NA - Older Car and Repairs

kyleb

kyleb

Final Approach
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Jun 13, 2008
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Marietta, GA
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Drake the Outlaw
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Cartersville, GA
I put a ton of mileage on a car. 25K+ miles a year and I keep vehicles a long time. The current Accord is 9 years old with 235K miles. I suspect it is a $4K car on the market. Mechanically, it is very sound, but 9 years and a lot of miles are showing externally. The interior is still in good contition.

I plan to keep the car beyond 300K miles (how far beyond, I dunno).

At what point do I begin ignoring minor cosmetic issues (like where a falling limb put a couple of small dents in the roof a month ago)? Discuss...
 
I ignore minor cosmetic issues until they become major cosmetic issues…neither of which warrants replacing a mechanically sound car IMO.

For perspective, my daily driver is a ‘92 F150.
 
Perspective: I ran my ‘01 Tahoe to 317k miles. I did not take care of it from a rust standpoint, which arguably is not all cosmetics. Interior 9/10. I would have put a new or rebuilt engine in it, but the body (and undercarriage) made that a losing battle. I ended up buying a 110k mile ‘01 Tahoe from Arizona…there’s an old thread in POA somewhere.

So keep up with your cosmetics, including rust, just in case you need to sink a larger sum for some future repair - you won’t think you’re throwing good money after bad.
 
Depends your locale. Rust from road salt on rocker panels usually means rust elsewhere. My next truck I'm gonna stay on top of spraying it with corrosion x or fluid film semi annually.

But a few dents? As long as they're not causing water intrusion I wouldn't be too worried about.
 
What's your concern if you don't address the minor cosmetic issues? If you plan to keep it that long with such high mileage there won't be much difference in resale value. So unless it's bothering you personally I'd just drive on and not worry about it.
 
You can easily repaint and bondo a car in a garage with proper PPE. You just scuff it and shoot a new single stage urethane. $200-300 and new car look for a little elbow grease. For a little more money you can go base/clear but not worth the effort IMHO.

My '14 caravan is at 245k on its second transmission, numerous lifter replacements, all the common issues as well as a few dents. Inside is maybe a 7. Outside maybe a 6.

Not having an $800+ car payment and $250 insurance payment a month is more than enough motivation to keep it running.

I'd love to get my 5 speed F-150 back... but the scrapper got her after a hit n run.
 
347,000 miles on my 99 Super Duty with the 7.3 diesel. Haven't worried about the cosmetics on it since I bought it in 2021. It had about 177,000 miles on it then. It's an all around work and commute vehicle and not something that needs to look pretty.
 
2000 4runner here, over 300k miles. Clear coat has faded in patches all around, minor bumps and scratches everywhere. Yellow and red streaks on the bumper from various mishaps. I absolutely don't care how it looks as long as it is mechanically sound. Neighbor bought a brand new Porshe suv. On top of the over $1000 a month payment that car has been repaired under warranty twice. Sure looks nice though. Priorities.
 
I stopped caring pretty soon after I bought it in 2018.

I find the stress in keeping a car looking perfect significantly outweighs the benefits. And I think it's a liberating feeling to just not have to care about a ding, dent or scratch -- instead just shrugging it off, not thinking twice about it and moving on.
 
As you will read I wish we had done the few small cosmetic things on our SUV instead of selling.

I had a 03 ML320 Benz with 255k on it. Ran great, always maintained it. It started to give a windshield wiper small movement on occasion, just a flicker, and every now and then you could hear the door locks sound like they wanted to unlock but didn't. I thought she was telling me it was time. I decided to sell and one of my best friends wanted it for a florida car just to go back and forth to the airport. My bride and I decided to sell and he and his wife love it. They replaced the radio with a GPS unit and did a few other things, like replacing the drivers seat leather that was starting to show its age but no rips. Well, a month goes by and we decided that we were going to leave a car at our new to us florida winter home.....duh...why did we sell. We offered to buy it back and they just laughed and said no way, we love it. Damn it!

We now wish we kept my old blue and moved it to florida, instead I'm looking to buy early next year. This year, actually next week, we are flying down to purchase a golf cart and check on a bathroom remodel we had done. November can't come soon enough to head south.
 
Affer 175k miles I stop worrying about cosmetic issues. After 200k things like small fluid leaks stop getting addressed and I just top off fluids more regularly. After 225k I usually start to look for another vehicle as rust normally starts getting pretty bad by then from all the liquid salt they spray on the roads around here each winter. Im not sure its possible to gdt to 300k+ in the rust belt unless you dont drive in the winter. When I do buy another car its almost never new and its always something I can pay cash for. I have no desire to be tied to a massive car payment with high interest rates. Of course if I couldnt do all the mechanic work myself and had to bring it to a shop for anything to be fixed I might be tempted to buy something newer more regularly.
 
9 years old is "older"?
kyleb said:
At what point do I begin ignoring minor cosmetic issues (like where a falling limb put a couple of small dents in the roof a month ago)? Discuss...
Click to expand...
4 or 5 years ago :)
 
As long as it’s serving its purpose and reliable, I keep them until a repair will cost more than the wholesale value. I actually love older vehicles as long as I can maintain them and they are dependable. I won’t own a vehicle that I’m worried about getting a dent, collision, hail, etc. I live in dry climate, keep them garaged, so rust has never been a problem.
 
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