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July 14, 2015 39 mins

In this episode, Ben finally gets revenge on Scott with a mystery show of his own. Listen in to hear how Scott holds up.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from house Stuff Works dot Com. I welcome
to car Stuff. I'm Scott, I am Ben, and we
are here again with our super producer. You know what,
he's gonna have the same nickname as previously real the

(00:23):
Enigma Brown. Ah. There's a good reason for the unigma, right, Yes, sir,
that is correct. This is one of the episodes where
in one of us has no idea what we're about
to podcast about. We just step in and one person
comes with an idea and the other person is shooting
from the hip. Which one could it be today? Which one? Well?

(00:46):
As as you as you know, sir. Uh last episode, Uh,
I was the one who didn't know what was coming.
So this time around, it is your turn, and I
have taken a page from your book and I have
a question for you. Okay, I'm a bit nervous, Oh,

(01:07):
I always am on these I know that you you
You come in here and it's like flawless, you know you.
I ask you something and you can think on your feet.
You're quick at that. You're really good at that. So
you have that well, you have that improv background, I guess,
and that probably helps you a bit, but it also
very knowledgeable. That's a huge whoa. Well, this is a compliment.

(01:27):
It's true, it really is. Ben. Ben's a very skilled
at doing this. When I come in here with a
topic for him, uh, it seems like we just we
just go with it, no problem. I'm I'm nervous on
the other hand, because um, it doesn't come as naturally
to me. I have to study and prepare. So uh boy,
what have you what have you got for me today? Uh? Well,
don't don't, don't worry too much. This is a this
is a pretty good one, okay, And this is something

(01:49):
that will hopefully help out a lot of our listeners too.
How long should a person keep a car? And this
this is this is the reason that I'm bringing this
up is because what we're finding is that people are
owning cars longer now, and especially with the young guns,

(02:12):
the new kids on the block, if you will, people
are faced many people cannot afford to buy a new
car just full stop, or people are going into more
debt for a longer amount of time to buy a car.
But then also there's that question, Scott, because we've all
been there when you start and you know, I've done
this with like two different moniting Carlos before, where you

(02:36):
start doing the calculation of how much the car is worth,
how high the mileage is, what sort of expensive problems
that has so not so much a cracked um side
mirror or a cracked windshield as a transmission that slips right,
and then start playing the game where you think, how

(02:58):
long can I keep this guy going right? How long?
How long can I keep the old girl on the
road moving until I can figure out what else to do?
And sometimes this can be due to purely financial considerations, right,
many times, especially for people who are younger starting to

(03:19):
drive or still in school, things like that. Other times
it can be for personal or emotional reasons, like it
really is, um, it really is a difficult thing to,
you know, give up your first car, um and it
U it never becomes easier with time, right, and so

(03:40):
there's always more and more of your personality invested. So
I was wondering if there was a ballpark estimate for
at which point someone should just throw in the towel
and take the car out to a cash for clunkers
or to sell it and trade something you know, definitely

(04:00):
not a cash for clunkers don't do that, all right.
So but man, that's a good that's a good question. Man.
I like this, And Man, I don't know if there's
gonna be one silver bullet answer to this whole thing.
I really don't. But we can discuss what I what
I think is. I guess as you said, UM, I'm
not gonna come out with a number right now. Maybe
we'll talk about in a moment. But you talked about
a lot of different things, and I think you and

(04:21):
I are are in the same arena. I guess when
you when we say that, um, you know, we buy
a used car maybe and we're being onto it for
a good number of years. We're not ones too quickly
discard cars, because some people buy a car, used car,
a new car, and they're done with it in a
year or two. Um, you know, they maybe the loan
is not even paid off if it's a new car,

(04:43):
and they're onto the next thing and you know, a
bigger payment or a smaller payment or whatever, but they're
they're continually having to make payments. You and I like
to hang onto cars until there's no payments left, and
I kind of ride that out as long as possible.
And man, I like that. But you know, there's the
problem when you start talking about getting rid of a car,
an older use car, um or when you start start

(05:03):
considering that I guess is that you know it hasn't
been said. There's the devil, you know, and then there's
a devil you don't know, something like that. I mean
it's a similar saying it. But but you know the
problems with the car that you have or have had
for the last seven years, maybe, but you don't know
what you're gonna jump into when you buy that next
used car, new car. You're not really under that much

(05:24):
pressure because you know there's the warranty, the dealer warranty,
and that's true in every case now where they gonna
cover every everything that goes wrong with it. No, but
um close to it. Anyways, you can drive that with
a little more confidence than you can with, you know,
a car that you found on Craigslist or an eBay.
It's just a level of personal comfort. I mean, what
are you comfortable doing? You comfortable leasing a car that

(05:46):
has that warranty or you know, and then at the
end of the least, you don't really own anything unless
you choose to buy it. At that point, Um, do
you do you buy a new car? Do you do
you buy a used car? There's a lot of questions here,
but you're talking about the time to hang on to
the car that you already have. And I don't know, Again,
I don't know if there's a silver bullet for that,
because different cars have different uh lives. I guess because

(06:09):
we've said, um, and I think we even quoted numbers
a long time ago, maybe several maybe even a year
or two ago, we talked about the life expectancy of cars.
You know, maybe in the nineteen seventies, the life expectant
expectancy was like a hundred thousand miles at that point,
it was ready for the scrap heap. When you got
into the nineteen eighties, you know, bumped up to and

(06:30):
I'm gonna ballpark, there's a hundred and now we're talking
about cars that are good for something like three hundred
thousand miles. If you just do routine maintenance, you keep
up with the timing belt, you keep up with the
uh the oil changes of course, and all the fluids
and everything that. Yeah, exactly right, you're not really you know,
beating the engine up too bad. Um, you can expect

(06:52):
to drive a car for about three hundred thousand miles now,
and that's that's really significant. I mean it's a huge increase.
I mean, think about having to scrap a car that
had one hundred thousand miles on it. You know that
that comes about in no time now because a lot
of people are driving, you know, and this is just
a an estimate, but you know, between twelve and fifteen
thousand miles I think is still the average. So many drives,

(07:12):
and I know that you know, some salesman drive forty
miles a year, and you know others will drive four
hundred miles a year. But average, you know, us average,
I think is right around fifteen thousand a year. And uh,
we know that it is possible to push cars far
beyond uh two hundreds or even three hundred thousand. We

(07:34):
did a ne episode a while back on the Guinness
World Record for the highest mileage, and if you have
not heard it, I I have a dilemma. I'm debating
whether or not I should say it's amazing. You know what,
I'll say it and just you can tune in and
hear the full story. If he likes, we'll just mention it.
The highest mileage confirmed by the Guinness Book of World

(07:57):
Records was h and and may have may have continued
since it was a guy named IRV Gordon in h
New York. As of two thousand thirteen, he hit his
three million mile in his nineteen sixty six Volvo s

(08:20):
So and he kept driving it. Yeah, he's still driving. Yeah,
as far as we know, he's still putting miles in
that car. Now. He's not, of course, racing down the
highway or anything like that. He's he's not winning any
speed records. But just that's just to show you the
the amount of latitude and distance there is between what

(08:43):
one person considers time to throw away and when another
one does. Well. Sure, and some people will pick up
a new car from a dealer and you know, driving
for ten thousand miles and there's catastrophic engine failure or
something like that, you know, that manufacturing defect, and they
have to trade the car in and there's always a
headache that goes along with that. And you know, I
don't know if it's fair to lump those in with
with what you're talking about, really, but there are points

(09:04):
where you just can't drive a car any longer. And
and that's it. You have to take it back and say, look,
this is the third time I've been back with the
same issue. We've got to work out a deal here, Yeah,
and stuff like that. That happens. So that's that's the
other side of the coin. Or maybe you buy a
used car and you just simply don't like it. I mean,
maybe you drive it for a month and you think, like,
this just isn't the car for me. I thought it

(09:25):
was when I bought it. You know, it's an emotional decision. Maybe, um,
and you decide that you know it's time to move
on already, and that's quick. So uh, there's there's everything
in between. But man, you know, based on the you know,
fifteen thousand miles a year, you could keep a car,
brand new car. I guess for about you know, I
guess if you did that fifteen thousand every year for
twenty years, you would reach you would reach the three

(09:47):
thousand mark. But I'm guessing that you know, if you keep,
if you're taking care of your car well enough to
reach three hundred thousand, it's probably gonna you know, reach
even longer. You'd probably be able to to maintain that
car to five dred thousand or even even more. I
think you're just gonna reach the limitations of the metal
itself and the engine. You know, you're gonna gonna have
to start replacing things that are um internal versus the

(10:09):
stuff that you can access outside or um stuff that
you know you can you know you fluids and things
like that, you know, the respendables, I guess. And then
some people also will make the calculation depending upon you know,
the problems that happened. Because you know, after a car
hits above a hundred thousand, the maintenance regiment needs to change,
right because you have to you have to put a

(10:30):
little more TLC into it in some cases. Uh, and
this has been something my family has done before. H
The sentimental value of a car is such that they
will just replace the entire engine, you know. Uh, even
that's not all that uncommon, A don't it's not. It's
not all that uncommon now, It's not all I think.
I think it happens, and people do become attached to

(10:51):
these cars, like you said. I mean, if I if
I could have saved my my Honda Civic s I,
the one I just had to get rid of, I
would have it just didn't make good you know, dollars
and cents. I guess, um when I when I put
it all on paper, I just didn't work out that way.
And I'm happy with my choice now. You know the
car that I have now, um am, I gonna still
be happy with it in five years or seven years

(11:12):
or whatever I think I will be, But you don't.
You never know. And that's the other thing too, Ben,
is that when I'm thinking about this number that you
want me to give, um, you know, when I reach
let's say, when I reach about the five year mark,
I'm starting to get a little tired of it. I'm
starting to I'm starting to think like it's it's time
to start looking at other cars. But I'm such a slow,
careful shopper for a car because I am attached to

(11:34):
that one at that point, even though I'm I'm saying
I'm a little bit tired of it. I started looking
at other cars and saying, like, oh, man, that's a
nice feature to have it. Wish my car had that,
You're right, or you know that one's you know, all
cars now have NAV systems in them, but in two
thousand and five they didn't. So I'm a little bit
envious of people that have a NAV system in their car.
But you know, if I were to upgrade to a

(11:54):
two thousand, um, you know, I get that, I would
get that a car likely. Um. So there's things like
that and and just comfort and and maybe even you know,
in some cases people want to kind of up the appearance.
You know, you gotta up the game a little bit,
you know, if you want to. If you let's say
you got a car when you're in college, and it
was great for getting back and forth from home, and
it's great for your first job, your second job. Now

(12:16):
you're at your third job and you're starting to take
clients out to lunch or you're supposed to meet somebody
at the country club, you know, for a game of
golf or whatever something like that. You want your outward appearance.
I guess two more match, Uh, you know what you're
what you're all about at this point? You know, people
change your car should maybe change along with you as well. Yeah,

(12:37):
and that that doesn't happen immediately or overnight, but it
may happen every uh, five or six years. You know,
your your jobs change, your your personality changes even and
and that is another thing to keep in mind. Yeah,
and we've got some numbers here. I've got to say, Scott,
you really you impressed me just now because the uh
in two thousand twelve, these numbers have changed too. In

(12:58):
two thousand twelve, an intelligence firm called R. L. Pope
and Company found that Americans were holding on to their
new vehicles, the new ones, for seventy one point four months,
which is just a little under six years. And that
so you're definitely in the ballpark. On the used vehicle side,

(13:20):
that rose to about fifty months. And this was um,
this was again in two thousand twelve. However, now this, uh,
this is changing. People are holding onto cars longer as
of two thousand twelve, not counting the division between used

(13:43):
and uh new, just cars, but when you factor in everything,
so trucks, SUVs, vans and cars, uh, the average age
of a vehicle was eleven years eleven years, eleven years.
So that's that's the age of the vehicle. Well, not
necessarily you know how long somebody owns it. Well, sure,
here's the thing. Like you see, you pick up a

(14:04):
used car that's three years old, and you hang onto
it for eight years. Your car is eleven years old.
You've only had it for eight or you know someone
hanging on headed for six years and then you have
it for five that's eleven years. So um, all that
is factored into the number that you just gave. I
kind of I'm gonna kind of answer that. Maybe I'll
even answer this right now, but we can still talk
about it. How about that? Because as I'm thinking about this,

(14:25):
I think I have the answer. I think that right
around five years is when like when I personally start
to get a little bit tired of the car that
I'm that I'm driving, start to considers not that I
don't love the car, not that I really don't appreciate
it anymore, and I don't like looking at it because
you know, I've I've heard it said that if you
park a car and you and you're like how many

(14:47):
times you do this and the parking lot, If you
park your car and you're walking away from it, you
look back at your car? Do you ever do that?
You look back and and just glance at it just
to see your car? You know why? Right? Was that?
Because I'm thinking, when am I going to wash that thing?
You know, No, I've heard it said that if you
if you park your car and you walk away from
it in a parking lot and you don't look back

(15:07):
at it. You've got the wrong car, or you've got
a car that you don't care about. Um, and I've
so I'm I always do this consciously do this now,
I when I think about it, I realized that I'm
doing it every time I parked my car now and
and this was true with my other one right up
until the day I let it go. When I parked
the car, I get about maybe fifteen feet away, and
I look back, and then I'll walk another twenty feet

(15:29):
and I'll look back at it again. I really do.
I like looking at the car. It's a good, good
looking car. It's usually and you know, it's usually clean.
I like the way it appears. Um, it's like it's
it's it is if you see another car on the
road that you appreciate or or like, and you and
you kind of give it a second glance. It's the
same thing, only it's your car and you're proud of it.
So it's not Again, It's not that I don't like

(15:50):
the car after five years, It's just that I'm kind
of ready to move on to something new, something different.
Maybe something with with better features, something uh you know
that's maybe a little strong, are a a little faster, something
that maybe doesn't have the all encompassing suspension problems that
the one that you're driving now has, you know, the
hidden stuff that um you know is coming but you

(16:11):
can't really afford, and you're trying to put it off.
And yeah, that's when you start weighing the numbers and
start trying to decide exactly because so many people, so
many people end up uh with without necessarily planning to
buy a new car, they end up having to because
we've played that game, you know that game everybody plays
where they say, well, let's let's say I'm going to

(16:35):
get at most for grant if I sell my car, right,
if I sell my used car now, and the thing
that I need to fix on it is gonna cost
around to grand. So at what point am I just
paying thousands of dollars to keep this car just surviving? Well,

(16:59):
you just hang onto the car until it's only worth
two thousand and then it's a wash, right, right, and
then you're even, or you hang onto it for or
you spend tens of thousands of dollars um restoring it
to factory original and then you hide it in a
barn and you wait for decades. Tons of classic cars
like that, right, I mean, well that not so much

(17:21):
that it's that people restore them and they spend fifty
dollars on the restoration, and then I have to sell
it for eighteen Yeah, and you have to. And you
know I joke about this. This is such a gamble.
Please don't consider that a legitimate investment option, because it is.
It can be very difficult to say, oh, I wonder

(17:41):
what um car collectors and aficionados are going to love
in eighty years. You know that I'll be the little
devil on your shoulder and I'll say that's a fantastic
retirement plan. Definitely, go out and buy that emotional car
that that cards you're gonna make an emotional decision on today.
Buy it, every door it, Put whatever you have to
into it, because you know that in fifty years it's

(18:03):
going to be worth a pile of money. The old
collect star wars figurines. Uh investment, No, no, I'm just
getting that's a terrible idea. But but you know what,
it's very emotional, and the emotion is is really big,
even with even with just an everyday car, people would
get these attachments to cars. Like you said, you know,
you some some some cases you'd be better off putting

(18:23):
an engine into a used car and can you continue
to drive it. It just it just is whatever makes
the most sense to you and whatever you can afford
to do. Um and put it on paper and really
think about this, really think about your decision. You're gonna
be happy driving that car for another three or four
years to try to get the money back. I guess
out of the engine that you had to put into it,
or the full suspension system that you have to put

(18:46):
in anything, or um, you know, whatever it happens to be.
I mean, it really is an emotional thing and it's
tough to let go. Well, let's let's look at I
think that for one reason or another, the majority of
the US population car driving and car buying agrees with
us on this. Let's look at some statistics, all right.

(19:07):
The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that overall, the US
is continuing to own around the same amount of cars,
but we're just owning them for longer. The share of
new vehicles on the road over two thousand seven to
two thousand twelve dropped thirty three percent. It's just because

(19:31):
buying a new vehicle is increasingly expensive, you know, compared
to like you'll hear the stories about the post World
War two booms when people would buy, you know, a
car every year or two. Write uh and there that
you can find some great some great stories about it.

(19:51):
There's one from CNN August ten, two thousand twelve, article
called why you should keep your clunker and this the
journalist has this great thing that I wanted to read.
He says, I have vivid memories of fifties and sixties
dads who bought a new car every year. I remember
groups I'm standing around the neighborhood barbecue wearing hats and

(20:11):
jingling the change in their pockets as they talked about
being die hard Ford, Chevy Er Chrysler men. I wouldn't
drive a Ford if you gave me one. The GM
guy would say, oh yeah, The Ford guy would reply,
I wouldn't use my Ford to drive your Chevy to
the dump. They had these, you know, they had these
car jokes and stuff. But the times have changed, not

(20:32):
only to does technology allow these vehicles to last longer,
but as a um as a slice of the pie
of of a of a person's income, A car, a
new car specially, is a much larger slice than it
was previously. Okay, I can think of so many examples
of this. I mean, there's just a ton of And

(20:53):
by the way, just before I mentioned this, you know
how many times I've heard that Ford Chevy Chrysler talking.
And a lot of that was from uh, you know,
back in the nineteen eighties, late nineteen eighties, early nineteen nineties,
going to like the Monster Truck rallies or something, and
you know, they would announce like over the p a
that'd be like how many of you were Ford fans?
And then the crowd to go crazy, and then you

(21:13):
know some would boo and how if you were Chevy fans?
You know, and and it just back and forth, and
you know, trying to really stir up the crowd. And
then you hear those arguments happening in real life in uh,
you know, in parts stores and um, you know, just
I guess on uh you know, at local car meets
and you know parts swap meets and things like that.
It happens, it really does they you know that they

(21:34):
mentioned stuff like that, Um, just off the cuff, like,
you know, I wouldn't buy that for you know, they
gave it. They gave it to me plus ten thousand
dollars or whatever. Well, when I was selling my um
my Pontiac trans am, I tried to I tried to
think of who I could unload this thing on, because
it was at the point where I was done with
direct and uh again, I like the car, but I
had to get rid of it. It It was just that time.

(21:56):
So I take it to a guy, a local guy
who had uh something like, who are three of these
things sitting in his driveway already? And I figured this
guy and he's always out working on him, you know
when you drive by, always thinking or something. But it
turns out they were the the counterpart to that. They
were the Camaros, they were the Chevy. And when I
drove up and then I said, hey, you know, I
would be interested in, you know, buying even just for

(22:16):
a part, for a parts car. And he said, I
wouldn't take that Pontiac if you know whatever, and then
he went into some you know, I'm sure it was
a weirdly elaborate craft or something with expletives that I
can't even mentioned there because it was a Pontiac, and
you know he wouldn't drive a Pontiac even though it's
the same car. You know, it's basically the same car.
So you know, that argument goes back and forth between

(22:37):
people even now. But you know, we were talking about
the the price of the slice of the pie. I
guess of of you know what you're comfortable paying just
I think it was two days ago. I was at
I was at a local restaurant, California Pizza Kitchen, not
getting any money from them, but c p K. I
was in and I parked next to an A eight

(23:00):
the L version, you know, the long wheelbase version with
a W twelve engine. And it was an older woman
who was driving it. But but looking at the price
of that, the base price is something like a hundred
and forty thousand dollars. So that's the base, I mean,
that's the and that's the sedan. It's like a four
door sedan. It's really really nice, but is it worth
a hundred forty thousand dollars? And and I often look at,

(23:21):
you know, some of the Lexus models, the hybrid models
and things, and I think, well, that's a that's a
nice car. And I'm sure, it's really comfortable to drive
and everything. It looks a lot like some of the
other cars on the road. Is it really worth ninety
dollars and plus cars to appreciate so quickly when you
buy a new car, right as soon as you sign
the papers and drive off the lot. Uh. But you know,

(23:43):
for some people that that's the choice to want to make.
That's just one of the pros and cons they wait,
I guess, but if you sit in if you really
sit in traffic, and you really think about and you look,
you know, think about what those cars around you are worth.
You know, like look at you know, even just a
simple sedan that could be worth sixty five thousand dollars,
you know from the ailer, it's like this is it
is a huge, huge purchase, as they always say, it's

(24:04):
the second largest purchase you're gonna make in your life
behind your house. Um, it's it's a big deal. And
and again not just the money thing, but but you know,
do you become as attached to something that costs that
much money, if you know, as as somebody would who
buys the you know, the two thousand dollar junker car,
but it's their first car. I think there's probably a

(24:24):
similar level of attachment there, even even though the dollar
numbers are so different between the two it someone who
pays the two grand is going to be just as
attached to their car somebody pays the sixty five thou
dollars for it. That's a that's a good point. And also,
you know there is still I'm not saying that the
new car market is going away, because that's that's just

(24:44):
not going to ever happen now. There's still such a
huge uh pent up demand for UH for new vehicles
for various for for multitude of reasons. What what my
philosophy is. I'll be honest with you, I'm one of
those UH drive it until it absolutely cannot be driven cars.

(25:07):
I just I would rather fix something, um anything, you know,
from a pair of shoes to a car, before buying
a new thing. It's it's a useful It teaches you
useful skills. There's a little bit of pride involved when
you say, oh, well I fix this. Yeah, I'm with
you on this. And I've driven several cars until the

(25:29):
point where they cannot be driven another mile, And you
know that's good and bad and that you know something
catastrophic happened, and it usually happens inopportune time. It's never
a good time now, it's never a good time. But
you know, they've got some sad stories that go along
with those, of course, but um, you know, it's it's
it's something that again there's a there's an amount of

(25:50):
pride that goes along with that to say that you're
keeping that car running and you have no payments, and
again you've got kind of this mental attachment to the vehicle.
You've you've held a lot of the pieces of that
car in your hand at some point, and you know,
you you know every single bit of it, you know
what inside and out, you know, you know, like the
back of your own hand. I mean, it's it's it
really does become this. Uh it's like a relationship. Yeah yeah,

(26:12):
it kind of it kind of this with the same
ups and downs. Uh and maybe a little more cursing,
hopefully a little workers a bit of love hate. That
was love hate. So you can't play, So Scott, I
want to ask, you know, I want to put you
on the spot, even though I've been doing that this
entire episode, but uh, what's the longest amount of time

(26:33):
that you have owned a car, have you can you remember? Wow?
I would have to I would have to lay that
out on paper to really think about it. But I mean,
I think, uh, you know, for the most part, right
around the seven or eight years mark. Um, And that's
that's a significant amount of time really to hold onto
a vehicle. I think. I mean, it's beyond when you
know the four year loan is paid off or whatever.

(26:56):
You know, i'ways loans on cars, and not every time,
but but most time. And uh, you know, four years
of driving without a payment, that's that's pretty significant safe. Um,
you know, you do the necessary repairs and then you
can hopefully pass it off onto somebody else. Um, you
know in good shape, you know, good enough that you
can get some money out of it, good enough that
you're confident in selling it to that person. Um. But yes,

(27:18):
seven or eight years is about maximum for me. And
that's maybe why I'm saying, you know, five to six
years is right about the sweet spot for me when
I would be you know, comfortable letting a car go. Yeah,
the longest for me has probably been about five years
as well. But I was surprised how difficult it was
to remember it. I had to do some cogitation. You know,

(27:39):
wait a minute, how long have you had the current
Monte Carlo? Uh, this it will be this will be
about your four So it's kind of it's kind of close. Yeah,
because I got it used. Um well may hey, you
know what? You know what, maybe it's five I don't
think so, but I think it might be right longer
than that. What were you driving when I first met you?
And first when we first met was holy smokes, Yeah,

(28:05):
I've owned that car for six years? Well that's seven
years if if it's no, no, because I had one
one briefly you did. I didn't know that black money Carl. Oh.
I believe I thought that the first car I ever
saw you when was that silver one? But maybe I
just didn't. I didn't recognize you when anything but the
silver car. We were on speaking terms. But yeah, gosh, wow,

(28:26):
how time does fly? I completely forgot. I was thinking
it was like around four or five years, but it
was much more. It's like six year at the time
goes quickly, doesn't I mean, you realize how long you
held on to it. And that's the problem I have
with trying to recount how long I had certain cars.
Now I think I hadn't. I had an Audi that
lasted me a long long time, and I would say
like the five or six years, Um, you know that

(28:48):
last year was pretty tough as far as repair bills
go and stuff. But um, I held other cars were
just about the same amount of time. So yeah, again,
five to six years, I think is is my comfort
zone for for holding onto a vehicle. Now Here is
a calculation that I'd like to give people which is
totally unfounded and it is unscientific, and it's just something

(29:13):
one of my relatives told me a long time ago.
And here's here's what he does and how he how
he um decides to take care of a car, uh
after he is no longer making payments, right if he
gets alone or something. Then what he does is he
takes some percentage of what would have been that car
note and just puts it in the bank as car

(29:33):
repairs car repair fund. And his thing is that after
a certain amount of time, you know, the suffolk creates
and you've got a hefty little uh emergency fund for
anything catastrophic to happen. And then he's he said that
once that's gone, he's usually ready to sell the car,

(29:55):
and um, the to me, that's a little bit too
sea to your pants, because you know something, disasters can
happen at any moment, you know, and you might have
just made two or three of these payments to yourself. Well,
I think the financial experts will tell you to do
just that. You know, once you're done making the payment,
that that money that would have gone to that car
payment should go somewhere. I mean you should go either

(30:18):
towards you know, if you have a credit card or
something like that. Sure, but it should go in the
bank for either repairs as you said, or potentially for
a down payment for another car, or towards another vehicle,
because you're likely to get something newer and something that's
a little bit more expensive. So that's what they will
tell you that you're supposed to do. Now, how many
people really adhere to that? Not minute, because you know

(30:39):
a lot of people say like, well, you know, my
car payment was three hundred bucks and now I'm gonna
hang on to that three I'm gonna use that for
you know, in a couple of nights out, you know,
a month that we couldn't have before, you know, dining
out or something. I'm gonna get bills and make a jacket. Yeah,
something really wise like that. Yeah, you're sure. But the

(31:00):
so the point is that you know, there there are
many answers to this question, and in some cases this
is something that I think is a little bit weird.
But you know, no judgment if you do it. Uh.
There are some people who just don't throw away a car.
They just park it and go get another car. The
car hoarders, right, I don't you know, let's call them enthusiasts.

(31:24):
But uh. So to bring all of this back around,
but what we're saying and what I'm finding is while
you could read various statistics about how long people are
keeping a car on average, or what kind of car
people are getting, and what kind of car they want
to buy, uh, ultimately it's exactly as you called it, Scott.

(31:45):
There is no there is no silver bullet. There are
gonna be so many factors for an individual driver, individual car. Uh.
But I would love to hear the answers from all
of you out there listening. What what are you driving?
What you haven't given your answer? Ah? You got me? Yeah,
you gotta you gotta, you gotta cough it up your bed.
What I said six yeah, and that's just just my

(32:08):
own situation. So what do you think? What's that? What's
your sweet spot for getting rid of a vehicle? Run
it into the ground. It's um, I'm being a little bit.
I'm jesting a little bit here. I am actually and
I'll go ahead and say this, I am actually getting
rid of the Monty Carlo guy as we speak. Yeah,

(32:30):
no kidding, you get rid of the Minty Carlo yes way, Scott.
I didn't think this day would ever arrive. I didn't.
I didn't think so either. I've driven Monty Carlos for
a very long time. I haven't yet gotten to one
of those first or second gen Monty Carlos, which I
would really I would really love to take around the block. Um,
but it's uh, the calculations are there, and I got

(32:55):
I got a pretty a pretty sweet deal on something else.
So I'm gonna be are you willing to know? Are
you willing to reveal what that is yet? Or you're
gonna wait, You're gonna make Let's let's wait for a
little bit. Yeah, let's wait for a little bit. Wow,
this is this is big news. This is like, uh,
this is we should interrupt whatever else is going on
and this is like breaking news. We need the teletype

(33:16):
sound of the background. Well, you know, man, I hate it.
I hate to let it go, but it'll be going
to and we go into a good place with someone
who wants to make it a project car, so they're
going to spend a lot of TLC on it. More
details on this later. I'm I'm sure, yeah, yeah, sure
and uh and uh then I guess by default I

(33:38):
have an answer which is around uh, six or seven years.
Six or seven years. Okay, so we're very close in
the time that we were comfortable hanging onto Yeah. Yeah,
but what but what about you listeners? What what do
you think? Do you do you lease vehicles perhaps which
makes your time your cycle through a car much shorter,

(33:58):
or do you buy cars and have like a schedule
where you say, okay, it's around this time. Do you
base it on life events like when you have kids.
That happens a lot when people say, okay, gotta get
rid of the Miata or whatever. That happened to me
and my hount of CRX and my MG, yeah, and
uh it happened to my dad's. Yeah, it's it's the

(34:20):
fate of a lot of what really cool. Um, not
classic in every case, but some classic cars unfortunately. Or
are you one of those people? Uh like the are
you the kind of person that I personally inspire to
be the person who runs it until neither of you
are suitable for driving? Yes, So this is like one

(34:42):
of the cases where you know when they when they
have the ads or they used to have the ads
where you could drive it, push or pull it into
the lot and we'll give you a thousand dollars. Right, Yeah, yeah,
that suation. So I that's that's just my philosophy. But
I'm very interested to hear the answer. I'm very interested
to hear the longest time that you have owned a car,
because I know a few of the folks listening out

(35:04):
there Scott probably have a car that they got from
their parents or maybe even their grandparents. And that's probably
the garage baby, you know what I mean? Probably, And
that's a that's a fantastic thing. So I'd like to
hear about that too. Hey, Ben, you know what, today,
this is fun. I like, I like the question. That
was very good and uh and I think it's gonna
be one that a lot of people will respond to
because they all have their own theory, their own thought
behind this, and again it's it's a tough one to

(35:26):
nail down because there's never I don't think there's really
a time when people, you know, when they're buying the car,
when they think, I'm gonna hang onto this for four years,
that's it. And it's the four year markets done where
they may say that. They may say that, but then
they get to the point where you know, there's no
more payments and they hang onto it for another two years.
That's the thing. When there are no more payments, you know,
it's it's fantastic. It's tough, yeah, so so, and everybody's

(35:49):
gonna have a different answer, and then there's always gonna
be an asterisk next to it, you know, like unless
this happens, or or if this case were to go down,
here's what here's what I do. So it's tough, it
can be tough, but it's also you know, of course,
it's it's an opportunity to find some new space age stuff,
especially if you've owned a car for a while. Then

(36:10):
you feel like you're sitting in the future when you
sit in a new car. I remember the first time
I got a car with power windows, I thought it
was like Kanye west Man, you couldn't tell me anything.
Windows up, windows down, windows up, windows continually. That's what
I was. I was literally Scott doing it in traffic
a red light and just watching it. Um thinking. Everybody's thinking,

(36:31):
how cool you are? Right? Yeah, No, I think all
I need is to pop up headlights of the rest
of the world have them for ten years. The rest
of the world has had them for ten years. Yeah,
um so, And I hope at least the other people
have had similar experiences. But let us know. In the meantime,
if you want to listen to some related podcast we

(36:52):
did some episodes on the true cost of ownership, which
I recommend to everyone considering by in a car. We
also did UH. We also did something on how much
or how little money buying a hybrid actually saves you,
which I also recommend. UH Dealership myths Dealership Myths, which

(37:15):
was a good one. How do I think we've talked
about how to buy used car, how to buy a
new car, what to look for, what to avoid ye,
so check those out. Remember that for many people, perhaps
yourself included, buying a car is one of the biggest
investments that you will make Uh it's up there a
little bit beneath the house right lightly slightly. Well, it

(37:36):
depends on what you buy, you know. Uh. And some
people do cut corners on the house so they can
have a nicer car. Happen, It happens. So check it out.
Let us know on Facebook and Twitter. Would love to
see picture of the an old, well maintained car that
you've taken care of and how long you think you
can last? You know what, That's something that we haven't
even talked about, is that how how cool is it

(37:57):
sometimes to see a dean version of you know, a
car from let's say, yeah, and it's it's wax and
you know, it's clearly like all the chrome is in
perfect shape and everything. It's it's just it's it's really
a sight to behold when you do see it. Somebody
who you can tell just lovingly maintains their car and
it has had it probably for most of the net
car's way. Yeah, it's really And you can spot it

(38:19):
in a huge crowd, I mean you can you can
definitely pick that out out of all the other kind
of um, I guess vanilla cars out there. Yeah, and uh,
it stands out in the best possible way. And if
you have to go by the way and ask Nol
how how long you kept your car? And I'll bug

(38:40):
him about that in a little bit. But for now
we are gonna go ahead and skitaddle. We're gonna hit
the road, as it were. And we'd like to hear
from you if you want to let us know your
take on how long someone should own a car. Um
you can and you want to avoid the social media,
we have good news for you. You can write to
us directly. We are car stuff at how stuff work

(39:02):
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
this at how stuff works dot com. Let us know
what you create. Send an email to podcast at how
stuff works dot com. M M M

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