165 k on my truck with no intentio of getting rid of it till the repair costs exceed the benefit of not having a car payment.

Right.

Why would I trade in less than $200/year in maintenance costs for $200+/month in car payments on a new vehicle I don't need?

Not to mention the increased cost of insurance.

 

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220,000 miles on my Honda Accord. I bought it brand new in 2003.

Standard, regular maintenance on cars will help them least a long, long time.

You're not saving money by skipping car maintenance.

 

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Most people spend far too much on their vehicles and make poor financial decisions concerning them.

I've had my Ford 3 years. I bought it new.

It has 19,000 miles on it.

 

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Unless I hit the lottery, I'll never buy a car new. The only time I'd consider it if I was leasing it for a business.

I'll let someone else pay full price and then take the 40% depreciation hit that comes in the firs two years and then buy it from them.

It is even worse in Arizona where title fees are prorated and based on MSRP. An expensive car can cost you many hundreds to register (per year) initially and drops 15% a year thereafter.

"The VLT is based on an assessed value of 60% of the manufacturer's base retail price reduced by 16.25% for each year since the vehicle was first registered in Arizona (15% before 8/1/98). Then, as of the Dec 1, 2000 reduction, the rate is calculated as $2.80 (new vehicles)/$2.89 (used vehicles) for each $100 of the assessed value. For example, for a new vehicle that costs $25,000, the first year assessed value would be $15,000 and the VLT would be $420.00. The second year the assessed value would be $12,562.50 and the VLT would be $363.06."

If more people sat down and did the math on how much their new car cost them, they'd be surprised.

"Oh, but I don't have to worry about repairs!"

I'll take my $0 in payments and $200/month in repairs over your $400/month car payments and extra $150/month in insurance payments. And your warranty only covers things that actually break, you'll still be paying the same basic maintenance costs that I'm paying.