Another thing is that you didn’t seem to factor in the time spent on maintenance. For me, running my car around and dropping it off to be serviced has been a pain my neck. Waking up super earlyl to drop the car off, loaner cars that smell, etc. Cannot stand it. I’d rather have the depreciation hit of a on a late model used car that only needs an oil change because, I have discovered with the repair work of the last two years as stuff goes out of warranty, hits the 100k mi mark, I hate waiting around for my car to be ready. That to me is wasted time, and the little garage across the street from my house is useless for real repairs.

Oh, but this is my first car I purchased and I definitely don’t think I’ll buy a new car ever again. It makes amortization a pain the wazoo.

However, most people probably derive more psychic value from owning a newer car than I do, and they’re welcome to keep buying newer. More used cars for me to choose from.

Flexo - I have to ask, what is that threshold in terms of dollars for you? Do you mean costing you more in a single year? Often, that is the metric people use, i.e. the cost of car payments in a year vs the amount of repairs in a year.

For instance, I sank $6K into my car last year to replace the clutch and do some brake work. It was worth the money, but it was well over what I would have paid for a $350/mo car payment. However, a clutch is a clutch and now I won’t have to worry about one for another 5 years. Just curious.

Ride on Mapgirl! Ride on!

Partly, by the way, the reason people recommend late-model used is because they’re behind the times. Had our car been built even five or ten years earlier than it was, the body would have rusted out by now. And once that happens, the car is done. However, about the early ’90s, car manufacturers started building with rust-resistant materials and treating the cars with a rust-proofing agent at the factory. (Never get dealer-applied rust-proofing nowadays. It’s likely unnecessary and probably does more harm than good.) Cars have much more extended lifespans than they used to have so old saws about getting rid of a car past 100,000 miles or never spending more to repair a car than the car is worth are no longer true. (Don’t get me wrong. If you actually can buy the same car as yours in perfect working order for less than you’d spend to repair yours, by all means you should do so. However, this is never actually the case.)

Good luck with your Altima. I hope you’re still driving it ten years from now.