I’m a big numbers guy. And to me, if the upgrade you make for every motorized vehicle is upgrading to a brand new model, you’re better off upgrading every few years. I’ve battled the numbers in my head and running anything with a motor into the ground is just not sensical.
For example, my aunt just listed a 2015 Tahoe with 190k miles on it for $11k. (She probably paid between 50-60k for it back then). Dealership offered her next to nothing for trade. This a well dealer maintained vehicle with mostly highway miles. Her new Tahoe is ballpark 75k. So she has to come up with approximately 65k for her new Tahoe, which in 9 years of ownership is over $7k per year.
I told her about 4 years ago to ditch it and upgrade. At that time, she could’ve sold it for 25-30k. A year later the transmission went out and cost $5k for the dealer to replace. She continued to drive it into the ground because she stuck that repair money into it. So, she lost $15-20k in value in the last few years, and $5k+ in repairs and maintenance costs. Therefore her last 3 years of ownership cost $25k (but remember it’s paid off so it should be saving money right??) Can’t argue that math, and now it costs $65k to upgrade. Yes, I do realize many make $25k worth of payments in 3 years time, but that could’ve been made on a much nicer newer model with no worries about something mechanically going wrong, and minimal maintenance costs. Luckily money is no object to them, but for some of us on a budget, the math shows there’s no benefit to running older stuff into the ground if it’s going to get replaced by something brand new soon.
I also tend to argue, that most who are rolling without a payment and driving said vehicle into the ground, are not saving that payment money for the next one, or investing it into anything worthwhile. Instead they’re just blowing it on more trips out to eat, constant new clothes, electronic gadgets, etc. and when it comes time to replace the vehicle they’re in a world of hurt.
Sorry to go off on a tangent, just a topic I think about and discuss with friends much too often.