AW: Mileage milestone.

als1982

Others brag about their new cars, but since this is MM and I'm all about living a debt free and minimalist lifestyle, I thought I'd AW my 2000 Honda Accord rolling the odometer over to 200,000 miles today.

I purchased this car with $5,000 cash four years ago after totaling a Jetta I bought new a few years prior but was still paying off (to the tune of $365 a month). I invested about $750 into it initially for a new timing belt, a flush of all systems and a thorough tune up. I'd hoped it would keep going for a year maybe two, but here we are four years later. With the exception of regular maintaince and $350 in new wiring and spark plugs in 2014, she is still running great!

My H also drives a paid for 2001 Corolla and we have upgrading our cars in the mid-range plans (paying cash, of course) after we pay off the last of our student loans but if she's still running this well I may rethink it! We spend a lot every year on travel and I'm convinced a big reason why we're able to take so my trips is because we're not strapped to car payments.

dragonstarjk

Woohoo, congrats!

brij2006

This is awesome!

It just goes to show that mileage isn't everything.  I get so frustrated when people say "OMG my car is out of the warranty, I must trade it in and finance a new one."  No!  Vehicles now can last 200k miles or even more.  

Keep driving that paid for beauty.

formerlyGDaisy09

WOOHOO! we're buy newish-cars and drive them 'til they don't drive anymore kind of people we're inheriting my mom's 2003 chrystler mini van with 120K miles on it, I have hopes it'll last us 4-5 years. 

Bonus, we get to sell (though I'm a little sad to say goodbye) my little 2007 mazda (just not practical with 2 dogs and a baby). I'm hoping someone is looking for a reliable little car to drive just like you've driven yours. 

We do hit a point where we weigh the monthly cost of repairs versus the expense of a car payment. we traded H's last car in unexpectedly early (2009 hyundai traded in 2013 with 70K miles on it) out-of warrantee repairs were averaging around $500 every 6 weeks, and because H financed it before we met we were still making almost $300/month payments on it. The car was a lemon, the benefits of a newer/different car far out weighed the costs. 

short+sassy

In '99, I bought a '97 Honda Civic.  I drove that car for NINE years until the transmission started failing.  Until then, other than regular maintenance, I had only had a few small repairs.  She was a good car that saved me a lot of money.  I paid the car off in four years, so it was so nice to have five years without a car payment.

But when the transmission started to fail...plus the steering needed some work...it would cost more to fix than what the car was worth, so I sold it.

I love, love, love my current car (MINI Cooper convertible).  It's a 2010, but I bought her in the beginning of 2014, so I have only had the car about 18 months.  I'm fortunate to only drive about 8K miles/year, so I'm hoping this will be a car I own for many years.  I've been accelerating the payments big time and will have the car paid off next month.