Meaning, when do you feel that your truck doesn't owe you anything?

I know that a bunch of guys here swap out once and even more often during a styling change. In some cases that actually makes sense considering the value of used trucks and the high trade in values that are coming with that.

Throughout the term that I've had my truck, I'd receive letters from Ford credit illustrating how I could get into a new truck with a similar payment and of course, a new warranty. Very enticing and great marketing.

So, where's your break even point? Mine is being able to own the truck for twice as long as I financed it for. For example, my 2004 Expedition is 12 years old and I bought it new. I financed it for 6 years and I've been 6 years with no payment on the truck. It's had a couple smaller issues but nothing that alarmed me into thinking that I needed to get away from it.

Chime in, this is kind of fun with no judging.

 

two things factor in for me, the repairs are the nickel and diiming me? The boring/old factor where they ride quality/power has gone down. I keep mine long after the payments, about 4-5 years.

 

No set point. My F250 was paid off. I sold it for cash to build my steel building. A bank loan was 6% for the building. A new truck was 1.9%. Plus the F250 wasn't being used much anymore. Easy decision. New building, new truck.

If this truck was paid for I'd sell it, put a new roof on the house, then buy another at 1.9%. Car loans are cheap now. Matter of fact, my motorcycle is for sale right now. I figure I might as well sell while used values are sky high and loan rates are very low.

When interest rates are back up to 6-8%, I'll see things different. I think the low rates fuel a lot of sales. People trade before they're even in equity partly because of the rates and also due to high trade/used car values.

 

The 100,000 mile mark is key point for me. I traded this time at 95,000 on an 8 year old truck. I really think it was going to fall off in value quickly once over that 100K mark so it made sense. The time before that, I had to go to a crew cab because the good doctor told me I was having twins! The time before that, I bought a fifth wheel camper and traded up to a F250 7.3 diesel. So lots of reasons go into it for me.

 

For driving pleasure I much prefer cars to pickups so I trade cars when I get bored with them or I'm struck by something I like better, usually after a couple of years, sometimes less. I keep trucks as long as they're useful: I have a 2013 that I bought for towing an RV and I'll probably keep it until I have reliability problems, which means I'll probably have it a long time.

On the other hand if I go to a type of RV where the truck isn't suitable (or not needed) then off it goes. It's a tool.

 

I will keep it until it becomes a frustration to own due to repairs. I work on all my autos, so I can keep for a long time.

 

For me, it varies (a lot) by the vehicle. Our oldest vehicle is a 1975 Dodge van that my wife bought new back in 1975. What's that? 41 years... Other vehicles have ranged from 3 to 21 years, depending on use, and issues. The shortest duration has been our work trucks, which we typically lease for the business. Longer-term vehicles have been our daily drivers.

In short, I guess I don't keep track of a "break even" point. I keep vehicles as long as they're working for what we need.

 

I think I'm similar to GlueGuy...don't have a break even point. I keep the vehicles till they no longer provide the service I need. My former 2005 Expedition, bought used, had been paid off for years, but we still kept it, primarily for towing and wife to use in winter. Once we got a new enclosed trailer and the Expy began to have some towing difficulty, we began talking and looking. We ran into a deal we couldn't walk away from last July, so the Expy became no more. We're kinda doing the same with the wifes 06 convertible mustang. Paid off for years now, looking at the new, but not serious yet. The 06 is doing all we need and want it to do, so we'll keep it till that changes....I think.

 

Good question but I keep vehicles until I can't trust them any more (and my threshold is much lower for my wife's daily driver) or until my needs change. I've bought used cars and sold them in 6 months when I discovered the seat did not really work for my spine (but didn't lose tangible money on them).

In my college years, I used to buy and sell 2 or 3 cars a year and my objective was to MAKE money when I sold them because I worked on them. I was driving a '66 Vette in 1973 when I was 21 years old and even took a trip to Colorado in it with my ex. Played with it for a summer, sold it in October for a net profit (which was payment for my considerable labor in getting it squared away). People wondered how a married broke college kid (who also played music in bars, had a part time job at the university, and took in auto repairs) could drive a Vette. That's how.

I keep a spreadsheet where I neurotically calculate cents per mile on all my vehicles, and these days if I can keep depreciation and repair costs to under 20 cents per mile I've done well. This means that if I can buy a new vehicle and put 100k miles on it, I don't like depreciation and repairs of more than $20 grand. Can't really do that with a vehicle with a huge price tag. My E150 came in under 20 cents per mile for 130k miles. (Brand new it was $23k, sold for $4k this year.)

My wife's '07 Civic was $17,400 new in 2007; it's now worth $5 grand and the total repairs (I don't include wear items) were a single AC repair last year that cost under a grand. Car has 137k miles on it. Cost per mile is under 10 cents. With zero fears of unreliability meaning I would (and actually did) trust my wife driving thru the Detroit ghetto on her commute with it for years. Considering it regularly gets 35 mpg, this is as cheap as it gets to operate a vehicle that still looks great. She is retired now and it's great to park at the mall or in the church parking lot and not sweat door dings and the like.

This is an oversimplification since costs include things like gas, insurance, interest on loan money, and even the cost of having your money tied up in a vehicle. You can probably tell I worked in a financial job for 35 years.

George

 

Hard to say. I'm in the wholesale jewelry business and that requires me to drive to trade shows around the eastern half of the country and from time to time call on customers. So.....sometimes I travel with a fairly large dollar figure amount of jewelry in the truck. (you never know what the guy in the other lane is carrying.....). With most modern vehicles I think 150,000 miles is pretty easy to do, so I use that as a starting point. I'm about to make the 41st of 60 payments and currently have 84,000 easy miles on the truck so I've got a few miles to go yet. At some point after it's been paid for about a year or so........
I do like to look though. A new Lariat, similar to my current 2012 Lariat, is pretty spendy compared to what I paid in Dec 2012.

 

I play it by ear. Simple.

I am a cash buyer when it comes to cars, so that means I live within my means. No trying to justify why this or that, I either have the money or I don't. Like I said, simple.

 

With good credit interest rates are so low buying with cash not much of a game changer, your gonna pay.....now or later.

 

It does effect how much you're willing to pay and how often. When you are looking at the prospect of your bank account dropping by $xx,xxx amount with one pen stroke, it tends to make you think REAAAAALY hard about what you're doing.

 

Great question. I have dreams of making it to a 200k mark (and I service my vehicles as such), but I'm averaging 3.5 years and no more than 80,000 miles in my last 9 vehicles. Some I sold for good reasons, like my V10. That was my dream truck, but at 10mpg (at best) and the wife not going back to work after our second kid...couldn't afford that bill. My first GMC (Denali with quadra steer) was crazy fun, but in the shop once a month for work. That was an easy sell. Everything else was sold for a new lust basically. I have reasons for them all, some more valid than others...

I think my current F-150 has the potential for going the distance. It scratches all the itches that normally get me dreaming of something new. If that's the case, then I'll hold it until it gets to be too expensive to maintain or unreliable.

 

I spend a lot of time and money installing aftermarket equipment (communications, public safety stuff)... so swapping every year or two isn't wise.

Barring any major repairs or nickel-and-dime stuff, I ask myself... would I feel comfortable hopping in this truck and driving it across the country? For the wife's vehicle, would I feel comfortable with her driving it across the county (knowing she has very limited mechanical aptitude)? As soon as the answer is no, it's time to replace the vehicle.

I sold the last truck privately to someone who wanted the equipment, or I would've continued driving it. It was an 09 SCrew 4x2 5.4L with almost 180K on it. And it was definitely fit for a cross-country trip.