re: When do you trade in your vehicles?

I wouldn’t say I trade them in. I usher them to the finish line.

Get what little you can for it.

My preference is to donate it. Cars for Kids is a great organization.

Usually when my truck gets about 175K or so they issue me another one.

quote:

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I've got about 82k on the F150, I say it's time to trade it in. Wife (no pics) says she likes the idea of having no car payments.

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82,000 miles isn't a lot of miles, especially on a car you own free and clear.

People tend to dump their vehicles way too soon.

I’ve never traded a car into a dealer. I’ve sold all of them private party for far more than any dealer offered.

That said, I refuse to buy a car on anything less than an 8 year depreciation cycle. I plan on keeping me current car from 2014-2026. It just crossed 100k miles.

Of my 4 vehicles, the newest is a 2015 with 130k miles and the oldest is a 2000 with 200k miles.

My wife couldn’t care less what she drives as long as it’s dependable and I’m cheap so it works out perfectly.

I’m also somewhat handy and can do most repairs but I also have a top notch mechanic that’s reasonably priced when I can’t do the repairs, which is a tremendous asset.

Like many others, for me it's when the repairs start piling up. My last car I dropped a little over $3k on repairs, then another issue showed up about 2 months later. Was going to be between $2.5k-$5k depending on the fix. Mechanic could not be sure which it was until he pulled the engine. Had him wrap it up, fix the symptom and traded it in 2 days later.

If I am not comfortable having my wife(no pics) drive it, I trade it in. If I think it's still reliable, but I just want an upgrade I'll try to sell myself.

im on my 4th 4runner. whenever one of the dealers around here calls me and gives me too much for it and finds me a newer. has worked 3x now.

8 years seems to be the time I want a new one. We have several years note-free, repairs should be minimal, and the trade-in value is decent. Plus, the body style/technology starts to get old and they just don't smell good anymore. My husband thinks I'm nuts, but I really hate the smell of an "old" vehicle. And yes, I keep mine clean.