Some guy wrote a book on this once (don't remember name of author or
book).  Basically, rule of thumb is buy a 3 tear old car and keep it for
7 more or buy a 7 year old car and keep it 3.  His studies are old now
so these numbers may be off now (cars last longer)...

My rule of thumb is to never own any vehicle that is depreciating.

Most of the time I drive one of my vintage vehicles, (the newest being a
1964 model) daily.

But with the price of gas suddenly becoming a factor, I ran into a deal
where I bought two early 1980's Civics for $200.  One had a bad engine
and the other had been wrecked but the engine was fine.

Seems that within the next month or so, I should be driving an '83 Civic
FE (with a gaggle of spare parts btw) that was rated something like 40
mpg city and 53 mpg highway.  No steenkin' computer, airbags, and other
silly devices to drive you nutz as well.

Yep, no hybrid for this guy!

I will keep my 90 Integra as long as it stays reliable.
This car has been extremely reliable since I bought it new in 90. For
now, I don't worry about being standed anywhere, I go anywhere and as
far as I want with this car and I'm not worried.
When it starts falling apart, when I'll worry of been stranded
somewhere, when it breaks faster than I can fix it, or when it costs
more to maintain than payments on a newer one, I'll get rid of it.
It's all paid up, and it cost me much less than $1000 to maintain (I do
do keep record of it). Insurance cost is much less too.
Last "expensive" job on it was a paint job 3 years ago. This car looks
like new and rides like new, I could never get anything better for the
money I spend on yearly maintenance plus the money I'd get by selling it.

Carl
90 Integra RS

I appreciate the numbers, assuming that this is purely a cost decision they
still don't make sense to me.  Even assuming the depreciation model where you
buy a 2 - 5 year old car the total cost still seem to favor fixing the old car
pretty much forever.  From the NADA page I got the following approximate numbers
for a 4 door Honda Accord LX:

Year   Value  Monthly payment  Yearly Payment
2002   15K        350                        $4,200
1999   10K        230                        $2,760

A 5 year old car is going to cost $2,760 every year for 4 years just to pay the
loan.   The numbers below predict $1,100 per year in maintenance, so it would
seem to be $1,600 more cost effective to keep the old one.  (assuming of course
that the "newer" car doesn't need its own maintenance.  In which case the paid
for car is an even better deal.)  Even if you have to replace an engine or
transmission $2,700 will pretty much cover those costs.

The reason for my question is I find myself in a situation I've never been in
before.  In the past I've traded cars because of changing family situations.  So
I've never had a car this old, but my Accord is a perfectly fine car.  It does
what I need it to do, and buying a new one will not give me any great pleasure.
(Unless of course I can prove that it will save me money in the long run.)   The
prevailing "wisdom" I've heard is not to spend more money on a car than it is
worth.  But if spending that money gives you many more years of service, why not
fix it?

Dean

<snip>

If this was to be believed, then owning a car from the 5th year to the 10th
would cost $5500.  In my limited experience, about 5 cars that fall into
that range, this is completely wrong.  I never spent that much money on
a car.  Even if I didnt' do all the work on my car and paid someone else
to do it, the numbers would be lower.  

I think it is best to get a 7-8 year old car that has been well maintained.
You get it at a really low price to start with and then don't have to spend
that much money keeping it running, this assumes the prior owner maintained
the car properly.  This strategy has worked well for me, so far.
------------
Alex

Almost my thought.  I'd say the best period minimal depreciation/acceptable
reliability & repair costs is between 5 and 8 years.  At 8 years, it still
has a good value (if it is an Honda) and it is interesting to get good cash
from  it.  After 8 years, the 6-7000$ car will become a 2-4000$ quickly.

Until someone stole my car this morning, I had put less than $1000 in
maintenance (other than oil changes) into my 1994 Civic DX 5-speed
since I bought it five years and 90,000 miles ago, so I would disagree
with your statement. In fact, it still gas the original clutch after
177,000 miles. The largest single payout was the clutch slave cylinder
at $170 parts/labor. Of course, this is a Honda we're talking about,
and a friend of mine had an 87 or 88 Civic with 325,000 miles on it
that he still drove to work every day. On the other hand, another
friend had a piston ring break at 154,000 miles and bought a Japanese
import engine to replace it. Take all this stuff for what it's worth,
but my personal gut feeling would be to buy another 5-6 year old Honda
when my costs go above that $1500 mark over 12 months.

Nate

No real issue with the distributor, it is just that the igniter tends
to fail at that milege and age.  Also the speed sensor.  I had to
replace both at about 140K.  

Your plan is sound though, with what you have already done, you should
be able to get a good price for the car.