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Re: When to move on to a less used 9-5? Posted by Doug W [Email] (#2371) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Doug W) on Thu, 30 Aug 2018 09:47:59 In Reply to: When to move on to a less used 9-5?, steve, Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:37:14 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
The biggest factor is what is the car worth TO YOU, not a Blue-Book value or what you could get for it. You can pour money into ANY car and make it reliable. It's all a matter of keeping up with maintenance.
Maintenance has to be done routinely or it will pile up and then make you want to move to something less costly where someone else has done the routine maintenance. In reality you put off maintenance costs and then they become overwhelming.
Most people don't properly maintain a car. Sure they change oil and brake pads and such, but they don't consider fuel pumps, water pumps, radiators, and alternators to be "maintenance" items when indeed they are. It all depends on your ownership horizon.
Fifteen years or 180,000 miles is probably a typical lifespan of most cars because most people don't DYI and don't consider the Mean Time Between Failures of major components. The auto manufacturers also want to sell you a new car so they engineer major parts to last 5,000 hours (150,000 - 180,000 miles). If you're willing to change out major components there really is no limit to how long you can drive your car. In the end the problem becomes the supply chain. When you can no longer get parts except from a machine shop or recycler, then it's time to truly move on.
So for now, as long as there's a robust supply chain; it's all a matter of what you want to spend and over how long a time period. One thing for me that will kill our Saabs is the ABS unit. Once the supply chain dries up and the dash lights can't be extinguished, that will be the end.
My experience has been average repair costs if you DIY maintenance (e.g. oil changes, brake work, etc) and farm out really BIG jobs (e.g. Exhaust Manifold Studs) runs about $130 a month (average over a five year period) for 9-5s.
_______________________________________ '03 Aero 5Spd, Krona, 290 bhp (son's) Sold: '04 Aero Sport Kombi, Sport Tek, BSR '03 Linear 5 spd. Krona Mods, 350 bhp
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