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Public transportation is a poor replacement for a car in many places and a 10 year old car raises reliability issues with many people who are afraid to have a p

by petra 10y ago

Public transportation is a poor replacement for a car in many places and a 10 year old car raises reliability issues with many people who are afraid to have a problem while driving. And while people sometimes appreciate a lot of space in a car, most often, when they commute , they might not need that.

semi-extrinsic 10y ago
> a 10 year old car raises reliability issues with many people who are afraid to have a problem while driving. In ~15 years of car ownership, I have never owned a car less than 10 years old, and I don't understand this at all. Currently I drive a 2002 Peugeot 307. Regular maintenance costs me less per year than the depreciation cost alone on a new car, and I've never had a breakdown that's left me stranded. Not once.
- kazinator 10y ago
  You are lucky. And that is neither here nor there anyway, because even owners of new cars can get breakdowns that require a tow.
  - semi-extrinsic 10y ago
    Well, lucky or just taking good care of my vehicles.. But anyway, my point is exactly what you say: the risk of having a breakdown is small enough for any well-maintained car that it's pretty independent of car age.
- Kadin 10y ago
  I think most people who have 'bad luck' with cars tend not to maintain them very well. I think that this is probably even reflected in car reliability statistics; there are models of cars (e.g. Ford Crown Victorias) which have very good reliability records when in vehicle fleets, where they receive regular preventative maintenance, but much more mixed results when in private ownership, where my sense is that they tend to be owned by people with a more relaxed attitude towards good PM. I have always been surprised that car manufacturers haven't done a better job of rolling regular maintenance expenses into the initial cost of a car (and thus, into the financing arrangements that support most new-car purchases), because doing so would appear to be something of a win-win: a more reliable car for the consumer and also a more reliable-seeming car for the manufacturer to tout. But I think the mandated separation of auto manufacturers from retailers and servicers in the US tends to conspire against this.

by petra 10y ago

semi-extrinsic 10y ago

> a 10 year old car raises reliability issues with many people who are afraid to have a problem while driving. In ~15 years of car ownership, I have never owned a car less than 10 years old, and I don't understand this at all. Currently I drive a 2002 Peugeot 307. Regular maintenance costs me less per year than the depreciation cost alone on a new car, and I've never had a breakdown that's left me stranded. Not once.

kazinator 10y ago
You are lucky. And that is neither here nor there anyway, because even owners of new cars can get breakdowns that require a tow.
- semi-extrinsic 10y ago
  Well, lucky or just taking good care of my vehicles.. But anyway, my point is exactly what you say: the risk of having a breakdown is small enough for any well-maintained car that it's pretty independent of car age.
Kadin 10y ago
I think most people who have 'bad luck' with cars tend not to maintain them very well. I think that this is probably even reflected in car reliability statistics; there are models of cars (e.g. Ford Crown Victorias) which have very good reliability records when in vehicle fleets, where they receive regular preventative maintenance, but much more mixed results when in private ownership, where my sense is that they tend to be owned by people with a more relaxed attitude towards good PM. I have always been surprised that car manufacturers haven't done a better job of rolling regular maintenance expenses into the initial cost of a car (and thus, into the financing arrangements that support most new-car purchases), because doing so would appear to be something of a win-win: a more reliable car for the consumer and also a more reliable-seeming car for the manufacturer to tout. But I think the mandated separation of auto manufacturers from retailers and servicers in the US tends to conspire against this.