Very few people own the same car forever. Sure, Irv Gordon got one hell of a run out of his Volvo P1800S, and some of us have friends who still own their first cars, but the more likely reality is that eventually, you’ll probably have to send your car on. It can be a crushing thing, one of the hardest parts of car ownership, especially if it’s not on your schedule. Today we want to know, when is it time to let a car go?
I generally hold the belief that the right time to sell a car is when you no longer love it. Before I bought my 325i, I had a six-speed G35 that was heaps of fun. It had all the requisite bolt-ons from a lightweight flywheel to a plenum spacer, rode on M35 Stagea Autech Axis wheels, and looked the business. However, as it was an older Nissan in the rust belt, it hadn’t been spared from the ravages of road salt.
More importantly, it had just become a bit of a pain over time. The seats weren’t particularly comfortable, checking the oil at every fill-up in freezing weather was annoying, and lots of dumb things were starting to go wrong. Seized caliper? Sure. Rear lower damper mount bushings going on strike? Yep. Trunk harness failure? You bet.
Over time, I fell out of love with my G35, and once I knew for certain, out it went and in came the 325i. Funnily enough, I’ve now owned the BMW for far longer than I’ve owned the G35, and I couldn’t imagine selling it. Even though it’s dumb to currently have two cars that don’t get driven in the winter and none that do, the 325i and Boxster have different enough use cases that I can justify keeping both around.
So, when do you think it’s time to let a car go? Whether your primary consideration is economics of repair or your answer is as simple as “whenever the lease is up,” we’d love to hear your answers in the comments below.
Top image: Stephen’s Jag with his best pal Reina, who clearly has doubts about the XK8.
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98 Maxima SE – Figured I would keep it forever, but the spoiler trunk rust got me. It was immaculately maintained but at that point in my life the hassle and money I would have had to put in to the body shop were just too much for me. I broke a bolt literally every time I touched the car, the seat pan had issues, etc. so it wore me down. It just became too much for what I got out of it. It was very very very hard to let go.
08 STi – I loved this car. The problem was, my thing at the time was really detailing. The Subaru paint was garbage, which I was living with, but I refused to drive it in the winter. That was the critical mistake. If I drove it in the winter I would almost definitely still have it because I would have enjoyed it way more. I realize how dumb this sounds, I promise.
03 WJ – Great truck, but the time to let it go was clear. Hydraulic fan solenoid went bad. Jeep in their infinite wisdom turned a $90 solenoid replacement into an $1100 (parts only) replacement assembly with a pressed in solenoid instead of a screw in. That really soured me on their vehicles even though I loved the truck – they were actively screwing people over. I was trying to source junkyard replacements but nothing worked. This was my first experience with a car I wasn’t obsessed with caring for so I was driving around with extra coolant in the back seat and that type of thing for a while. Finally, I put the stock solenoid back in, it decided to work, and I immediately traded it in. The blend doors had gone for the second time too and taking the dash out was a nightmare.
13 Miata Club – I’m tall and I had lost a ton of weight when I bought this. I fit pretty well. I gained weight back and it wasn’t fitting as well. Then I was backing it out of the garage and scraped two panels…just total TOTAL stupidity. I had been thinking about other cars and my father not-seriously said I should get a Corvette. I started looking for a Vette just to kill time on autotrader, found a cyber gray Grand Sport, and made a complete impulse decision to trade the Miata for it. The dealer didn’t care about the paint, was willing to take my coilovers off and give them back to me, and I got a great deal….ish…
13 FJ – Still have it and Im telling myself I’ll never sell it. It’s a unique enough vehicle that I have convinced myself it’s true.
11 Corvette Grand Sport – Still have it. I’m less interested in continuing to trade up sports cars now. I would like to own a 911 at some point but if I don’t I don’t. As it turns out, the Vette had been resprayed HORRIBLY so when I went in to the bodyshop to get some minor things done it turned in to a show car level complete new paint job. It serves my needs, it fits me, people love it, and it is already way too fast for the road. So, I’ll probably have it for a while.
For the project car I’d say when it’s way over your head and not worth having somebody fix it.
For the daily driver when it starts costing so much to maintain you might as well be making payments on something else.
We had a Dodge Charger and Ford Explorer Sport-Trac daily drivers that were great except for mechanical, traded them both in within a week. The Charger had a 4-speed and just had the 60k transmission serviced and it started slipping, good old Chrysler 4-speed had to go! The Spot-Trac we got used and before the ink was dry it had a radiator leak, got them to fix that, then needed a battery, ok that’s normal, then tires, ok this is getting pricey, then needed a steering box, then needed a master cylinder, and we were like ok nice truck, but what’s next? Got it gone.
I empathize with the daily driver cost consideration. My old van was paid off, sure, but if it was costing $300+ in repairs every 2-3 months…
Got my 2012 Prius v for a $186/month 6-year loan that I paid off in 3 years and has had exactly one “unanticipated” maintenance issue, which Toyota ended up covering under a technical service bulletin.
Still wish I had a conversion van, but I dunno if I can expect any better from them or if mine was just an edge case.
Yeah, we might have done the same with our Forester if the market wasn’t crazy last year. Not even 70k miles and it needed rear wheel bearings, and front control arms, in other times that’d have been a nice down payment on something else, but the market was still higher than Willie Nelson’s beard so we went with fix it.
When they start pissing me off. Or when I have to fix the same thing twice.
My wife had a Ford Explorer that she dearly loved, and it served us well for many years. We even paid to have the transmission rebuilt in it, which cost almost as much as the car did. But three years later, just out of warranty, it started slipping again. Not bad, but enough to know what was coming. Then the fuel pump went out. I went to the trouble of dropping the tank and replacing it, only to discover that the aftermarket pump couldn’t supply enough pressure, resulting in the car running fine but constantly throwing a check engine light for low fuel pressure. It was either drop the tank AGAIN, and then deal with the transmission when it got too bad again, or just get rid of it.
Oh man. “Same repair twice.” I wasn’t the one doing repairs to my van, but the final nail in its coffin was the catalytic converter going bad…the 3-year-old one that had a 2-year warranty.
The other cat was still from the factory.
So that would’ve been something like a $700 part + $200 labor and I decided to cut my losses.
I’ve done the same repair twice thing, though usually because I bodged it the first time…
When it’s not worth it to fix (again)! I have NEVER sold a car. I drive them until they are not worth the time or money to repair (which has been anywhere from 250-400,000 miles. And in that state, I don’t feel comfortable selling them to someone else. So, I’m the last owner of any car I possess, then it’s off to the scrap yard!
Sell it to a dealer ad it is their problem and they would wholesale it out.
With my cars, I’d probably get more from the scrap man!
for me its when I need to make a change in life. I went from dirtbag Camaro in my late teens, to conservative caviler in my college years. Then I had to go to a Malibu because the cavalier was too unreliable. I then needed a truck for my first home to haul coal, so I drove a Dakota around for a few years. I’m back on the boring sedan kick, I don’t need a truck as much and when I do, I just borrow one from work.
Relatable; single and in my 20s, owned a 1965 Pontiac Tempest convertible. Thoroughly enjoyed it, but marriage & kids resulted in it sitting idle for a few years – the day I sold it the proceeds went into the purchase of a minivan. That was one hard transition!
I have a 66 Volvo 1800s, in white, and no doubt it could do a million miles. How Irv did it is beyond me. I love my 1800s, but I have to admit they are not the most comfortable of cars to drive. The driving position is a bit low, so no resting your arm out the window. No power steering and you really kind of have to man handle the wheel cause nimble and sporty it is not, Worst part. No air circulation and no AC. HOT HOT HOT
My 92 Isuzu pickup on the other hand. What a clapped out piece of junk. I drive it as much as I can, but it is on Deaths Door. The worst part is that every time I go to the Pull a Part, I envy the ones in the yard because they are nicer than mine.
That’s a fair point. When I was pulling parts to upgrade my Rabbit I could still drive my succession of beater Subarus up the mountainside of a local junkyard. The day I pulled a 5-speed for it, I looked around and realized that my dailies were 10 years older & in worse condition than many of the cars they were receiving.
I junked my backup daily & a parts car, then sold my ‘nice’ daily later that year after getting yet another Subaru-Tax Ticket. Kept out of tickets by driving diesel Mercedes for the next decade. A month short of a decade later, I bought a much faster turbo Roo, but-touch wood-have somehow managed to not acquire any tickets in it 😉
That made me lol pretty hard
When the rust gets too bad. Or when it is pretty worn out and the cost of fixing whatever is currently broken to keep it limping along for another few months till the next repair bill doesn’t make financial sense. However I plan on keeping my 2011 Mustang GT forever.
Ah, the 2011 GT! The first Mustang to get the new 5.0 and one of the first cars I lusted after as a high schooler.
I know not too many people might notice them now, but you’re right, that one’s worth hanging on to. That generation ushered in the modern horsepower race and was also the last one to have a live axle. I’ll always think of it as one of the last analog-ish Mustangs. It’ll be the “first of the last of the breed” or something like that in the future.
I have a two reasons for selling a car.
1. When it’s becoming a drag on the people that rely on it. If I don’t have enough time or money to keep a car from regularly inconveniencing the people that rely on it, that car is not worth the resulting strained relationships that may occur.
2. When the money I have invested to keep it running has now totaled more than the sum of money it would require to buy a significantly nicer, newer version of the same car.
Both of these describe my NB Miata; it was too unreliable & fussy, and after adding up all the money I’d put into it over the course of four years, I realized that for similar money I could have bought a low mileage ND Miata that was way better at all the things I wanted my NB Miata to do in the first place.
I’m in a similar boat with my NA, albeit slightly different situation. I’ve had it almost 2.5 years, dumped a ton of money and work into every bit of the car, suspension, interior, engine bay, roll bar, wiring, etc, but I’ve just come to the conclusion its probably time to move on. Mostly driving that is I’ll be getting a deal on my dads ND2 Club in a couple years and want to try out something different in the interim, but likewise I have more or less grown tired of fixing little things and being anxious about ANOTHER issue every time I take it out, even though it has been extremely reliable on the whole.
Since I bought that car I’ve gotten a new daily, and bought and sold 2 other projects, so it feels weird to be debating selling the car I’ve put the most hours, blood, sweat, tears, and love into, and I’m sure 4 months from now I’ll be kicking myself endlessly, but I think it’ll be for the best to move it along to a new home that will drive it more.
Took my dad catching his garage on fire burning leaves to get rid of his 52 MG td that he had been restoring since I was about 10. The fire happened 2 years ago and I’m in my 50s. Fire and wood frame don’t leave much to salvage.
For me, it used to be lease was up. Now, it’s can I find something better. My wife and I share a rav4 hybrid. Rare vehicle that is comfortable for us both to drive. We’ve had it for 4 years and just over 30k miles. Only complaint is its freaking gray like every other vehicle on the road. In a couple of years I might try to special order a red or blue rav4 prime. Phev in a real color dammit.
Wrap it in purple!
RIP 52′ MG 🙁
I’ve never been given much of a choice. Only 30 and have owned just four cars. The 2009 GTI was totaled when someone didn’t see me and drove right into the side of it. The 2012 CC, I guess I had a choice, it started burning oil (and I should have traded it then) and lost all compression on cylinder 1. While I liked it well enough, I didn’t like it enough to fix it. I’ve got a 2014 Sportwagen TDI and I intend on keeping it for as long as you can still buy diesel.
The fourth car is my 1972 Super Beetle I’ve had since I was 11. Keeping that one forever.
Very excellent work, Young Clark. I see great things in your future.
Sometimes it’s about what fits the driver’s needs.
My previous vehicle had a supercharged V-8, which was a) glorious and b) NBD since I didn’t need to drive much.
Then my circumstances changed and it looked like I would be on the road a lot more, so the thirsty fun-beast gave way to a 2-liter I4.
There was nothing wrong with the previous vehicle, but it no longer fit my situation.
I still loved my E30 when I sold it.
In my specific situation, the car needed more time than I wanted to give it and more money than I had to spend on it. After a front-end impact, it was just sitting – perfectly functional and doing daily driver duty at one point, but needing body work – waiting for an indeterminate future date when I had the spare cash to dump into a restoration rather than piecemeal maintenance and replacement to keep it running, as I had been doing.
So I sold it to someone else who could give it the care and time it needed instead of having it rot away in my garage waiting for me.
I’ll be honest, at this point in my life, I hang onto vehicles long after I should let them go. When my ‘89 Toyota Pickup’s fuel pump died last year, I still hung onto it for close to 12 months, despite the fact that it was completely clapped out even before the fuel pump. My ‘99 K2500 has been down for repairs a ton of time recently, but because I really like the truck and I see the vision of what role I want that truck to have in my fleet, I’m hanging onto it. Plus, GMT400…come on. Part of the reason I hang onto vehicles is that in the past I’ve made the mistake of selling vehicles too soon, or when o get frustrated about some small repair. I still am annoyed at 2013-me who sold a perfectly functional 1977 IH crew cab dump truck. The number of times I’ve wished to have it back has to number in the hundreds by now.
When the pain outweighs the pleasure.
If I fall out of love with a car, the pleasure is gone and little things will cause pain. If I buy a nicer version, then its because I’m reducing pain while maintaining or increasing the pleasure of ownership.
Otherwise, keep them I do. I’ve had my S13 for almost 20 years. It hasn’t run for many of those years, but I still love that car and the pain of keeping it around is minimal. The pleasure remains great.
If it hasn’t been driven in more than 6 months* then it’s time.
*The exception is if there’s an active restoration taking place.
A couple of my cars have been undergoing active restoration for literally decades, but you a right, they are fine.
My only 21st century car reached the end yesterday, a first generation Volvo XC 70 with an entirely reasonable 290,000 miles only 23 urgent MOT advisory notices broke its nearside front spring on Wednesday. The busted spring did not immediately go through the tyre, that took a few hundred yards, however it was the collapse of basically the whole subframe when trying to get the thing onto a recovery truck that sounded the final death knell. Some of the bits of rusty stuff were almost identifiable, the rest were orange powdery things.
A perfectly functional car that hasn’t been driven in 6 months? No kidding.
“…his Volvo P1800S…”
I suppose I was asking for this yesterday in my comment about correcting people, but hey, I’ll have another go. The only variants are the P1800, the 1800S, the 1800E, and the 1800ES. There is no such thing as a P1800S no matter how many people want to say otherwise. Irv Gordon had an 1800S.
My W123 wagon has been sitting for a bit and has become a small storage shed while I do a renovation on my house. Not a good sign.
I sold my ‘forever’ 300TD on 2 (3?) years back. Lowered on color-matched 16” Ronals from a later AMG, it was originally a beautiful car, but I lost interest in automatics after putting so many miles on company trucks, and it sat neglected outside. It had developed a hole under the driver’s seat which allowed CO in—then the hazard switch (through which the turn signals are routed) went out and it got parked.
Sold it to an acquaintance 14 hours away who has the tools & lift & will to still work on them and it lives to this day. I should regret it, but I have two fun manuals in the driveway now and know I did the right thing when I needed to.
-one tell for me was no longer being particularly willing to clean the glass when I occasionally needed to use it for a quick run, but I still kept it titled for a couple years.
Of course it does. It will never die. And with that hole in the floor, it’s guaranteed to outlive whoever drives it in traffic with the windows rolled up!
No. I did full disclosure when I sold it. He was formerly a Mercedes mechanic and has the parts & wherewithal to do it right. I need to find out if it’s been manual-swapped yet. Maybe not, as the last one (an actual brown, manual, diesel wagon!) proved that the easily available manuals that fit don’t play well with the 617 turbo powerband. Apparently, you have to acquire a European one: that’s what stopped me from doing it
Yes, that’s one of my closest, dearest friends giving me “The Look” on the day I decided to rescue that XK8.
4 years later, it’s still broken. I should’ve heeded that Look!
Nobody is surprised that your friend has more sense than you. But if you were a sensible man, you wouldn’t be you!
I do actually mean that as a compliment.
I have to admit at first I was excited about the prospect of rescuing the Jaguar. This was right smack dab in the middle of COVID and we had plenty of time on our hands. Once we inspected the car, I was definitely a bit skeptical.
I was not concerned about Stephen’s wrenching skills, in fact I saw this project as an opportunity for him to challenge himself and master his skills.
The concern was being able to acquire the necessary parts to rescue it.
It’s not the worst, but it’s super frustrating when you’re holding the part you need to replace in your hand but don’t know how to buy it. For the Jag, I’m sure that was a lot of “does this thing even exist?” For my coolant leak in the f-150 over the holidays, it was radiator.. hose.. gasket? Coolant hose o-ring? Rubber water pump-adjacent torodial sealing mechanism? I ended up replacing the whole y-shaped connector, which is of course called a t-connector.
It’s not always a sure shot, but I definitely appreciate BMW labeling almost everything with the part number.
You sound like a great friend.
Still looking for the correct key?
Like you, I believe it’s a feeling that the love is gone and no longer care to be inside it.
Kinda like when you move. You’re all excited about moving your crap to the new place, decorating, meeting new people and so forth. You just dread going back to the original for final clean out.
Similar, when one can brush past the beast, and not look at it.
BTW, where has Stephen been hiding? Nothing from him for the past month
I was at the Reader Meetup (and working on the new van at Jason’s with David) 2 weeks ago, which counts for something, right?
Check the site later this afternoon, and thanks for noticing!
Just missing your car writing adventures 🙂
Well, welcome back to the digital side of life where all you dreams and frustrations can be hammered out on a keyboard online…
instead of underneath a dirty old car with sore hands on the cold hard ground. (Hehe)
Update: my latest was bumped to Monday so check for it then and thanks again for even wanting to do so!
A reason to look forward to Monday: cool beans!
🙂
Nooooo
OK fine I’ll be back on Monday
I have sold my last 2 cars( Mazda Miata, and Mini Cooper) when they reached 165K miles. The Miata was driven year round, and I got 11 years out of it, but the Tin Worm ate well. The Mini Cooper I drove for ~ 110K of those miles and changed out a lot of the wear items and some were getting to point to do it again.
Both were manuals and original clutches when they were sold.
My current ride a an ’15 A3 TDI, which I want to keep, but the timing belt change at 135K is like $2.5 to $3K, so we’ll see.
Unibody cars with structural damage. With BOF cars you can get a new frame made relatively cheaply, Unibody cars will almost never be the same after structural failure and repair.
Did this a couple of years ago with Mra Ocean’s 2005 diesel Golf we bought new. It wouldn’t make heat. We replaced everything under the hood that we could, flushed the system repeatedly. No heat. What pushed us to sell was 2005 VW plastic. Especially here in the warm south it shatters like glass and much of it is Unobtainium or pure Expensolite. To fix the heat, the dash had to come out. And when the dash would come out, we expected all of the little plastic bits and bobs to, well, explode into little pieces. Wasn’t worth the headache. The money didn’t really bother me, the availability and seeming futility of it did.
When I ask my significant other to stand next to the vehicle for a photo and they pull a face as I snap the shutter.
I usually let my car go when I see one that I like better than the one I have, as long as it’s affordable.
I can vouch for this^ (that’s my mom)
This random person on the internet likes your son’s writing. 🙂
I second OverlandingSprinter’s sentiment, and—having finally met him, I would like to say, Kudos for raising a fine human, Ma’am! Not only does he save cars, he entertains us, and is Good People 🙂
Are, thanks a ton, TOSSABL!
I’d love to see that picture you took of us if you’re up for sharing it on social media or such. Looking forward to meeting up again in the future, my man. And best of luck with that killer Z3 M!
The only picture of people I have is of you, Jason, David, and that guy who asked for a shot with you on the way out. I don’t do social media, but maybe could send it in to Tips w/ Attn: SWG?
dang: just realized I didn’t get any pictures of any other car than yours—not even people laughing driving the Changli. A shame: there were some cool rides there!
Got the picture – thanks a ton TOSSABL! Until next time, my friend.
This sounds jokey, but I knew it was time to get rid of the Sentra when even I started feeling embarrassed about how long it had been since it moved.
It had a quarter million miles on a QR25DE, and I learned a ton taking a lot of it apart. But in truth knew when I started taking it apart (presumably diagnose something I never did figure out) it almost certainly wasn’t going back together. The seats were always shitty, and it would always be too small, and it wasn’t remotely worth putting new piston rings on to slow the oil consumption. I was sad to see it go, but I don’t miss the junkyard aesthetic on my lone acre.