How long on average do you keep your cars ?

1994 Ford Escort 1.6i LX - ~2 months
1997 Ford Escort 1.6i Cabaret - ~1 week
1995 Rover 214 SEi 16v - ~2 weeks
1994 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.8 LS - ~can't recall
1998 Citroen Xsara 1.8i SX 16v - ~can't recall
1998 Ford Mondeo 2.0i Ghia - ~can't recall.. all three of these covered a year
2000 BMW 330i Sport - 3 years 3 months
1999 Ford Fiesta 1.25 Zetec - ~1 week
2001 Ford Mondeo 2.0i Ghia - ~9 months
2001 BMW 530i Sport Auto - ~8 months
2007 BMW 535d M Sport Auto - 7 weeks 3 days so far!

Other than the BMWs they were all free stopgap cars.
 
I've had my car for 6 years! While I do want to upgrade, I don't want to spend my money on a stop gap and then change again.

So at the moment I am saving my money and will buy a car within the next 2 years. It'll be one huge upgrade!
 
[TW]Fox;19188122 said:
I just can't understand the 'I have had 10 billion cars in 30 minutes' bunch. Surely if you spend a bit more effort picking the right car you wont need to change it, as there wont be anything you want more.
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I understand what you're saying entirely - and there are a few people out there who simply move from one nail to the next, or buy something and realise it's completely inappropriate and move swiftly on. Usually after we've already told them that. :D

In my instance, however, I just have a desire for knowledge and experience about as many types of car as possible - and the only way to build up that kind of experience (in both terms of ownership, the mechanical attributes, handling, performance and design of the car) is by actually owning them.

Also, because I was intelligent about the purchases too, in almost every instance I profited when it came to actually selling the car on - even after taking into account every last expenditure on the car including insurance, fuel, literature, washing it, parts, advertising that kind of thing.

There were a few instances I did lose out - noteably when the transmission fell out of the Corvette - but unfortunately, no matter how well you plan, these things are going to happen at some point. It could have been a lot worse but even after that the amount I lost was negligible. Rock on!
 
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I tend to change every 8 months on average id say but i really need to stop it.

Variety is the spice of life. I always want to have something else, I cant help it. However, with the 335, i think ill stick it for longer than normal. It sounds nuts but if I have the money, ill spend it. Ive just bought a new house, so that might focus my funds in another direction.
 
Don't really have a set time for keeping cars, I just change when circumstances dictate.

Fiesta 1.25 Zetec - 4 years (cheap to buy and run whilst at uni)
Integra Type R UKDM - 2 years (getting paid a bit more)
Mondeo ST24 - 2 years (Bought cheap after moving into flat to free up some cash)
Nissan 350z - 5 months so far (back on my feet after settling into the flat)
 
Just the Leon FR TDI at the moment, had that for 18 months now.

Not sure when i'll change. If I wasn't doing the mileage i'd have a Focus ST, as i'm sure 99% of the forum is aware. I could afford to do the swap now, and probably afford to run it, with some cutbacks elsewhere. But the realistic side of me is saying that no car is worth skinting yourself out for.

Worst case scenario, i'll have to wait until i'm in a job, making it late next year.
 
Joshy said:
Seriously, with variety being the spice of life and all, what's the problem?
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Nobody has said there is a problem.

That said, I guess it depends why you change so often. People like Lashout do it because they enjoy it and they are very good at it.

But there are many people who simply buy a completely crap car, realise its completely crap, sell it, replace it with another completely crap car, realise its completely crap, sell it, rinse and repeat. These people will often spend a fortune doing this and realise a HUGE amount in depreciation by buying retail and trading in each time. They'll usually then look on at people in far more impressive cars wondering how they'll ever afford something as nice as that. Whereas of course the cost of ownership of said really nice car is probably less than the cost of buying junk and trading it in 30 seconds later...
 
Hasn't it cost you 4 grand to run your Bimma for a year Fox ? I think most would consider that a ridiculous amount to spend on an old Bimma for just 1 year.
 
4T5 said:
Hasn't it cost you 4 grand to run your Bimma for a year Fox ? I think most would consider that a ridiculous amount to spend on an old Bimma for just 1 year.
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No, it hasn't cost me £4k to run it for a year. Not quite sure what your point is, even if it had surely thats yet more reason to own cars for as long as possible - smooth out the odd huge expenditure so the average per year comes down. Sucks a bit to buy a car, spend '£4k' running it then flog it a month later.

If you must know, my average cost per year is half that at £2k. And it wasn't an 'old bimma' when I bought it, its just an 'old bimma' now because if you keep anything for half a decade it's going to be.. err.. half a decade older!
 
My point was just show people are different. I like changing my cars it costs me nowt & invariably earns me extra money.
 
My car history...

1998 Mk2 Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X - 2004 (My first car, bought in my 2nd year at Uni), kept ~ 2 years
2001 Mk2 Mondeo 2.5 Ghia X - 2006 (Bought in my final year of Uni), kept 18 months
2001 BMW 530i Sport - 2007 - kept 9 months
2001 BMW M5 - 2008 - kept 3 years
2008 BMW M5 - 2011 - current car

Planning to keep this one 3 years as with the last.
 
I don't have a car I really want. Sure i've driven better cars but none of them are worth the upgrade relative to the car I have now.

I'll get something when I've paid off my student loan or when the car hits 150k miles!
 
[TW]Fox;19191066 said:
So obviously then you fall into the Lashout category and not the category of people I was discussing :confused:
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All this to divert from the ridiculous amounts of money you spend to keep your car. :p
 
You do have a pretty awesome car though. It doesn't look like a shed when left in carparks and you don't need to park it around the corner and walk when turning up somewhere nice. It's just... 'some nice looking sports car'.

Easy to keep a car a long time when it doesn't ever seem to degrade.
 
4T5 said:
All this to divert from the ridiculous amounts of money you spend to keep your car. :p
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You think £2k a year, inclusive of insurance (I guess £2.7kish including depreciation), is a ridiculous amount of money to spend keeping a car?

Thats the average cost per year since it was 4. I think thats fairly reasonable to me? It's now at the age where I am wondering if its worth it, but thats why I'm replacing it after 5 years of ownership. For the last 5 years it absolutely without question was worth every penny.
 
[TW]Fox;19191124 said:
You do have a pretty awesome car though. It doesn't look like a shed when left in carparks and you don't need to park it around the corner and walk when turning up somewhere nice. It's just... 'some nice looking sports car'.

Easy to keep a car a long time when it doesn't ever seem to degrade.
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It's cause I did my research when buying it :). Plus it's aged well
 
[TW]Fox;19191125 said:
You think £2k a year, inclusive of insurance (I guess £2.7kish including depreciation), is a ridiculous amount of money to spend keeping a car?
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With your knowledge Fox you cold trade BMW's on the side & your car would cost you nowt & you could trade up quicker, You could also get Traders insurance then for less than 500 quid < complete guess on price there but i bet I'm close.
Would you not enjoy buying & selling 1 or 2 decent BMW's for a month or so until you moved them on, Trying different models etc Not only costing you nowt but earning you money.
 
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