Depends on whether you can work on your own cars or not. I can't. So I try
to keep my cars 7-10 years. Usually after that the car starts nickel and
diming the owner to death. With the price of cars, you have to keep them
that long because who can pay for a new car every 2-4 years.

If you can work on cars, then minor problems can be fixed rather easily and
keep the car on the road.

Kevin

"Crunchy Cookie" <LSC400@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:YhO_b.391899$xy6.2203355@attbi_s02...
> I thought I'd get a little cost/benefit analysis discussion going. I've
always
> thought the best used-car deals were ones between, oh, 2 and 8 years old.
If
> it's too new, you might as well buy new, but if it's too old, you're just
asking
> for trouble, right? What's the average (range of) mileage where cars
start
> konking out to a higher expense than their value? Most people seem to
casually
> say between 100K and 200K; most consider 200K to be a long life. The
engine and
> transmission rebuilds are the only really huge items, right? How much
does
> rebuilding those cost? Anything else to watch out for?
> And is it me, or do Japanese car alternators die really easily?
>
>