How long should you keep your car, before upgrading? That’s next.

Save thousands on a new car here (Australia only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact

This question was inspired by you. I get asked variations on this theme a lot. This is from a guy named Colin.

"Wondering how long you should keep a car for, even if it’s still fulfilling its original purpose. Thanks to your advice I bought a 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Highlander. It’s been great for getting around Sydney / living rurally and it’s got all the luxuries… It’s done 60,000km and I can see me keeping it for my teenage daughter to learn how to drive in 4 years time.

"Should that play out I could end up having this car for say 6 to 7 years and racking up 150-200,000 kms. Is that the cut-off point in general to then turn over a car? Or if it is still running well and is still quite modern given all that you get with this car should I look to have it for 10 years say (as long as I keep up the maintenance)?" - Colin

This is a really interesting question. Like, where, exactly is the end of the road? And even: The end of the road is down there some way, but when should I get off?

I note that for a lot of new car buyers - most, in fact, overwhelmingly - the term of ownership is three to five years. Then the car is turned over and sold to a second owner, and the new car buyer goes again.

They often finance the car - perhaps under a business - and the finance rolls around every three to five. They’ve got a budget for a car and they roll it over, plus there’s depreciation as a tax deduction.

That kind of thing rolls a lot of reasonably new (used) cars into the used car market, and it gets a lot of second owners into reasonably safe, reasonably efficient, late-model used cars, which is generally a good thing. (Provided you don’t think too hard about the drain on the earth’s resources.)

This, of course, is just how carmakers like it. They like that turnover. It gives the factories something to do. It does tend to be quite expensive, however, and hard for many people to justify.

Another class of new car buyer is looking at the deal as a long-term affair. A car to see us out. Or, a car to keep for 10-15 years. That’s quite common too.

There’s no doubt: the longer you keep the car, the less severe the bite of its average annual depreciation, and the less the drain on the earth’s resources annually - because it does take quite a lot of raw materials and energy to make new cars. And reducing that is increasingly important to many buyers, too.

The car industry really doesn’t want you to focus on the fact that the greenest thing you can do on the personal transportation front is to keep the car you own right now for as long as possible, without upgrading.

They want you to spend shitloads and consume your way to a greener future. Which is indefensibly absurd bullshit - driven by marketing departments and swallowed only by scientifically illiterate consumers (albeit with the best of environmental intentions).

So, if you’re thinking of trading in your three-year-old conventional car on that shiny new shitbox Tesla to start saving the planet, the greener option, frankly, would be to keep the car you own now for the next seven to 10 years, and drive it as efficiently as possible the whole time. You’re welcome.

Everyone in a Tesla is a green-evangelising nutjob in striving for status - that’s the primary driver of their ownership decision.

Not coincidentally, this bullshit message about saving the planet by buying whatever green car is the only way carmakers can pump up the returns for their shareholders. They’re greenwashing one of the filthiest aspects of the business - which is the inherent supply side environmental filth of building new cars.

On the flipside of this - the longer you keep your current car, the more shit and more out of date it becomes. It won’t be as safe as the latest cars. Nor will it have the latest features.

For example, a well maintained car at the end of its life now probably will have airbags and maybe stability control, but it won’t have auto emergency braking, LED headlamps, direct injection or Android auto.

And these things are real reasons to upgrade.

The other consideration is purely financial. All other considerations aside, it’s just nice to have a new car, just like its nice to get a new kitchen, wear new clothes, live in a new house - whatever. Whether or not you can afford it is another matter entirely.