You got me beat there.  But at age 60, the Mrs. and I could retire tomorrow.  When we bought our first home, we bought a modest house and borrowed far less than the bank would lend us. After a few years, the interest rate dropped low enough that we could refi to a 15-year mortgage. We paid that off and still live in…

Given my 30 years experience with a UGH! Lexus, followed by Bimmers, 15 yr old BMWs don’t cost more than new Lexuses/Toyotas if you have a brain. If wind whistles through your ears and you don’t even change your own oil, ALL cars out of warranty should be avoided.

You and me both. Even though I get daily kudos for how nice my vehicles are, the newest one is 16 years old.

I hate numbers. Can't we just say that it's "cheaper to keep her"?

Uh oh. A couple hundred a year in brakes and a hole in your muffler....sounds like it’s time to take out a 84 month loan on a new $90k car. Wouldn’t want to risk having to replace your tires. Everyone knows that’s when it’s time to get a new car.

Oh, of courseeeee! Right before that catastrophic failure! And if you can magically tell when this catastrophic failure will occur, then how are you not a trillioniare if you can see the future? If you know things like when something unexpected and catastrophic is about to happen, you have enough money to buy a new…

There’s no such thing as “a good amount of value”. Cars depreciate exponentially. Tomorrow my car will depreciate less than it did today. When looking at an exponential curve, once you buy a car, it doesn’t make sense to EVER sell it. Especially since there are transaction costs like taxes and other fees involved in…

I’m not claiming this is good advice, but if you want to buy new and not drive it till it strands you my wife has a thing where she buys a 20-something grand car and keeps it past the payoff until she can get about 10k in a trade-in. The 10k being a good-sized down payment for the next car.

“im a lazy shit who cant be bothered to get oil changes done”

Cool story and great humble brag. This is far from reality for most Americans, the majority of whom have meager savings, if any.

until that fucker dies on the road.  unfortunately because i drive a hell of a lot and im a lazy shit who cant be bothered to get oil changes done my cars last about 8-10 years and 200k miles. except my 99 powerstroke.  that will never die. 

The tough part with those 0% interest loans is that you can’t tell if you’re just paying for the interest in the cost of the car anyway because of the shady ways they do business. Plus I don’t think anyone is offering 0% anymore. 

I take the same exact approach. Bonus points for something that’s been cared for, but has a mechanical issue(if it’s a vehicle I can wrench on). I value having a nice car and find it’s cheaper to fix something with a mechanical issue rather than restoring the body work or interior on car with a well maintained engine. 

I am perpetually tempted to trade up from my recently paid-off 2015 Tacoma to a new Tacoma with better tech, or a Tundra, or a used GX460... But every month I don’t make a payment, I decide to just wash it and shine the tires and admire how good it still looks and feel satisfied instead of getting rid of it. Maybe…

If you have $30k in the bank earning a conservative 5% interest, why would you put it into a depreciating asset like a car? Especially if you can get a loan for the car at well under 5%.

too many variables. How long is a piece of string?

Amen. Still driving my 2002 WRX. Not quite Honda reliability, but I also haven’t been plagued with bad head gaskets (knocks on wood) that Subarus are known for from that era.

Uh, grandpa have you checked what you can get in a bank “earning a conservative interest” these days? It’s nowhere near 5%.

Lol, my car just turned 15, and I bought it brand new in Oct ‘04.  Every year it costs a couple hundred bucks in repairs (usually brakes, but I just found out last year that my muffler has a small hole in it).  I only drive it a couple  thousand miles per year, and it just keeps going, and going, and going, and…

OK, replace “bank” with “investment”. Index funds usually give good average returns over time.