What Is Parked In Your Driveway?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Giantone

I buy the wife a new one,she drives 4 miles to work and four miles back after 5/6 years when it is paid off I take that car and she gets a new one ,again.Happy wife ,happy life. Seriously I get a car with 40/45 thousand on it and then turn them in when it's time to get another .I don't take a penny of my own for a down payment.(my ride is 49 mi each way every day 6 days a week)
I just traded my old Camry 03 with 240,000 on it and in "fair" condition for 3200 on a a new Santa Fe.

OK well you're not buying and replacing the same car every five years. You're buying and replacing every 10 years. You guys buy a new one, she keeps it 5 years, you get it for the next five years, but you're not trading it back in until it reaches 10-12 years old. That makes great financial sense.

That's much different from what my father in law does. He buys a car for himself, then after 5 years of owning and putting 50K miles on it, he trades it in and buys a new one. He does the same thing with his wife's car. So they buy 2 new cars every five years. It's way cheaper to just continually lease than to do what he does.