in fine shape, still meet my needs, and has been paid off for many years.

My first car lasted about five years. It was a Chevy Chevette and was engineered to self-destruct about the time a normal loan would get paid off.

The shortest was an Acura Vigor that was purchased just before we started having kids. Turns out, it's a terrible family car. No room in the back for a car seat, trunk was too small for stroller, playpen, etc. It was traded for a minivan...

The minivan became another minivan and eventually became an SUV which now has about 110K miles on it over the course of about 9 years. No reason in sight to replace it any time soon.